A pretty serious statement of friendship and appreciation for Islam by Elder Carlos Asay (1926-1999), who served as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy and, after being named an emeritus General Authority, as president of the Salt Lake Temple:   https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/selected-articles/god-s-love-mankind   I don’t think he would be pleased at the anti-Islamic attitudes exhibited by many Americans, including some members of the Church.   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more

    It’s very sad to read of such things, but it can hardly be a surprise:   http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/03/bad_incentives_push_universities_to_protect_rogue_scientists.html   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more

    “My soul comes from better worlds and I have an incurable homesickness for the stars.” Nikos Kazantzakis   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more

    For those secularists who dream of a post-Christian America:   http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/445870/it-turns-out-less-christian-america-might-be-worse-america   They probably won’t get what they hope for.  But they probably wouldn’t really like it — not entirely, anyway — if they did.   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more

    A new podcast, available via the Interpreter Foundation website:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/lds-perspectives-podcasts-lds-women-at-the-pulpit-with-jenny-reeder-and-kate-holbrook/   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more

    The article’s title may be just a bit on the grandiose side, but these discoveries certainly do make the historicity of the Bible more concrete, and they lend no support at all to the cause of the biblical minimalists (briefly addressed here and here) and of the “Jesus mythicists” (briefly addressed here and here and here and here and here):   http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/eric-metaxas/top-three-archaeological-finds-2016-confirm-biblical-history   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more

    Jeff Lindsay was set to speak at a district meeting of Latter-day Saints in Shanghai, China, today, and he kindly shared in advance some of the thoughts that he would be offering:   “The Creation and God’s Love: Hints from a Surprise Encounter with a Geologist”   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more

    This article is actually somewhat more broadly significant, and more interesting, than its title might suggest:   http://deadspin.com/satan-scourges-us-with-it-a-brief-history-of-carpeted-1793111588   I’ll append to it a little story that I may have told here before, though I don’t believe so:   Long ago, my department held its fall party (just prior to the beginning of the new academic year) at my department chairman’s home.  A native of Osaka, Japan, he was a counselor in his Orem, Utah, stake presidency, and he... Read more

    Thanks to Ronald L. Dunn for alerting me to this gem:   http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-portuguese-to-english-phrasebook-became-a-cult-comedy-sensation?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=keywee&kwp_0=352547   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more

      This was something that they won’t soon forget:   http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39293086   We live on a remarkable planet, and nature is very, very powerful.   Posted from Newport Beach, California     Read more