St. Nicholas of Myra, the prototype for St. Nicholas > Santa Claus, was an active participant at the Nicene Council.  My favorite scene from Nicaea comes when St. Nick, incensed at what the soon-to-be-designated arch heretic Arius of Alexandria had said, walks up and clobbers him.   Ho ho ho!   (And thus did the Holy Spirit guide the deliberations of the Fathers of the Church, helping them to formulate the pivotal doctrine of the ontological Nicene Trinity.)... Read more

    This is distressing:   http://www.npr.org/2015/12/25/461046585/rural-wyoming-towns-first-mosque-sparks-anti-muslim-rhetoric   If I were in that part of Wyoming, I would do everything that I could to be supportive of that small, beleaguered Muslim community.  Not only because it’s the humanly and ethically right thing to do, and the appropriate American thing to do, but because, as a member of another often despised and sometimes abused religious minority, I feel a special sense of solidarity with them.   Shame on the people in the Gillette... Read more

    In a world more and more given to multiculturalism and intercultural tolerance, ISIS is plainly choosing the road less traveled:   http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/12/25/special-forces-reportedly-recover-isis-fatwa-supporting-organ-harvesting.html?intcmp=hpbt3   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    Today, I offer the second installment of my project to read the Book of Mormon through in company with others here.  We now begin with the text of the Book of Mormon proper, with 1 Nephi 1.  (Yesterday, we looked briefly at the Title Page of the Book of Mormon.)   I choose to focus on just one aspect of the very first verse, 1 Nephi 1:1:   I’ve long thought about the adjective goodly, used to describe Nephi’s “goodly... Read more

    Nearly a week ago, I posted a little item entitled “A Fight for the Soul of Science.”   Here, now, are two more pieces that are directly relevant:   “Feuding Physicists Turn to Philosophy for Help”   “Why String Theory is Not a Scientific Theory”   Why do I find this dispute so interesting?  There are several reasons.  But prominent among them is this:   Not infrequently, I come across rather smugly superior statements from atheists contrasting the success... Read more

    The biweekly Hamblin/Peterson column in the Deseret News has appeared, on a topic that seems to be much in the news in recent weeks:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865644380/Is-Islam-a-religion-of-peace.html   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    Father Dwight Longenecker, a (married — see his bio) Catholic priest, provides some brief commentary on the latest installment of Star Wars:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/monsters-and-monks-in-star-wars     It seems that it’s not only uncultured and shallow Mormons (like me and Matthew Bowman) who sense some resonance in the films with their religious convictions.   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    Scientists in Norway have found a 1500-year-old Viking settlement beneath the site of an airport expansion:   http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/12/scientists-find-1500-year-old-viking-settlement-beneath-new-airport-site/   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    A nice report on a joint Jewish-Muslim activity:   http://www.jewishjournal.com/morethodoxy/item/hashem_and_allah_who_knew   I like this sort of thing very much.  It gives me at least some faint hope.   Posted from Richmond, Virginia     Read more

    Some critics of Mormonism have triumphantly announced that they’ve identified Joseph Smith’s source for his Book of Mormon . . .  in a book called The Late War, and/or in a book called The American Revolution.  (Their theory doesn’t account for the Witnesses, or correlations between the Book of Mormon and its claimed setting in Pre-Columbian America and the ancient Near East, and so forth.  It ignores those matters.)   On 7 August 2014, in that year’s FairMormon conference,... Read more