I have no idea whether there’s any truth in this or not:   http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/14/us/christopher-hitchens-was-shaky-in-his-atheism-new-book-suggests.html?_r=2   There have been debated claims that Fawn Brodie, the alleged biographer of the Prophet Joseph Smith, requested a priesthood blessing on her deathbed.   Decades ago, I read a memoir by the daughter of the famous atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell.  She had become a Christian, and she believed that, very late in his life, he was reconsidering his unbelief.   Obviously, this could... Read more

    I’ve been thinking a lot lately about 3 Nephi 7:2-7 which reads as follows:   And the people were divided one against another; and they did separate one from another into tribes, every man according to his family and his kindred and friends; and thus they did destroy the government of the land.  And every tribe did appoint a chief or a leader over them; and thus they became tribes and leaders of tribes.  Now behold, there was no man... Read more

    I don’t agree with him on everything — we diverge pretty widely regarding the last several paragraphs of his article — but the author raises really important issues for discussion:   http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/dear-skeptics-bash-homeopathy-and-bigfoot-less-mammograms-and-war-more/   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    Yet another illustration of how assuming the gold plates to be literally real simply makes better and more natural sense of the story of the recovery of the Book of Mormon than does the assumption that there were no such plates:   http://mormanity.blogspot.com/2016/05/what-paper-and-wood-tell-us-about-gold.html   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    Not a video of the actual editing process, of course.  That would be boring.  (Editing isn’t much of a spectator sport.)   No, it’s a video of Royal Skousen and Stanford Carmack speaking at a recent event on the BYU campus that was jointly sponsored by BYU Studies, the Interpreter Foundation, BYU’s College of Humanities, and BYU’s Department of Linguistics and English Language.   Here’s a brief column that I wrote just prior to that event, explaining what... Read more

    I couldn’t possibly agree more strongly with the analysis offered in this article by General Petraeus (whose Princeton doctorate in international affairs should probably also have been mentioned after his name):   https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-petraeus-anti-muslim-bigotry-aids-islamist-terrorists/2016/05/12/5ab50740-16aa-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-c%3Ahomepage%2Fstory   Incidentally, when we drive to church here in the Richmond area, we pass by a mosque along the way.  (It’s constructed of a rich reddish brick that I very much like, and that makes it almost look like many LDS stake centers I’ve seen in... Read more

    My son called my attention yesterday to this short, decade-old piece by Jeff Lindsay, whom I now hold in even higher esteem (if that’s possible) than I did two days ago:   http://mormanity.blogspot.com/2006/11/lds-apologists-daniel-peterson-john.html   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active – not more happy – nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.  Edgar Allan Poe   I published a column on what could be seen as a related (or, at least, parallel) theme — I certainly see it so — back in March of this year:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865650218/Is-the-Bible-more-like-Platos-or-Copernicus-books.html   Posted from... Read more

    In most modern LDS editions of the Book of Mormon (until quite recently), the chapter heading to Alma 11 talks about Nephite coinage.  Does this commit us to the view that the Nephites had minted coins?   No, it doesn’t.  The chapter doesn’t describe minted coins; that chapter heading is incorrect.   So far as we know, minted coinage originated in 7th-6th BC century Anatolia.  The Nephites probably didn’t have coins, and the Book of Mormon itself doesn’t... Read more

    Hint:  It wasn’t earthly.   http://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/05/16/what-was-the-biggest-storm-in-our-solar-systems-history/#5567e18b2be1   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more