There’s still so very, very much that we don’t understand (and may never understand) about the ancient world:   http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/stonehenge-prehistoric-religious-ceremonial-centre-discovered-archaeologists-a7425346.html   This is a pretty dramatic discovery in a quite populated, heavily studied, and very familiar area.     Read more

    Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. Oscar Wilde       Read more

    I’ve said that I won’t participate in political discussions today.  And I won’t.   But this is news, and I thought that some might be interested in it:   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3954734/Mike-Pence-confirms-Mitt-Romney-active-consideration-Donald-Trump-s-secretary-state.html   And that’s all that I’m going to say on the subject.   Thanks to Cody Quirk for calling my attention to the article.   Have a great Sabbath!     Read more

    I’ve run across a reference to an interesting letter from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.   Evidently, an article had been published that linked Mrs. Churchill (and perhaps Mr. Churchill himself) to a Mormon family line.  President Roosevelt read the article and sent a letter about it to the Prime Minister:   “Hitherto,” wrote Mr. Roosevelt, “I had not observed any outstanding Mormon characteristics in either of you — but I shall be... Read more

    Nearly twenty-three years ago — I can’t believe that I’m this old! — I published an article about the Book of Abraham in the Ensign. I think that maybe it’s time to dust it off again:   https://www.lds.org/ensign/1994/01/news-from-antiquity?lang=eng   The article could be updated, of course.  But, otherwise, there’s little if anything in it from which I would be inclined to back away.     Read more

    A new sociological study strongly suggests that churches that teach a fairly literal reading of scripture and that proclaim faith in a God who actually intervenes in the real world in response to prayer do better, on the whole, at retaining members and even growing than do more liberal churches:   http://www.weeklystandard.com/new-study-ties-church-attendance-to-conservative-theology/article/2005468   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/17/literal-interpretation-of-bible-helps-increase-church-attendance   T’hat’s not altogether surprising, of course.  Already in 1972, Dean M. Kelley’s famous book Why Conservative Churches are Growing made a similar point.   Moreover,... Read more

    If nature leads us to mathematical forms of great simplicity and beauty—by forms I am referring to coherent systems of hypothesis, axioms, etc.—to forms that no one has previously encountered, we cannot help thinking that they are “true,” that they reveal a genuine feature of nature. . . . You must have felt this too: The almost frightening simplicity and wholeness of relationships which nature suddenly spreads out before us and for which none of us was in the least... Read more

    I’ve made it my policy to post nothing political on Sundays and to try to avoid political conversations, whether on this blog or on Facebook, on that day.   I feel especially strongly about my policy this weekend.  For some reason, there’s been a great deal of passion and considerable unpleasantness over the past few days regarding politics.   One might have thought that, with the election behind us, things would get better.  But, instead, at least in my... Read more

      Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms. Aristotle (384-322 BC)     Read more

    http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-meets-rival-mitt-romney-he-races-fill-cabinet-n686241   http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/19/politics/donald-trump-mitt-romney-secretary-of-state/index.html   There’s no word yet about what, if anything, will come of the meeting.  But it does appear (from the clues given in the articles) to have centered on world affairs and foreign policy, which seems to strengthen the notion that the position of Secretary of State might indeed be in play.  And it might be significant that Mike Pence, the Vice-President-Elect, was also there.   We’ll see.  I’m ambivalent.     Read more