As I almost always am with this series of reflections, I’m acutely aware of how much there is in this chapter that I’m ignoring for now — and that there is certainly a great deal of richness, insight, and depth that I haven’t noticed — but my self-imposed rule is that I’ll only comment on one or two things, and that I’ll only do so briefly.  If posting these daily comments were to become too burdensome, I wouldn’t be... Read more

    Today’s installment of my weekly Deseret News column (“Defending the Faith”) has appeared:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865655015/Book-of-Mormon-origins-and-the-historical-record.html   As is often the case, the comments are a tad frustrating.  The first comment, for example, triumphantly assumes two “facts” that, if true, would seem to count against the Book of Mormon — each one of which I’ve expressly written about, each one of which isn’t true.   Sometimes (I know this for a fact, because it’s frequently obvious; one commenter even candidly... Read more

    Dr. Richard Land, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, which is located in Charlotte, North Carolina, takes Dr. Richard Mouw, just-retired president of California’s Fuller Theological Seminary, to task for going too easy on Mormon doctrine:   http://www.onenewsnow.com/church/2016/05/23/seminary-leaders-disagree-about-mormons-beliefs   “The foundational doctrine of Mormonism,” declares Dr. Land, “is that God is eternal but Jesus is not.”   Curiously, it would never have occurred to me to describe that as “the foundational doctrine of Mormonism.”  In a very real sense, moreover,... Read more

    During my lifetime, as the author himself says, the pendulum has swung from the confidence that there are no aliens to the conviction that there certainly are.  In the meantime, though, the science hasn’t fundamentally changed, and we just don’t know:   http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/maybe-life-in-the-cosmos-is-rare-after-all/   Paul Davies, a physicist, cosmologist, and astrobiologist, is an exceptionally interesting thinker.  I’ve read several of his books.     Read more

    Our two-party system has, on the whole, served us well.  But there is nothing particularly sacred about it, and the Founders didn’t (to put things mildly) want one:   There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution. John... Read more

    Today’s reading, Alma 12, contains far more than I will be able to discuss here.  But I want to comment very briefly on a couple of passages.   1.   It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God; nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him.  And... Read more

    “I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”  (Thomas Jefferson)   I rather like this story.  Occasionally, it’s good for us to tell our masters to take a flying leap.   http://www.ijreview.com/2016/05/612858-students-banned-from-saying-lords-prayer-at-graduation-push-back-with-a-big-ol-lesson-in-freedom/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=owned&utm_campaign=ods&utm_term=ijreview&utm_content=life     Read more

    As some of y0u may have noticed, I’m extremely fond of Turkey, one of the most interesting countries on the planet.   Accordingly, I haven’t been pleased as I’ve watched Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the nation’s former prime minister and current president, move Turkey in an Islamist direction while systematically accumulating personal political power.  (Some of you may also have noticed that I fear tyranny and object to authoritarian demagogues.)   Anyway, here’s a brief comment on where things stand... Read more

    I’m grateful to my longtime friend and former Maxwell Institute colleague for bringing this piece from the April 1905 issue of The Improvement Era to my attention.  It was written by Susa Young Gates (1856-1933), a daughter of Brigham Young who rose to prominence in her own right as a writer, editor, genealogist, and advocate of women’s rights and women’s suffrage.  Among many other things, she founded the Department of Music at what was then the Brigham Young... Read more

    Some remarks on factionalism from George Washington’s famous “Farewell Address,” delivered on 19 September 1796:   Let me … warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party.  The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit... Read more