Matthew 27:33-37 Mark 15:22-26 Luke 23:33-34 John 19:17-27 Compare Matthew 27:38, 55-56; Mark 15:27, 40-41; Luke 23:38, 49     As some of you may be aware, I doubt very much that the familiar “Garden Tomb” is the actual burial place of Christ.  But I think that the odds are high that the rock formation shown immediately above — often called “Gordon’s Calvary” — which is behind the Arab bus station in East Jerusalem and right beside the... Read more

    “You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.”   “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”   “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”     Read more

    Some have challenged my laudatory comments today about Rodney Stark’s The Triumph of Faith not only on the customary grounds that I’m an incompetent buffoon and a liar (of course!) but because, they say, Dr. Stark was guilty, back in 1984 or so, of making absurdly high estimates regarding future growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   It seems that Professor Stark, too, is breathtakingly inept and that his recent book can, thus, be dismissed... Read more

    I’m obviously not a member of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, as Jehovah’s Witnesses are officially known.  Nor am I a fan of either the organization or its teachings.  But I’m not posting these items out of Schadenfreude.  And certainly not to suggest that no professing Latter-day Saint has ever been guilty of rankly hypocritical misbehavior.  I just find this story newsworthy:   “Jehovah’s Witnesses can hide the truth in court to protect religion” “Hypocrisy in the Jehovah’s Witness Church... Read more

    An important article from David French:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428559/left-attack-religious-liberty     Read more

    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