http://existentialcomics.com/comic/126   The second book published by the Islamic Translation Series — part of BYU’s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative (METI), a project that I conceived and for which I served as editor in chief until my expulsion from the Maxwell Institute in 2012 — was al-Ghazali’s The Incoherence of the Philosophers.   Ibn Rushd (aka Averroës, which is a Latin corruption of a Hebrew corruption of his original Arabic name) really did write a famous response to al-Ghazali entitled The... Read more

    Are you frustrated because you want to do something, but don’t know how, or how to get started?   This looks like a wonderful, wonderful effort:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865651006/LDS-Church-launches-I-Was-a-Stranger-website-for-Mormon-womens-refugee-relief-effort.html   Here’s the actual website:   https://www.lds.org/refugees?cid=HP_SA_26-3-2016_dPFD_fCNWS_xLIDyL2-1_&lang=eng   I’m very proud of the Church for undertaking this project.     Read more

    There are many reasons why I not only oppose Donald Trump but find him deeply repugnant.  This eleven-minute video (which, I warn you, contains two or three visual and/or barely audible f-bombs) depicts just one of them:     Those who really, really dislike my opposition to Mr. Trump and who find it wearisome are welcome to skip the video.  That reaction would be preferable, I think, to repeatedly telling me to stop posting such things because they’re... Read more

    Mosiah 14, today’s reading, is simply Abinadi’s quotation of the “Suffering Servant” poem from what we now know as Isaiah 53.   Jews have often taken the poem to refer to personified Israel, while Christians have typically interpreted it messianically, as a moving description of Christ as atoning savior.     Note the fact that both we and and the Redeemer are compared to sheep — we because of our erring ways and our tendency to become lost,... Read more

    “If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said?  The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.” Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism   Read more

    Admittedly, not all contributors to Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture receive the degree of attention that this one does:   http://religiondispatches.org/how-mormon-is-mitt-romney/   Give us time, though.  Give us time.     Read more

    Video of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s Good Friday performance of Händel’s Messiah will be available here for the next few days, at no cost.   If you weren’t able to make it, or even if you were, here’s a chance to enjoy a wonderful performance of Mac Wilberg’s revision of the great masterpiece.   At the same site, there is information about the Choir’s new CD recordings of Messiah.   Posted from Bountiful, Utah     Read more

    Some of you will find this interesting.  It’s a summary of a critique of a relatively recent attempt to explain away the New Testament accounts of the resurrection of Jesus:   http://sharperiron.org/article/book-review-buried-hope-or-risen-savior   Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten (and cannot seem to find) who first called this review to my notice.  My apologies.   Posted from Bountiful, Utah     Read more

    http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-apostle-cease-fire-culture-wars   Posted from Bountiful, Utah     Read more

    Here are some Easter-related columns that I’ve published in the Deseret News, one or two of which may be of interest to one or two of my readers:   “Evidence of Jesus Christ’s resurrection”   “Religion matters in death”   “Life after death is a joyful fact”   “The days leading up to Easter Sunday”   “Palm Sunday led to liberation from death”   “The gospel truly brings joyful news”   “Christ’s resurrection was a witnessed fact, not... Read more