Dr. Brian Hales presented these remarks on a very controversial topic — a brave fellow, he is! — at the FairMormon conference in August 2012:   http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2012-fair-conference/2012-joseph-smiths-sexual-polyandry-and-the-emperors-new-clothes-on-closer-inspection-what-do-we-find   Posted from Ka’anapali, Maui, Hawai’i     Read more

    Dr. Taylor Halverson continues to contribute very helpful materials to the section on the Interpreter Foundation’s website dedicated to “Resources for Students and Teachers”:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/2-nephi-6-10-jacobs-masterful-discourse/   Posted from Ka’anapali, Maui, Hawai’i     Read more

    It seems that the extremely outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins recently suffered a stroke.   This isn’t altogether surprising.  He’s 74 years old, after all, and, as it eventually does for all of us, mortality has come knocking at his door.   What is, however, slightly surprising — but, based on my years of observation, only slightly — is the reaction of some to one reaction to his health problem.   A tweet from the Church of England had... Read more

    It’s my goal to make this blog your one-stop source for all your basic intellectual, cultural, scientific, political, theological, and life-orientational needs.  As the soon-to-be popular saying has it, “When Sic et Non speaks, the thinking has been done.”   So here I am (thanks to a helpful heads-up from Jann Cahoon Campbell), acting in my previously unheralded role as life coach and fitness guru.   How much exercise should you get each week?  What is optimal for your longevity... Read more

    “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless.  Not to speak is to speak.  Not to act is to act.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer (martyred by the Nazis in 1945)   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/431425/genocide-christians-iraq-syria-obama-administration-state-department   Posted from Ka’anapali, Maui, Hawai’i     Read more

    In this, the 157th scripture roundtable posted by the Interpreter Foundation, Kristine Frederickson, Steven Densley, Daniel Peterson, and Martin Tanner discuss Jacob 5-6:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-157-book-of-mormon-gospel-doctrine-lesson-13-the-allegory-of-the-olive-trees/   These two chapters are the principal focus of 2016 Gospel Doctrine lesson 13.   Posted from Ka’anapali, Maui, Hawai’i           Read more

    Today’s relatively short reading, 2 Nephi 29, is noteworthy for at least two things:   1)   It’s a very clear statement of the characteristically Mormon idea that revelation isn’t restricted to the Bible, and that more scripture, beyond the Bible and from beyond even the traditional lands of the Bible, will be forthcoming.   2)   The Book of Mormon contains perhaps the only explicit condemnations of anti-Semitism in any religious tradition’s canonical scripture.  (Certainly I can think of no other.)... Read more

    “A newspaper,” remarked H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), “is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.”   What on earth would he have made of the Web?     Posted from Ka’anapali, Maui, Hawai’i     Read more

    http://townhall.com/columnists/robertknight/2016/02/09/keeping-the-young-ignorant-about-socialism-n2116488   The rise of Senator Sanders, particularly among the youth, represents a triumph of contemporary education.   And it was quite predictable.  The campus radicals of the 60s went on to become the professoriate, and they trained and are now hiring their replacements.  And, together, they’re training young voters.   Economic conservatives and libertarians had darn well better up their game, and soon.   Posted from Ka’anapali, Maui, Hawai’i     Read more

    A while back, Mr. Donald Trump had some very positive things to say about Mr. Vladimir Putin, who had just had some good things to say about him:   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/12/24/heres-what-trump-and-putin-have-in-common-and-why-so-many-people-approve/   Now, Mr. Trump has made a rather wistfully positive remark about the late Mr. Saddam Hussein, a former resident of the Iraqi city of Baghdad:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/431421/donald-trump-veteran-policy-insult-them   I was already bothered by Mr. Trump’s resemblance to the proverbial political Strong Man.  He seems to me an... Read more