Jordan has to show the Arab world that there’s another way of doing things. We’re a monarchy, yes, but if we can show democracy that leads to a two-, three-, four-party system — left, right and center — in a couple of years’ time, then the Muslim Brotherhood will no longer be something to contend with.  King Abdullah II of Jordan Posted from Jericho, Palestine     Read more

    It’s difficult for me to say which day of this tour itinerary is my favorite.  But today is surely among them.  (Is any day actually not?)   We went out on the Sea of Galilee this morning, and Jack Welch, Brent Top, and I spoke briefly to the combined bus groups on a boat floating on a very calm lake.   Then we went to Magdala, a new favorite spot of mine.  A superb site-specific guide — a... Read more

    I’ve fallen a bit behind in my (already rather perfunctory) trip journal, so here’s an attempt to catch up:   We began yesterday with a visit to the Wadi al-Hammam, the Valley of the Doves, which begins at Magdala, just below the cliffs of Mount Arbel.  This was almost certainly the valley through which Jesus would have walked between Nazareth and Capernaum.  As usual, we had the place pretty much to ourselves, along with some cows and calves.... Read more

    http://www.plonialmonimormon.com/2016/04/book-review-reason-for-faith-navigating.html   Posted from Jericho, Palestine     Read more

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705387426/Artist-memorably-captured-moment-before-Saviors-miracle.html   We were in Capernaum today.   Posted from Jericho, Palestine     Read more

    Science has faith. We make postulates. We can’t prove those postulates, but we have faith in them. Charles H. Townes   Posted from Jericho, Palestine     Read more

    But lack of evidence, if indeed evidence is lacking, is no grounds for atheism.  No one thinks there is good evidence for the proposition that there are an even number of stars; but also, no one thinks the right conclusion to draw is that there are an uneven number of stars.  The right conclusion would instead be agnosticism. Alvin Plantinga Posted from Jericho, Palestine     Read more

    http://etherscave.blogspot.co.il/2016/04/what-were-jaredite-swords-made-of.html   Posted from Tiberias, Israel     Read more

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865576869/Christs-resurrection-was-a-witnessed-fact-not-a-later-fantasy.html   Posted from Tiberias, Israel     Read more

    Two quotations from Modern Physics and Ancient Faith, by Stephen M. Barr, a cosmologist and theoretical particle physicist at the University of Delaware:   “Science has given us new eyes that allow us to see down to the deeper roots of the world’s structure, and there all we see is order and symmetry of pristine mathematical purity.”  “The universe looks far more orderly to us now than it did to the ancients who appealed to that order as... Read more