Some of you may find this thirty-minute talk by Dr. David H. Bailey of interest.  It was given at a 2013 Interpreter Foundation conference on science and religion:   “Science vs Religion: Can This Marriage Be Saved?”   Brother Bailey, a computer scientist and mathematician, worked for fourteen years at NASA Ames Research Center and then, after 1998, as a Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  He is now officially retired, but he remains active as, among other things, a... Read more

    A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. Confucius (Kǒng Zǐ, 551 BC – 479 BC)     Read more

    Some will take this as an attack on science:   “Science falling victim to ‘crisis of narcissism'”   They will, as always, be wrong.     Read more

    Just off the phone with a friend — a prominent Syrian intellectual — in Damascus.  It was about midnight when our call ended.  He was very tired, but he still had to go out and find water.  ISIS has evidently destroyed one of the major water pipelines into the city; for the past month or so, four million or more people have been obliged to get their water from tanker trucks.   He’s happy that Mr. Obama is... Read more

    This article was, no doubt, occasioned by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s participation in the 2017 presidential inauguration:   http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2017/01/mormons-and-music   The Choir’s performance on the steps of the Capitol yesterday, whatever one thinks of the decision to perform or (for that matter) of Mr. Trump, brought international attention to both the Choir and the Church.  I haven’t gone looking for evidence of such attention, but I haven’t had to:  The Economist is a British magazine.  And, last night, I... Read more

    Returning, just now, from dropping a son off at the Salt Lake City airport, I tuned in (as I typically do while driving) to KBYU-FM, which specializes in classical music.   For a substantial portion of the drive, they played, first, Johann Strauss’s Emperor Waltz (the Kaiser-Walzer) and, then, Beethoven’s Egmont Overture.   I’ve loved the music of Johann Strauss for as long as I can remember.  But, this time, as I listened to this often-magnificent Strauss piece I found... Read more

    The latest iteration of the joint bi-weekly Hamblin/Peterson column in the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865671460/6-religion-friendly-films-from-Hollywood.html     Read more

    Thanks to Matthew Wheeler for calling my attention to this two-minute video:   https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=rtflAPU-rNg   For many of us who’ve lived in the Islamic world, the adhan (أَذَان‎‎; the “call to prayer”) is one of the most beautiful and evocative sounds on earth.   If you have 3.5 minutes, you might listen to this version of the adhan, which is accompanied by a reasonably adequate translation:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_LN0hznp-A   (Note:  The dh in adhan is pronounced like the th in that... Read more

    If men were angels, no government would be necessary.  If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.  In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself. James Madison (Federalist 51, 1788)       Read more

    For the record (and for what little my opinion matters), I fully support this imam’s decision to participate in an interfaith religious service connected with the 2017 presidential inauguration:   http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/20/politics/trump-imam-magid/index.html   I say this as someone who sorrowfully wishes that today’s solemnities and celebrations centered on a more worthy individual than Mr. Donald J. Trump, and as someone who (among many other concerns) is worried about the attitude of President Trump and some in his new administration toward Islam and... Read more