Some of these seem more political/legal to me than scientific, but this list of ten consequential people compiled by the eminent science journal Nature still makes for interesting reading:   http://www.nature.com/news/365-days-nature-s-10-1.19018     Read more

    Matthew 27:31-32 Mark 15:20-21 Luke 23:26-32 John 19:17 Compare Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27; John 19:18   Simon of Cyrene came from the city of Cyrene, a Greek colony in North Africa that had a very large Jewish-minority population.  Its ruins survive in today’s Libya, and that region of the country is still often called Cyrenaica even today.     The fact that Simon’s sons Alexander and Rufus are mentioned in Mark suggests that they were known to Mark’s... Read more

    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/saudi-arabia-forms-muslim-anti-terrorism-coalition-151215035914865.html   Whether, practically speaking, this will prove to be effective remains to be seen.  But it is, to a substantial degree, their fight even more than it’s ours.   By the way:  When I was in Istanbul a few weeks back, the Paris massacres were fresh and on everybody’s mind — the killings took place while my wife and I were aboard a plane nearing Amsterdam — and they came up in many sessions of the conference... Read more

    Matthew 27:27-31 Mark 15:16-20 Compare John 19:2-3   The story is familiar to us, and we often pass over it without really permitting it to enter fully into our minds.  But this cruel mockery of a man who has already been condemned to death, and who will soon die in one of the most agonizing possible ways, is shocking and horrific.  Humanity at its most inhumane.   And the fact that it was being done to a perfectly... Read more

    My newest column in the Deseret News, in which I enthusiastically recommend a book that I found fascinating:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865643849/Sociologist-shares-how-the-world-may-be-more-religious-today-than-ever-before-in-The-Triumph-of.html   Incidentally, I don’t argue — and I don’t believe — that large numbers prove religious faith (or a religious faith) true.  Some who seem either unable or indisposed to read what a text actually says are loudly faulting me for having made that argument.  But I didn’t make it.   While I’m on the topic, though, I... Read more

  Matthew 27:24-26 Mark 15:15 Luke 23:24-25 John 19:16   These passages — and, most particularly, Matthew’s account of Pilate’s washing his hands of responsibility for the death of Jesus while the Jews say “His blood be on us and on our children!” — have served for centuries as a powerful basis (or pretext) for Christian anti-Semitism.     Read more

    Contrast this story with this story.   Which one involves Mormons?  Which one involves Evangelicals?   I don’t want to overgeneralize, but . . . well, there exists no Latter-day Saint equivalent to the countercult ministries, websites, seminars, newsletters, radio programs, Sunday school classes, television shows, pamphlets, picket lines, magazines, book genres, lecture series, mini-courses, and so forth that flourish in such rank profusion among certain conservative Protestant populations.     Read more

    A somewhat lengthy and very infuriating article:   “It’s All About ‘Muscle’: Understanding the Campus Unrest”   And an astonishing — that is, horrifying — 2.5-minute video:   Yale students sign petition to repeal First Amendment   Jonah Goldberg’s 2008 book Liberal Fascism is becoming urgently relevant.     Read more

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865643851/Josephs-perspective-depicted-in-new-Mormon-Channel-video.html?pg=all     Read more

    I often really like Pentatonix.  In this case, though, I like the version by The Piano Guys much more:   http://www.christianpost.com/buzzvine/pentatonix-vs-the-piano-guys-in-an-angels-we-have-heard-on-high-showdown-watch-videos-vote-here-111390/   What do you think?     Read more