Science and religion . . . are friends, not foes, in the common quest for knowledge. Some people may find this surprising, for there’s a feeling throughout our society that religious belief is outmoded, or downright impossible, in a scientific age. I don’t agree. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if people in this so-called ‘scientific age’ knew a bit more about science than many of them actually do, they’d find it easier to... Read more

    The latest installment of the biweekly Hamblin/Peterson column has appeared in the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865653225/Sepphoris—The-ornament-of-the-Galilee.html   Posted from Tiberias, Israel     Read more

    Those of us who are today prepared to hazard our lives for the cause would regret having raised a finger, if we were able to organize only a new social system and not a more righteous one. Theodor Herzl   Posted from Tiberias, Israel     Read more

    As it has been doing rather often of late, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture posted a second article today: http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/conversations-with-mormon-historians/   Posted from Tiberias, Israel     Read more

    An article about a very interesting honor:   http://fortune.com/2016/04/27/mormon-women-cybersecurity/   Good for them!   Posted from Tiberias, Israel     Read more

    A very full day, I think.   We were up early, leaving the Tel Aviv/Yafo (= Jaffa or Joppa) area behind.  En route to Caesarea Maritima, I spoke about Peter’s vision of the clean and unclean beasts in Joppa and the centurion Cornelius in Caesarea and his acceptance of the gospel.  Then we poked around Caesarea itself — at Herod’s palace, where, decades later, Paul was given a hearing by Agrippa and Festus and appealed to Caesar; at the... Read more

    It’s Friday.  So you have no real reason to be surprised at the fact that Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture has published yet another article:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/shulem-one-of-the-kings-principal-waiters/   Posted from Tiberias, Israel     Read more

    Sitting here on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, I think it appropriate to consider this topic:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765589224/An-agnostics-argument-that-Jesus-did-exist.html   Posted from Tiberias, Israel     Read more

    Heckling is an act of cowardice. If you want to speak, get up in front of the microphone and speak, don’t sit in the dark hiding. It’s easy to hide and shout and waste people’s time.  Billy Connolly Posted from Tiberias, Israel     Read more

    As I’ve noted, the Palestinian River Jordan isn’t very impressive, physically.  We’re in a historical drought, of course, and enormous growth of population and consumption of water for agricultural and culinary use has made that drought even worse.  Still, though, Mark Twain joked that, growing up an occasional church-goer along the Mississippi, he had imagined the Jordan to be fully 18,000 miles wide — and it was never that, nor anywhere close.   And yet it bears enormous... Read more