Entries from January 2008 ↓

First of all, let me say that I am truly sad about Pres Hinckley’s passing. He is a true inspiration, and I, as well as the church will greatly miss him. His humor, and candor will be greatly missed.

Newsweek has an interesting article found at http://www.newsweek.com/id/105857/page/2

It talks about diversity in the church, and some of the poor retention rates of converts. Pres Hinckley was one who was greatly concerned about retention of converts. I recently attended the LDS Film Festival, and watched a movie called Continue reading →

About 7 years ago, I was introduced to the idea that the Book of Mormon lands didn’t take place in Central America, but rather South America. Lately, I’ve been studying the issue again, and came across a theory that the Book of Mormon didn’t take place in the Americas at all, but rather in Malaysia (known as the Malay Peninsula.) Has anyone heard or studied this hypothesis?

So, I decided to learn more about the different ideas of BOM geography. James Sorensen has a book published in 1991 where he gives a short synopsis of the various (approximately 80) theories. Many are similar, and here are the major categories of theories. Continue reading →

I know the LDS church has no official views on evolution. I had someone ask me what I thought about it, and frankly, I haven’t given much thought about it. As I understand, there are people at BYU who believe in evolution, but I think they believe that evolution has limits, and don’t rule out that God created the world.

So how do people reconcile evolution with creationism? What do you think about “intelligent design”?

The LDS Church has a list of 13 general beliefs, which was composed by Joseph Smith in the 1830’s. It does not cover everything the church believes, but is a good guide. In the 10th article of faith, it states, “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes”.

First of all, why do we care about the 10 tribes? Continue reading →