Presented at:2014 Temple on Mount Zion ConferenceSaturday, October 25, 2014https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2014-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/ Conference Proceedings:The Temple: Ancient and Restored at...
read morePresented at:2014 Temple on Mount Zion ConferenceSaturday, October 25, 2014https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2014-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/ Conference Proceedings:The Temple: Ancient and Restored at...
read morePresented at:2014 Temple on Mount Zion ConferenceSaturday, October 25, 2014https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2014-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/ Conference Proceedings:The Temple: Ancient and Restored at...
read morePresented at:2014 Temple on Mount Zion ConferenceSaturday, October 25, 2014https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2014-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/ Conference Proceedings:The Temple: Ancient and Restored at...
read moreSteven Peck, a BYU Professor of Biology, takes it as “axiomatic that evolution in its broad sense is the way the biological world works, although details are still being worked out and amazing discoveries will continue for centuries.” Using vivid examples, he explains both the compelling nature and the complexity of evolution. He also describes the weak science behind what is popularly called the “Intelligent Design” movement. However, “evolution does not negate by one iota the idea of a purposeful universe that was organized by a loving, intelligent God.”...
read moreAmy L. Williams describes and counters the arguments of the “New Atheism,” a loose movement that some have characterized as espousing the belief that religion should be actively countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument. She also describes the role of faith and verifiability in scientific inquiry and in Latter-day Saint theology. ...
read moreIn this article, planetary scientist Jani Radebaugh explores the creative side of our Creator with a breathtaking photographic tour of the unusual planets and moons in the outer solar system. Emerging discoveries have helped open our minds to the possibilities of other worlds with life in our galaxy....
read moreIn this article, the distinguished planetary scientist John S. Lewis discusses several aspects of the creation stories in scripture for the purpose of distinguishing anachronistic modern reinterpretations from the content of the original vision. ...
read moreThis essay examines the details of ongoing wars between science and religion and shows why they are not only futile and senseless, but also unnecessary. Sometimes such battles cause people to forget important ideals that science and religion hold in common. It is important for religious movements to stay focused on religion and not embrace in their central belief systems some particular scientific theory or worldview that will eventually become obsolete with continued research advances. As Holmes Rolston observed, “The religion that is married to science today will be a widow tomorrow.” Both scientists and religious believers can stand in awe at the majesty of the universe. So why all the fighting?...
read morePresented at:The 2012 Temple on Mount Zion ConferenceSaturday, September 22, 2012https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2012-the-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/ Conference Proceedings:Temple Insights at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/temple-insights/...
read morePresented at:2014 Temple on Mount Zion ConferenceSaturday, October 25, 2014https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2014-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/ Conference Proceedings:The Temple: Ancient and Restored at...
read morePresented at:2014 Temple on Mount Zion ConferenceSaturday, October 25, 2014https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2014-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/ Conference Proceedings:The Temple: Ancient and Restored at...
read morePresented at:2014 Temple on Mount Zion ConferenceSaturday, October 25, 2014https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2014-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/ Conference Proceedings:The Temple: Ancient and Restored at...
read moreThis panel, comprised of five Latter-day Saint scholars in the Life Sciences (Emily Bates, R. Paul Evans, Steven L. Peck, Michael R. Stark, and Trent D. Stephens), provides personal perspectives on the development of their ideas and their affinities for their professional work. Following these perspectives, they answer a pot pourri of audience questions....
read moreGiven their status as targets of humor and caricature, the well-worn stories of Adam, Eve, and Noah are difficult for many people to take seriously. However, we do an injustice both to these marvelous records and to ourselves when we fail to pursue an appreciation of scripture beyond the initial level of cartoon cut-outs inculcated upon the minds of young children. In the words of the world-renowned Latter-day Saint chemist, Henry Eyring, “There are all kinds of contradictions [in religion] I don’t understand, but I find the same kinds of contradictions in science, and I haven’t decided to apostatize from science. In the long run, the truth is its own most powerful advocate.”...
read moreGeology professor Bart J. Kowallis takes readers to the realm of “deep time,” referring to that vast length of time it took for the earth and heavens to reach their current form and station. On the way, he discusses three myths about time and creation...
read moreIn this article, physicist Ron Hellings takes a look at some of the teachings of Joseph Smith to try to understand these in light of modern cosmology, the study of the foundations of matter, time, and energy throughout the universe. He finds reasonable ways to harmonize these perspectives, and concludes that naïve big bang challenges to the doctrines of the Restoration are out of date. ...
read moreAlmost all conceptions of human agency are rooted in libertarianism and grounded in a set of assumptions about the nature of the non-human world, the nature of causality, and the nature of determinism. The effect of this is that agency is always understood around two mutually exclusive positions, compatibilism and incompatibilism. Within this intellectual context, human agency is always impossible, trivial, or illusory. Human agency is drawn into discussions of science and religion because most traditional “scientific” notions of causality and determination are understood in ways that make agency impossible, and most religious positions try to reconcile themselves to the classical libertarian position, which is self-contradictory. The presentation proposed here argues for a new understanding of human agency which requires a rethinking of causality and determinism that is compatible with science. And a refutation of agency that most religious positions unwisely endorse. Agency turns out to be not so much a matter of free choice, but of a deeper matter of the nature of the human world, human ontology, and truth. The lack of clarity on issues of science, religion, and agency comes not from science or religion, but from a faulty dogmatic scientism and the naturalistic metaphysic it always imposes on intellectual discourse....
read moreThis essay traces the modern-day usage and understanding of temples from the Kirtland Temple to Nauvoo and the Salt Lake Temple. Architecture was used to teach principles. While the Kirtland Temple was preparatory (think of the vision of Christ and the conference of keys by Abraham, Moses, Abraham, Elias, and finally Elijah), the Nauvoo Temple was dedicated to ritual usage. In 1879, the Church reduced temple usage to rituals, and thus assembly rooms are missing from later temples. Through his paper, Cowan shows how temples have changed according to revelation and how prophets have seen models in vision that then have been incorporated in the temples God’s people built....
read moreThis study seeks to compare and contrast the temple and ritual complexes alluded to in the Book of Mormon with those known from the archaeological record in Mesoamerica. Although superficially they may appear incompatible, an analysis of their underlying mythologies reveals many conceptual similarities, suggesting Nephite worship and ritual might not have been wholly out of place in that context....
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