FAIR

Bible

Rethinking Revelation and the Human Element in Scripture

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Available in the FAIR Bookstore

by Michael R. Ash

Those who have read any of my writings in the past several decades will know that I’ve been a volunteer for FAIR for more than twenty years. I’m an active Latter-day Saint who accepts prophets as the divinely called and authorized agents of Christ’s church on earth. And, like many other believing members, scholars, and LDS-scientists, I also try to think rationally and logically, and I embrace the general conclusions of secular science and “objective” history.

Faith-Crisis

In the more than forty years that I’ve been reading and writing about LDS scholarly issues (including the twenty years I’ve been volunteering for FAIR), I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing the intellectual reasons people leave the faith. Obviously, there are many reasons that people leave the Church, but I’ve always been interested in the historical and scientific issues that unseat some LDS testimonies. [Read more…] about Rethinking Revelation and the Human Element in Scripture

FAIR Conference Podcast #70 – Stephen Smoot, “Abraham and the Stranger at Sodom and Gomorrah: Reading the Bible and Navigating LGBT Identity”

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This podcast series features past FAIR Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2021 conference held in August. If you would like to watch all the presentations from the conference, you can still purchase the video streaming.

Stephen Smoot, Abraham and the Stranger at Sodom and Gomorrah: Reading the Bible and Navigating LGBT Identity

Stephen O. Smoot is a doctoral student in the department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literature at the Catholic University of America. He previously earned a master’s degree from the University of Toronto in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, with a concentration in Egyptology, and Bachelor’s degrees from Brigham Young University in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, with a concentration in Hebrew Bible, and German Studies. His areas of academic study and research include the Hebrew Bible, ancient Egypt, and Latter-day Saint scripture and history. From 2015 to 2020 Stephen was a research associate with Book of Mormon Central and is currently a research associate with the B. H. Roberts Foundation. Stephen served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in northern New England (the New Hampshire Manchester Mission), which included six months at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial in Sharon, Vermont.

Inspiration, Intellect, and Rethinking Revelation

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by Michael R. Ash

for FAIR Newsletter 2021 1211

Inspiration and Intellect are two sides of the same coin in how Latter-day Saints believe that God communicates with His children. We know that the Spirit testifies to eternal truths, but we often forget (or neglect) the role that intellect plays in uncovering truth. The late Apostle Hugh B. Brown said, “revelation does not come only through the prophet of God nor only directly from heaven in visions or dreams. Revelation may come in the laboratory, out of the test tube, out of the thinking mind and the inquiring soul, out of search and research and prayer and inspiration.”[i] Likewise, the Lord instructed the Saints to “seek learning… by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118). This counsel was repeated several more times in modern revelations (see D&C 11:22, 90:15, 93:53; and 109: 7, 14), and the admonition led Joseph to establish the “School of the Prophets” (D&C 88:127).

The dual-nature or dual-sources for discovering truth presents some challenges, however. The first challenge is that neither source—neither inspiration nor intellect—can provide infallible and inerrant data.

The Challenge of Inspiration [Read more…] about Inspiration, Intellect, and Rethinking Revelation

“Worlds Without Number”:[1] Hugh Nibley on Science and Religion

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by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

For more information on the book, visit https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/

This is the eighth of nine weekly blog posts published in honor of the life and work of Hugh Nibley (1910–2005). The series is in honor of the new, landmark book, Hugh Nibley Observed, available in softcover, hardback, digital, and audio editions. Each week our post is accompanied by interviews and insights in pdf, audio, and video formats. (See the links at the end of this post.)

Somehow, in addition to his continual immersion in ancient records and the pressing religious and social issues of the day, Hugh Nibley managed to keep up with important new developments in an impressive range of scientific subjects: cosmology, physics, and brain science — to name but a few of his chief interests. And one of his lesser-known gems is an essay entitled “Science Fiction and the Gospel.” The expansive framework of the Restored Gospel accommodated new findings in nearly all of these fields without a hitch. However, on the subjects of death before the Fall of Adam and Eve and the origins of humankind, faithful members sometimes disagreed.[2]

Leaders and members of the Church who made statements strongly expressing the view that no death existed on earth before the Fall generally were not intrinsically unsympathetic to science, but naturally resisted any views that might be seen as compromising authoritatively expressed doctrines relating to the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement. Likewise, scientifically-trained leaders and members were not typically seeking to subordinate the claims of faith to the program of science, but understandably desired to circumscribe their understanding of truth into “one great whole.”[3] [Read more…] about “Worlds Without Number”:[1] Hugh Nibley on Science and Religion

Come, Follow Me Week 19 – Doctrine & Covenants 46-48

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by Dell Blair

How is it that a dark and formless void ends up as a holy and glorious paradise? How can something so empty become completely whole? What is the recipe? And what is our personal role in bringing it about? Is there a map? If so where is the big red ‘YOU ARE HERE’ mark on it?

A thought experiment:

Consider the task of drawing a map of something that is dark, empty and formless. You are standing at the easel in your studio staring at an blank surface thinking: what lines do I start with? What information do I have to reference? How do I do this?

Any line or dot or brush stroke you make will establish a kind of form. So how do you proceed? Since the reference doesn’t look like anything, how do you represent it as something? What form can represent the idea of formlessness?

[Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 19 – Doctrine & Covenants 46-48

Watch the 2021 Interpreter Conference

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Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses

Live Streaming of the Conference
April 23-24, 2021

Program and other details available here.

LIVE STREAMING TIMES:

  • 7:00 pm, Friday April 23 — Keynote Session
  • 8:30 am, Saturday April 24 — Morning Session
  • 12:45 pm, Saturday April 24 — Afternoon Session

TO SUBMIT QUESTIONS DURING THE CONFERENCE:

NOTE: The live-stream links will no longer be operational once the Conference finishes. We expect videos of the presentations to be available 6-8 weeks afterward. An update of the ‘Book of Moses Bibliography’ at https://interpreterfoundation.org/book-of-moses-bibliography/ will be made shortly after the conference. The combined proceedings of both conferences will appear in Fall 2021, as well as other new Book of Moses volumes. For updates, see http://interpreterfoundation.org/books/.

“The Book That Answers All the Questions”: Hugh Nibley and the Pearl of Great Price

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by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

For more information on the book, visit https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/

This is the fourth of nine weekly blog posts published in honor of the life and work of Hugh Nibley (1910–2005). The series is in honor of the new, landmark book, Hugh Nibley Observed, available in softcover, hardback, digital, and audio editions. Each week our post is accompanied by interviews and insights in pdf, audio, and video formats. (See the links at the end of this post.)

In line with Nibley’s description of the Pearl of Great Price, we borrow a chapter title from Boyd Jay Petersen’s wonderful biography on Hugh Nibley as the theme of this week’s Insight: “The Book That Answers All the Questions.”[1] [Read more…] about “The Book That Answers All the Questions”: Hugh Nibley and the Pearl of Great Price

The 2021 Interpreter Conference, “Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses,” is coming up this weekend!

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April 23-24, 2021
Presented by The Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University Department of Ancient Scripture, Book of Mormon Central, & FAIR
Due to the COVID-19 situation, this will be a live-streaming-only conference.

The live stream will be available here and on our Facebook page.

Come, Follow Me Week 14 – Easter

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I was raised by two parents who loved science. My father was a biology teacher. He was a favorite at the high school, with lots of silly and whacky exercises that helped the students remember the material. I recall one phone call from a Yale university student who called to thank my dad for his help passing his Yale biology exams. He said that he just had to think back on the play they performed in his high school class when the students acted out the various parts of cellular mitosis. My father did try his hand at teaching college classes as well, but he said it wasn’t as much fun. He claimed he would try to crack a biology joke, but the college students would respond by dutifully writing it into their notes as if it were fact.

My mother was also a teacher. She taught grade school, and then later middle school. Her favorite magazine was Scientific American. Each month, she would read the magazine from cover to cover. She would read every single article. Then she would want to discuss it. Imagine my groan and eye roll as a 13 year old when she would start reading the latest article to me and state how it would change everything. Even as she moved into her 80s, she still read it. When I visited, she would want to talk about dark matter, gene splicing, or some other current science issue. She would also read to us as kids when we went on road trips to the coast, or over to Utah. We live in California. She wouldn’t read novels. No, she would read the latest psychology book, or book on mind science.

I believe every student should study science even if they have no plans to go into it. Science teaches us to ask questions. Asking questions is good. Asking questions is important. Science also teaches us how to evaluate evidence. Understanding how to evaluate evidence is very good, and very important.

How Does Science Relate To My Faith? [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me Week 14 – Easter

FAIR Voice Podcast #24: Learning Greek and Hebrew & Sola Scriptura with Robert Boylan

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Latter-day Saints have several different books of scripture and obviously one of them is the Bible. The Bible is translated from Greek and Hebrew. Robert studied Greek and Hebrew within his theological program and I study ancient languages for my schooling as well, so on this podcast, we give you two different perspectives on how to learn Greek and Hebrew. This is followed by a short conversation about sola scriptura and a Latter-day Saint view of scripture.

Here are some important links from the podcast:

Robert S. Boylan is a graduate of the Pontifical University of Ireland (theology) and the National University of Ireland (Anthropology), Maynooth, Ireland. He runs the blog Scriptural Mormonism and is the author of Not by Scripture  Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scripture, Behold the Mother of My Lord: Towards a Mormon Mariology, and After the Order of the Son of God: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Latter-day Saint Theology of the Priesthood. He is a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He currently lives in Tralee in the southwest of Ireland.

Hanna SeariacHanna Seariac is a MA student in Greek and Latin at Brigham Young University. She is currently writing a book on Latter-day Saint approach to theological stances as well as shorter pieces on prayers in scripture. She works as a research assistant on a biblical commentary and as a research assistant at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute. She values Jesus Christ, family, friends, hiking, baking, and good ice cream.