Mark Alan Wright describes his research on the Maya, and its possible relation to the Book of Mormon. http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/interpreter-podcast-2-mark-wright/ Read more

This slide shows the keep of the citadel of Harran (modern Turkey), which is one of the most interesting religious sites in the world.  In the first millennium BC it was the site of the central temple of the old Babylonian Moon goddess Sin.  When the city was conquered by the Arabs in the eighth century AD, the pagan priests and scholars of the temple proclaimed they were Sabians, one of the People of the Book mentioned in the Qur’an... Read more

Although the most detailed descriptions of temple ritual in the Bible are descriptions of sacrificial rituals (derived from what were essentially priestly handbooks), an esoteric set of temple teachings and theology were clearly present in ancient Israel.  These can be found in both incidental details in biblical narratives, and in non-biblical Israelite sources.  The two attached essays investigate aspects of this temple mythos: the participation in the celestial council through visionary celestial ascent. Esoterica6 sod Esoterica7 Celestial ascent   Read more

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765602441/Islamic-exhibit-at-BYU-aids-understanding.html Read more

and the Pyramid texts. Read more

An examination of the earliest archaeological evidence of religious belief. Read more

Louis Midgley, “Atheist Piety: A Religion of Dogmatic Dubiety“ Read more

From my World History class Read more

From my 201 class: Read more

The fourth presentation at BYU’s Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies conference on 31 August 2012 was on “Writing in 7th Century BC Levant,” by Stefan Wimmer of the University of Munich.  It was entitled “Palestinian Hieratic.”  He examined an interesting phenomena in Hebrew inscriptions, the use of Egyptian hieratic (cursive hieroglyphic) signs. Basically Hebrew scribes used Egyptian signs for various numerals, weights and measures.  The changes in the form of these signs parallel similar chronological changes in the... Read more