Unless I’m seriously mistaken, there were no confirmed planets outside our solar system when I was a kid.  We assumed that they were there, but we didn’t know it.  Now we do.   (Of course, we can — just barely — see only the very biggest of them, which is why the “exoplanets” shown above are all quite large.)   This image shows an artist’s impression of ten hot “Jupiter-class” exoplanets. From top left to lower left... Read more

    A colony is a beachhead, an outpost, an island of one culture in the middle of another, a place where the values of home are reiterated and passed on to the young, a place where the distinctive language and life-style of the resident aliens are lovingly nurtured and reinforced. . . . The church is a colony, an island of one culture in the middle of another.  In baptism our citizenship is transferred from one dominion to another,... Read more

    About a week ago, I posted a quotation from George D. Ritchie, M.D., regarding the near-death experience that he purported to have had in 1943, when he was twenty years old and serving in the military.   One critical reader, responding, took me to task for giving any credence to Dr. Ritchie, a Virginia physician and psychiatrist who died in 2007 at the age of 84.  Dr. Ritchie, he said, claimed to have been told by Jesus during his NDE... Read more

    Sadly, it seems pretty definite that Mitt Romney won’t be challenging Clinton/Trump.  But he also won’t be voting for either of them:   “Mitt Romney says Donald Trump will change America with ‘trickle-down racism'”   He’s right, of course.  The president isn’t merely the chief executive; he (or, now, she) is a symbol.  The president both manages the federal government  and lays wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  The president is both head of state (in... Read more

    In the 168th scripture roundtable posted by the Interpreter Foundation, which is directed toward 2016 Gospel Doctrine lesson 24, Martin Tanner and Bruce Webster discuss Alma 13-16:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-168-book-of-mormon-gospel-doctrine-lesson-24-give-us-strength-according-to-our-faith-in-christ/     Read more

    What has been, up to now, Mr. Donald Trump’s favorite poll shows him falling significantly behind Hillary Clinton:   http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/436486/donald-trump-down-11-points-his-favorite-poll   Now, it’s possible that Mr. Trump could still win.  Or, to put it more accurately, that he could fail to lose.   Hillary Clinton is a terrible candidate.  She’s uncharismatic, cynical, and not overly likable, and there are a host of issues following her (e.g., the Clinton Foundation money machine, her treatment of her husband’s various girlfriends and... Read more

    Martin Tanner, Mike Parker, and Dan Peterson come together for the 167th scripture roundtable posted by the Interpreter Foundation.  It’s devoted to Alma 8-12, which is the focus of 2016 Gospel Doctrine lesson 23:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-167-book-of-mormon-gospel-doctrine-lesson-23-more-than-one-witness/       Read more

    A previously unpublished book by my longtime friend, the eminent scholar John Sorenson, is now available online:   https://archive.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/transoceanic-voyaging-how-ancient-america-became-civilized     Read more

    http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2016/06/08/chivalry-is-not-dead-when-it-comes-to-morality.html   I can think of at least two possible (and very gratifying) angles from which one might be able to derive some indignation at this:   1.   It  ignores patriarchal oppression of women.   2.   Some especially ardent feminists detest it when men hold doors open for women.  But this article seems to lift such horrible  discrimination to a whole new level of offense.     Read more

    Today’s reading, Alma 25, illustrates — as if more examples were needed — how the cycles of conversion and apostasy, rise and fall, war and peace never come to a stop.   It’s valuable for its depiction, too, of how the bitter hatred felt by the Amulonites eventually destroyed them.  This is virtually inevitable, in the long run.  Hatred will either so bring down external hostility or it will destroy the hater internally, psychologically, and spiritually.     Read more