This question could undoubtedly be debated forever, and it could potentially be answered in hundreds of different ways.   See whether you can guess in advance the answer given by the writer of this article.   http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2017/01/09/what_is_the_best_scientific_paper_ever_published.html   I didn’t guess correctly.  See if you can beat me.   For background on the author of the winning paper, see here.     Read more

    Rather often, when I’m reading online comments from some of the more embittered, alienated, and angry critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I’m powerfully reminded of a passage from near the conclusion of The Last Battle, which is, itself, the final volume in “The Chronicles of Narnia”:   Aslan raised his head and shook his mane.  Instantly a glorious feast appeared on the Dwarfs’ knees: pies and tongues and pigeons and trifles and ices, and each... Read more

    http://www.vanquishthefoe.com/2017/1/8/14205258/video-former-byu-star-jimmer-fredette-interview-chinese-news-station-basketball-mormon-faith     Read more

    You may have missed this little item — I did — when it first appeared.   You will recall John’s account (2:1-11) of what that gospel labels the first miracle of Jesus, which involved the turning of water in stone vessels into wine during a wedding feast at Cana.  Recently, a place has been located where, at the time of Christ, stoneware was apparently made for use with food:   http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-stone-age-factory-from-time-of-jesus-surfaces-in-galilee/   It obviously doesn’t prove the New... Read more

    In this less-than-five-minute-long video — brought to my attention by Alex Barclay — the noted British television personality and public intellectual Philomena Cunk examines the End of All Things via (among other tools) an interview with Dr. Brian Cox, who is not only an Advanced Fellow in particle physics at the University of Manchester’s School of Physics and Astronomy but the former keyboardist for the bands Dare and D:ream.  One of D:ream’s hits was a piece titled “Things Can Only Get Better,” which was... Read more

    Polygamy represents one of the most emotion-stirring and, for many, most difficult issues in Mormon history.  This new book, by an eminent American historian (and an active Latter-day Saint), looks extremely interesting.   Boston Globe:  “Looking at plural marriage and Mormons from vantage of women”   Deseret News:  “New Harmony: One historian’s touch with Mormon history”   For a bit of information about Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, see here.       Read more

    British-born Elder James E. Talmage served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1911 until his death in 1933.  He was also trained in chemistry and geology at Lehigh University and Johns Hopkins University and was awarded a doctorate by Illinois Wesleyan University in 1896.   Dr. Talmage was an Associate of the Philosophical Society of Great Britain (the Victoria Institute), as well as a Fellow of... Read more

    I’m grateful to Doug Ealy for calling this important piece of investigative journalism to my notice:   http://www.theonion.com/article/local-church-full-of-brainwashed-idiots-feeds-town-34860?utm_content=Main&utm_campaign=SF&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing     Read more

    “No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”  Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)   Read more

    This site could teach us something about ancient Egyptian boatbuilding:   http://www.archaeology.org/issues/242-1701/trenches/5097-trenches-egypt-middle-kingdom-boat-burial   It’s just one more intriguing aspect of the ancient temple city of Abydos.     Read more