Just in case anybody is out there who (a) might be interested and (b) is or will be in the vicinity of Sydney, Australia on the relevant date: It seems that I’m likely to be doing a fireside there on Thursday, 22 February 2024. I’ll try to post confirmation of this in the next few days, with precise time, topic, and so forth, but I think it’s almost certainly going to happen. If so, it will probably be held... Read more
On the flight from Honolulu to Sydney, I watched the 2015 film In the Heart of the Sea, about the disastrous final voyage of the Nantucket whaling ship Essex, which served as the inspiration for Herman Melville’s great novel Moby Dick. The movie was a box office bomb. I honestly don’t know why that would be so; I enjoyed it very much (if enjoy is really the right word to use for such a horrifying tale). I also read... Read more
Here are some notes about certain of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon — both official and unofficial — that I’ve drawn from the fourth chapter of Richard Lyman Bushman’s book Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023): Emma viewed herself as one who had never left the faith. “I know Mormonism to be the truth; and believe the Church to have been established by divine direction.” She knew she had “been... Read more
I sometimes encounter the complaint from some atheists that they don’t even desire immortality because, they say, eternal life would be unendurably boring. I don’t take the complaint very seriously. On any given day, if I were to be told that I could choose between my life ending at midnight, on the one hand, and, on the other, having at least one more day, I would always choose the latter. I would prefer to think of the next day,... Read more
The standard view of the origins of the Polynesians, and specifically of the Māori of New Zealand, is that they derive from the Lapita civilization of Melanesia and Micronesia. Here is a passage from Māori History: A Captivating Guide to the History of the Indigenous Polynesian People of New Zealand (2022), apparently written by Matt Clayton, that I found particularly interesting: It seems that for roughly one thousand years, the Lapita people consolidated some of the basic Polynesian cultural... Read more
“Temple Themes in the Book of Abraham,” written by Stephen O. Smoot Abstract: The Book of Abraham is replete with temple themes, although not all of them are readily obvious from a surface reading of the text. Temple themes in the book include Abraham seeking to become a high priest, the interplay between theophany and covenant, and Abraham building altars and dedicating sacred space as he sojourns into Canaan. In addition to these, the dramatic opening episode of the... Read more
Conference Talks: The Symbolism of the Cupped Hand in Ancient Egypt and Israel: Iconography, Text, and Artifact, presented at the Interpreter Foundation’s 2018 Temple on Mount Zion Conference by Stephen Smoot Stephen Smoot spoke on “The Symbolism of the Cupped Hand in Ancient Egypt and Israel: Iconography, Text, and Artifact” at the fourth Temple on Mount Zion Conference, held on Saturday, 10 November 2018 in the Tanner Building at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. The presentations were filmed, and... Read more
Two books particularly stand out for having opened my mind to the possible reality of such things as clairvoyance (aka “remote viewing”), telepathy, and even communication with the dead via mediums. None of these is essential to my worldview or my faith. (If anything, indeed, spirit mediums seem to be antithetical to my doctrinal commitments, at least at first glance.) But, in my judgment, if they are real they seem to suggest a universe that is congenial to my... Read more
A few days ago, I posted some quotations from an interesting paper that I had just read — Stephan A. Schwartz, “Nonlocality and Exceptional Experiences: A Study of Genius, Religious Epiphany, and the Psychic,” Explore 6/4 (July/August 2010): 227-236. My doing so gave such extraordinary joy to the denizens of the Peterson Obsession Board — far over and above any value in the quoted passages — that I think I’ll do so again. (Making others happy makes me happy.)... Read more
Meridian Magazine has just posted a new article of mine entitled “The Problem of Unanswered Prayers.” I hope that some of you will find it helpful or of interest or, at least, not objectionable. My new article could, I think, fittingly be paired with another piece that I wrote a while back, “On Choosing Prince Charming.” And this sad but (to me) movingly wonderful story about President Jeffrey R. Holland and the tragic recent death of a young woman... Read more
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