More Islands and Atolls

The Twelve Days of Temples @ Zelophehad's Daughters
  -  Photo by Isabella Quirino on Unsplash On the first day of temples, my Nelson gave to me...

Book of Mormon Questions (Introduction 4) @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -  Observations and Ground Rules The past two posts were intended to spell out as clearly...

Book of Mormon Questions (Introduction 3) @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Chapter 5 Frau Richter and the Cure for Cognitive Dissonance? Published in...

Think Celestial: A hymn @ Zelophehad's Daughters
  -  A bunch of years ago, I wrote a post where I converted a particularly memorable...

Book of Mormon Questions (Introduction 2) @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Frau Rüster and the Cure for Cognitive Dissonance Published in Dialogue: A...

How well does a mortality table predict Q15 member lifespan? @ Zelophehad's Daughters
  -  This is a question people quite reasonably often ask when I blog about which Q15 members...

Book of Mormon Questions That My Teacher . . . Never Asked (Introduction 1) @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   With this post, I am beginning a long, intermittent series that will cover...

America: The Land Where the Unfit are Elected by the Uninformed @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Okay, I admit “unfit” is far too weak a word to describe Donald Trump. He would...

Announcing Segullah November 2024 Edition @ Segullah
  -  Please join us for our November 2024 Edition of Segullah, an online literary...

November 2024 Edition @ Segullah
  -  Editorial My mother-in-law passed away last week, and to the end of her 89 years there...

Paige Crosland Anderson – Featured Artist @ Segullah
  -  Paige Crosland Anderson’s magnificent triptych artwork “Again, Glorified” was...

Poetry Editorial November 2024 @ Segullah
  -  Yesterday I dropped off a congratulatory “Yeah, you got a job!” treat at a friend’s...

She @ Segullah
  -  what if She was alwaysdeathless woman who wombed the earthstringing the stars like tinsel...

While Adam Slept @ Segullah
  -  When rib became womandid he wake immediately to see his love?Or while Adam sleptdid Eve...

Confluence @ Segullah
  -  Surrender of rockMercy of flood Muddy red cascadesthrough bone-laced canyonyank leaf from...

Containing Universes @ Segullah
  -  When I think of my Mother GodI do not picture slender wristsand a concave waist. Surely...

They Cannot Make Me Small @ Segullah
  -  If you fear they have locked me away, repressed my image, restricted my power, reduced me...

High Priestess @ Segullah
  -  for Crystal She had come to fold my mounting laundry—the Relief Society, embodied—on...

The ABCs of Trump @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Well, let’s have a little fun with the alphabet before what is certain to be a...

Republican Devotion to Authoritarianism @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   This post won’t be just about the Republican devotion to autocrat Donald Trump....

Is It Climate Change or Global Warming? Both. And the Republicans Are Still in Denial. @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   I came across an interesting statistic in the New York Times this week. In the year...

How does Trump embody Latter-day Saint values? @ Zelophehad's Daughters
  -   I read a comment recently at W&T about Church members in Arizona being split on...

What If Trump Wins? @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Adam Gopnik’s New Yorker article from October 14, “How Alarmed Should We Be if...

Go to the Smarthouse of the Lord @ Zelophehad's Daughters
  -  This guest post comes from Zatch, who last year also shared “Go to the House...

Trump? Never! @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -  If you are entertaining even the remote possibility of voting for Donald Trump or know...

A Heretic Reviews General Conference, October 2024 @ Zelophehad's Daughters
  -  Fastest hymn: “On This Day of Joy and Gladness” (Sunday morning) and...

Facial hair is growing on the saints @ Josiah Reckons
  -  I recently went to a barber for a haircut and a beardcut. My beard was about the longest...

To the Criminals Who Support a Criminal @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   If you look closely at this photo, you’ll see two empty wire sign holders just...

Church President Probabilities: 10,000 Possibilities @ Zelophehad's Daughters
  -  Frequent commenter DaveW used the results of the Monte Carlo simulation from my last post...

In Defense of the Free Press @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Welcome, Facebook friends (and my regular readers). I’ve invited my Facebook...

Church President Probabilities, Updated for President Nelson’s Birthday! @ Zelophehad's Daughters
  -  Russell M. Nelson turned 100 this week, so it seems like a good time to look at...

Possibilities for a Surveillance Church @ Zelophehad's Daughters
  -  You’re familiar with surveillance states. We all live in one, to one degree or...

Project 2025 Summary @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Perhaps you been hearing about Project 2025, like I have, in bits and snippets,...

Deciphering Spiritual Feelings Is Devilishly Difficult @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   The book I described a few posts ago, Jonathan Rauch’s Constitution of Knowledge,...

Connection or Control? @ Zelophehad's Daughters
  -   Photo by Vonecia Carswell on Unsplash In her book, You’re Wearing That?:...

A Tale of Two (or Maybe Three or Four or Five) LDS Politicians @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   In a July 10, 2024, interview with CNN, Utah Governor Spencer Cox stated that he...

Debt and Inequality @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -       Whenever a Democrat is in the White House, Republicans get all hot...

Church Finances, Corporate Values, and Trust @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Several months ago, I posted the following to this blog. Shortly thereafter, I was...

The Constitution of Knowledge: How to Identify Reliable Sources of Information @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   This past week, my daughter has had a frustrating correspondence with a friend who...

Come Follow Me: Notes on Mosiah 7-11 @ Ben Spackman
  -  First, a summary. Mosiah 7:1 Mosiah sends a much later follow-up team to the group that...

My BYU Story @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   I retired on the last day of April, after almost 18 years as editorial director at...

Come Follow Me: Mosiah 4-6 @ Ben Spackman
  -  I’d remind you of the book on King Benjamin’s speech (paper here), and the...

Come Follow Me: Mosiah 1-3 @ Ben Spackman
  -  To open, we need some big picture structural discussion. Mosiah 1 is not Mosiah 1. In...

Come Follow Me: Jacob 5-7 @ Ben Spackman
  -  The previous lesson covered Jacob 1-4, and this one the lengthy allegory of the olive...

Come Follow Me: Jacob 1-4 @ Ben Spackman
  -  A candle inside Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher Jacob marks a distinct and important...

An Invitation to Disillusioned Republicans @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Earlier this month, I did my civic duty and attended my neighborhood caucus, a...

Sabbath Speeches: Authenticity @ Josiah Reckons
  -  This talk was delivered in a sacrament meeting in the Summer Hill Ward, in Palmerston...

Come Follow Me: 2 Nephi 6-10 @ Ben Spackman
  -  Joseph Spencer’s book on typology and the Book of Mormon appears to be back in...

Come Follow Me: 2 Nephi 3-5 @ Ben Spackman
  -  First, if you haven’t read my post on 2Ne 1-2, you need to; it establishes that the...

Come Follow Me: 2 Nephi 1-2 @ Ben Spackman
  -  Today we enter into 2 Nephi, which immediately raises the question, why is there...

Joseph Fielding Smith, 2 Nephi 2:22, and “Death Before the Fall” in Church History @ Ben Spackman
  -  As many of my readers may know, President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876-1972) considered...

Putting My Money Where My Keyboard Is @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   There’s an old saying that you should “put your money where your mouth is.”...

Donald Trump and the Corruption of Christianity @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Conservative evangelical columnist David French has written often about how Donald...

Come Follow Me: 1 Nephi 13-14 @ Ben Spackman
  -  For those of you who are new to the blog (and the stats suggest there are a few), check...

Jesus the Anointed @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Just a bit of trivia today from some research I was doing this week in my editing...

What Is the GOP and Where Is It Going? @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Over the past few weeks, we’ve been treated to a circus in the House of...

Dealing with the Debt @ Mormonomics & Mormonethics
  -   Because Kevin McCarthy finally ignored the extremists in his party, we narrowly...

Modernising the standard works with machine learning (part III): LDSBot @ Josiah Reckons
  -  In part II, I used ChatGPT to modernise verses from the LDS standard works. ChatGPT is a...

Sabbath Speeches: Dirt and Dung – Salt of the Earth @ Josiah Reckons
  -  I gave a contracted version of this talk, in Polish, in the Warsaw Branch, in Poland on...

Modernising the standard works with machine learning (part II): ChatGPT AI @ Josiah Reckons
  -  How would ChatGPT modernise the standard works? Would there be doctrinal changes or loss...

Do babies need a name to be blessed before the church? @ Josiah Reckons
  -  I can imagine D&C 20:70 being followed to the letter, but in a variety of different...

Latest from the New Blog at AriseFromtheDust.com @ Mormanity
  -  In late June 2022, Mormanity officially moved to Arise From the Dust at...

Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees @ Josiah Reckons
  -  When I was a deacon, I sometimes passed the sacrament to older people whose hands...

Taking half the sacrament @ Josiah Reckons
  -  We were late for church on Sunday. We use public transport, and there is no direct route...

COVID, Motorcycles, Mormonism and Rebellion @ Small and Simple
  -  Our unnecessary and absurd over-reaction to COVID had a dramatic effect on me. In the...

Mormanity is Moving to AriseFromTheDust.com @ Mormanity
  -   I've been wondering how to abandon the name "Mormanity" for a while. As a member of...

Will a man rob God? Tithing and temples @ Josiah Reckons
  -  "Paying a full and honest tithe leads us to the temple." - Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi

Modernising the standard works with machine learning (part I) @ Josiah Reckons
  -  Could we use the KJV and another version of the bible as training data, and create a...

Preparing for Inflation and Yearning for Zion: Thoughts From My Visit to Turkey @ Mormanity
  -  The New Mosque (Yeni Cami) in the Eminönü quarter of Istanbul, on the Golden Horn at...

Lessons from Bulgaria: The Dangers of Censorship @ Mormanity
  -  During the Communist era in Bulgaria, the annual May Day parade was a major spectacle...

What Day Was Christ Crucified? Dr. Jeffrey Chadwick Argues That the Book of Mormon Provides Valuable Information @ Mormanity
  -  An archaeologist and professor at BYU, Dr. Jeffrey R. Chadwick, published an article...

What to Make of "Plagiarism" of the Bible in a Purportedly Ancient Text? A Jewish Scholar Offers a Thoughtful Perspective @ Mormanity
  -  The Book of Mormon's frequent "plagiarism" of passages from the Bible is one of the most...

About That Burial Marker in Yemen for a Man Named Ishmael: Impossible That He Was a Hebrew? @ Mormanity
  -  In a November 2021 post, "Recent Discoveries and Advances Published by Interpreter, Part...

Prayers for China @ Mormanity
  -   A view from Xi'an, China, the beginning of the Silk RoadChina has been in my...

The Words of Gad the Seer: Thoughts on a "Lost Book" Preserved by the Jews at Cochin, India @ Mormanity
  -  The cover of the Hebrew edition ofMeir Bar-Ilan's The Words of Gad the SeerAn old Jewish...

News from Mount Ebal: An Ancient Hebraic Inscription on Metal, a Chiasmus, Possibly Dating to the 13th Century BC or Earlier @ Mormanity
  -  An ancient Hebraic text dating to the 13th to 14th century BC has been discovered by...

Dinner with One of Africa's Richest Women @ Mormanity
  -  My wife and I are friends with one of Africa's richest women, at least by her accounting....

"O Captain, My Captain": Walt Whitman's Surprising Role in the Ultimate Refutation of All Book of Mormon Evidence @ Mormanity
  -  Fond Memories from Before the BlastBack before a massive nuclear logic bomb wiped out...

Preparing for War: The Folly of Trust @ Mormanity
  -  The Folly of Trust: A Medical Perspective Some of my more painful experiences in life...

An Update on Maps of the Arabian Peninsula Showing Nahom-related Names @ Mormanity
  -  In 2008, James Gee published the results of his extensive search for the rare European...

Taliban Hackers Hijack Salt Lake Tribune Website, Call for Totalitarian Oppression of Unvaxxed @ Mormanity
  -  Thanks to certain contacts across Asia and the Middle East, I've heard off the record...

Do I Dare Join the Woman in the Boat? @ Mormanity
  -    "Woman Reading in a Boat" by Arthur Becher, ca. 1910. I just awoke from a dream,...

Science as a Faith: Do We Need Another Restoration? @ Mormanity
  -  One of our nation's leading bodies of scientific influence, the Center for Disease...

Many Questions about Dementia and Just One Answer So Far @ Mormanity
  -  An expert on senior care, Professor Thomas Kitwood, once quipped that "when you've met...

May We Follow the Science and Stand for Life @ Mormanity
  -  From The Chosen, "The Messengers"I began my Christmas Day by watching the "Messengers"...

Recent Discoveries and Advances Published by Interpreter, Part 1 @ Mormanity
  -  If you aren't following the journal Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and...

Let's Have Some Compassion for Our Untouchables @ Mormanity
  -  If you grew up in a nation with a formal caste system, would you let society dictate how...

Institutional Bullying and the Question of Religious Exemption from Vaccine Mandates @ Mormanity
  -  I received a call this week from a father with two children facing intimidation and...

Zeal Without Data: Blaming the Church for Utah's Allegedly Low Vaccination Rates @ Mormanity
  -  Romans 10:2 speaks of those who "have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge."...

Medical Tyranny? When Your Government Tells You to Abandon Freedom and Personal Choice, It's Time to Speak Out @ Mormanity
  -  Victory BoydThe mainstream media has largely ignored a chilling story about disrespecting...

A Google Earth View of a Candidate for Bountiful, Khor Kharfot on Wadi Sayq @ Mormanity
  -  Here is a beautiful view from Google Earth of a leading candidate for the Book of Mormon...

Pyrric Victories @ Mormon Metaphysics
  -  JSTOR on Pyrric victories and the origin of the term.

Jerusalem’s Economy in Second Temple Period @ Mormon Metaphysics
  -  I’ve always had the assumption that the Jerusalem region was fairly poor — perhaps...

Chris on Religious Evolution @ Mormon Metaphysics
  -  Chris Goble has an interesting Twitter thread on the emergence of monotheism in axial...

Getting the Blog Back Together @ Mormon Metaphysics
  -  I’ve been posting regularly at Times and Seasons and plan on continuing with that....

To the People Defending the Church’s Decision to Ditch the “Mormon” Nickname @ Peculiar People
  -  First, I want you to know that I respect your decision to call yourself something other...

The Women Who Enable Abusive Men @ Peculiar People
  -  After the Kavanaugh hearing last Thursday, an image went viral that depicted a row of...

Joseph, Potiphar’s Wife, and the Truth about False Allegations @ Peculiar People
  -    In response to multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh,...

Robert Kirby and Edgy Mormon Men @ Peculiar People
  -  Like many progressive Mormons, I’ve enjoyed Robert Kirby’s self-deprecating humor...

To the Men Who Grabbed McKenna Denson and Dragged her away from the Pulpit @ Peculiar People
  -  To the men who grabbed McKenna Denson without her consent and dragged her away from the...

Why Would a Feminist Keep her Father’s Name? @ Peculiar People
  -    Back in April I wrote about my experience with software systems and institutions that...

Mormon: The New Shibboleth @ Peculiar People
  -  Here’s hoping Lindsey releases a new, revised video: I’m a member of Church of Jesus...

Sorry to Bother You: The (Human) Body as Technology @ Peculiar People
  -  This review contains major spoilers for Boots Riley’s 2018 film Sorry to Bother You....

Do Married Mormon Men Understand Consent? @ Peculiar People
  -    Image obtained through creative commons. I was 28 years old when I got married – an...

Making Ministering Holy @ Peculiar People
  -  My priesthood lesson prompt was very open-ended: “ministering.” My mind leapt to the...

What Will Combined MP Quorums Mean? @ Small and Simple
  -  In a shocking announcement during the Priesthood Session of the 2018 March/April General...

How Can Anyone Remain a Mormon in the Face of All the “Facts”? @ Small and Simple
  -  One of the things that you will see sometimes in anti-Mormon forums is what appears to be...

About That Taylor Christensen Video @ Small and Simple
  -  There is a video making the Mormon facebook circuit by Taylor Christensen.  He starts...

The New York Times Thomas Monson Obituary and Fake News @ Small and Simple
  -  The president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently died, and the...

Perfect College Football Playoff System: 2017 Version @ Small and Simple
  -  Several years ago I published to the world the perfect college football playoff system. ...

Moderate Worship Losing Ground @ Mormon Metaphysics
  -  While it’s not really new news, Sociological Science had an interesting story on how...

Philosophy, Science and Religion: The Divine Hiddenness Argument @ Small and Simple
  -  The fourth week of the Coursera course on Philosophy, Science and Religion focuses on the...

Philosophy, Science and Religion: Friendly Disagreement, Testimonial Knowledge, and the Importance of Fellowship @ Small and Simple
  -  The third week of the Coursera course on Philosophy, Science and Religion addresses...

Philosophy, Science and Religion: The Conflict Between Science and Religion @ Small and Simple
  -  In the second week of the Coursera course on Philosophy, Science and Religion, professor...

Philosophy, Science and Religion: The Mind and The Religious Experience @ Small and Simple
  -  I am taking an online course through Coursera on Philosophy, Science and Religion.  In...

Bows, Arrows & the Book of Mormon @ Mormon Metaphysics
  -  This is just a “holder” post for a discussion I was having over whether...

Salvation in Mormonism @ Mormon Metaphysics
  -  Robert at Scriptural Mormonism does a good job discussing the place of grace in “old...

Terryl Givens on Mormons at the Forefront @ Mormon Metaphysics
  -  Terryl Givens has up an essay at First Things called “Mormons at the Forefront.”...

God and Evolutionary Psychology @ Mormon Metaphysics
  -  Evolutionary psychology suggests God makes more sense than not. I’m not sure he sees...

PEL on Scientism @ Mormon Metaphysics
  -   “…[scientism] is contributing to a growing trend on the left, quite as ferocious...