In August 2000, the organization that was then called FAIR and is today called FairMormon held the second of its annual conferences, in Alta, Utah.  One of the speakers at the 2000 conference was Danel W. Bachman, and here is the paper that he presented, in which he examines a representative specimen of the work of the professional anti-Mormons Jerald and Sandra Tanner:   http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2000-fair-conference/2000-mormonism-shadow-or-reality-history-or-propaganda-joseph-smith-as-a-case-study      Read more

    Today’s reading, 1 Nephi 20 (compare Isaiah 48), is the first of the infamous “Isaiah chapters” in the Book of Mormon.  “Infamous,” because readers who’ve been sailing along, thus far, with the fairly straightforward narrative of the book of 1 Nephi now run into prophetic texts that are, to most, as inscrutable as T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets.  Many either skip these chapters or altogether surrender their plan of reading the Book of Mormon.   At least one reader of my... Read more

    “No legacy is so rich as honesty.”  William Shakespeare (or “William Shakespeare”), All’s Well That Ends Well, Act III, Scene V     Read more

    The irreplaceable Robert Boylan weighs in, at his invaluable blog Scriptural Mormonism, on a common accusation against the Church:   http://scripturalmormonism.blogspot.ie/2016/01/was-polygamy-necessary-for-exaltation.html     Read more

    Peering twelve billion years into the past:   http://www.space.com/31597-universe-first-stars-gas-cloud-evidence.html   Even I wasn’t around then.   This is really quite interesting.  It took the universe quite a while to become ready for the appearance of life.  Among other things, the stars had to create the heavy elements first.  The European Southern Observatory may have located a place where that occurred and traces of the process still remain.     Read more

    The sad, slow decline of the Church of England continues:   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/12095251/Church-of-England-attendance-plunges-to-record-low.html     Read more

    John Gee presented this paper to the first-ever annual FAIR (now FairMormon) conference, back in 1999:   http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/1999-fair-conference/1999-the-corruption-of-scripture-in-the-second-century     Read more

    I’m more pleased than I can say about this effort, which (even better!) comes out of BYU-Idaho:   http://lds.net/blog/life/latter-day-saints/true-muslim-stories/?utm_source=lds.net+users&utm_campaign=7c90b4f041-Newsletter_Jan_14_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_608611419d-7c90b4f041-86348953   (As I was writing this up, I received a note from Rodney Ross alerting me to it.  Thanks to all those who bring interesting items to my attention.)     Read more

    Sustainable, local, small-scale agriculture (e.g., in urban gardens) is a big fashionable deal in restaurants and organic markets and conversations in certain places (e.g., in the Pacific Northwest, certain coastal areas of California, and so forth).   But is it feasible as a way of feeding large numbers of people?   No.   http://www.washington.edu/news/2016/01/13/fewer-than-1-in-25-seattleites-can-really-eat-locally/     Read more

    Today’s installment of my weekly Deseret News column:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865645401/Meet-three-of-the-Eight-Witnesses.html     Read more