Science
Joseph’s DNA test
The most exciting, newsworthy event at the 2016 Mormon History Association meetings was the announcement of the DNA test of Josephine Lyons. As the story goes, Joseph Smith had more than 30 polygamist wives. Except for Emma, none of these wives had children via Joseph. There had been a few rumored children but John Reed Hancock […]
MHA 2016
I really enjoyed the Mormon History Association meetings at Snowbird, Utah this weekend. I can’t tell you how much fun these meetings are for me. The thing I hate most is when there are 2 sessions at teh same time that I want to attend. It can be difficult to choose at times, but I […]
Are Addictions and Free Will Compatible?
A few weeks ago, I discussed Utah’s attempts to call porn a public health crisis. I don’t think such a designation is useful for a few reasons: (1) the Utah Legislature allocated no funds to combat the problem, (2) there is considerable debate about whether porn or sex addiction is a legitimate scientific condition, and […]
Canaanite Dieties
It’s Easter time again (next Sunday is Easter if you weren’t paying attention.) Easter is that one holiday that Mormons observe, but don’t really celebrate. With Easter comes the story of the Passover. (This is one of those strange years in which Easter occurs a month BEFORE Passover.) In the past, I’ve blogged about various […]
Atheist finds Garden of Eden
Where is the Garden of Eden? I watched a really interesting documentary, part of the Myth Hunters series found on Netflix, Youtube, and CafeMom. They noted that the garden story is so vague that it could be anywhere. The film notes that a Boston University president felt is was in North Pole, Mormons felt it […]
Hebrew in America?
It’s been a long time since I discussed Book of Mormon Geography Theories. Every so often, I get an email from the FIRM Foundation. Basically Rodney Meldrum has proposed a theory in which he believes that Joseph Smith has indicated that Book of Mormon lands are in America’s Heartland. Meldrum believes that the Hopewell Indian […]
The Circumstances of Evil
We would like to think that we would always choose good over evil, but is that always the case? This is part 3 of my series on a documentary, The Science of Evil. In Part 1, I discussed Jeffrey’s Dahmer and his baptism. In Part 2, we discussed whether there is a soul, or whether […]
How do we Define the Science of Evil?
I wanted to continue my series on a National Geographic documentary, The Science of Evil. (A few days ago, I discussed serial killer Jeffrey’s Dahmer, and his baptism in jail following his horrific murders.) In this post, researchers at Harvard and Princeton try to see how the brain processes moral judgment. But how do we […]
Global Warming as a Religion
I just finished SuperFreakonomics, the sequel to Freakonomics. It’s an entertaining book that I highly recommend. In chapter 5, they discussed whether global warming is even a threat, and took on both conservatives and environmentalists. the movement to stop global warming has taken on the feel of a religion.
Mormon Heretic 