I’m not a big Hillary Clinton fan.   (I’m being deliberately gentle here:  I actually think she probably deserves indictment.  And that’s only on the matter of the State Department emails.  Beyond which there are many, many, many more reasons to oppose her bid for the presidency.)   But her victory in six of six Iowa Democratic caucus coin tosses apparently shouldn’t be included in the long list of crimes and scandals associated with Clinton Inc.:   http://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/02/02/the-science-of-hillary-clintons-coin-toss-victories/#63a362606606... Read more

    Thanks to Jabra Ghneim for pointing this fascinating book review out to me:   https://newrepublic.com/article/117173/thomas-jeffersons-quran-denise-spellberg-reviewed     Read more

    A lot of good work has been done over the past decades on the Book of Mormon.   But it’s been scattered, and much of it is out of print and difficult to find or access.   Book of Mormon Central is now opening that treasure house up and making it very accessible in quite new ways:   http://www.studioetquoquefide.com/2016/01/do-you-knowhy-book-of-mormon-central.html     Read more

    My latest weekly assault on goodness and reason in the pages of the Deseret News:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865646879/Why-the-question-of-God-matters.html   According to some of the commenters, I appear to be an apologist for theocracy who seeks to persuade poor and suffering people to simply endure their condition rather than to attempt to improve it.  And anyway, they write (as if I hadn’t written), after seven or eight decades of good, comfortable living, they’re satisfied with their lives.  No more is... Read more

    You’ll enjoy these, I think:   http://etherscave.blogspot.com/2016/01/some-earlier-posts-on-1-nephi.html     Read more

    Today’s reading, 2 Nephi 16 (= Isaiah 6), recounts the prophetic call of Isaiah.   His awestruck, even terrified, reaction to his vision is noteworthy.  He fears that he’s going to die, but, having undergone a supernatural purification, he survives.   However, what’s really remarkable about the chapter is the simple but plain fact that Isaiah saw God.   People who insist on denying that God has a form or can be seen are free, of course, to attempt to dance around... Read more

    “[Mormonism’s] invisibility, and the mystery which was attached to it, made this organization doubly terrible.  It appeared to be omniscient and omnipotent, and yet was neither seen nor heard.  The man who held out against the Church vanished away, and none knew whither he had gone or what had befallen him.  His wife and his children awaited him at home, but no father ever returned to tell them how he had fared at the hands of the secret... Read more

    I was saddened just minutes ago, while driving home from a lecture in West Jordan, Utah, to learn of the passing of my former dean (in BYU’s College of Humanities), Randy Jones.  Unless I’m mistaken, it was only a few weeks ago that I last spoke with him, and the news comes as a bit of a shock.  He had talked to me several times about wanting to come with me to Turkey someday.  Unfortunately, it never happened.  ... Read more

    The invaluable Ralph Hancock offers perspective on a superb contemporary novelist:   http://www.libertylawsite.org/2016/01/28/marilynne-robinson-and-the-mystery-of-progressive-democracy/     Read more

    The film writer for Christianity Today really likes a movie being shown at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.  The movie doesn’t sound very funny:   http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/january-web-only/dispatch-from-sundance-agnus-dei.html?utm_source=connection-html&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=1281995&utm_content=414102328&utm_campaign=2013     Read more