15 April 2012

Guest on a paranormal radio show

In a surprising turn of events, Daniel contacted a paranormal-themed radio show based in Massachusetts, Spooky Southcoast. His purpose was to see if they were interested in an LDS perspective on topics like ghosts, hauntings, life after death, angels, and so on. They responded quite quickly and thought it would be a great idea for a show, since Mormons are in the news a lot these days and no one seems to know what our take on these topics is.

He was invited to be the guest on their 7 April live show. Daniel was kept on for an hour and a half, answering many questions on the origin of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, missions, the Word of Wisdom, temples and other core LDS beliefs, instead of many of the topics he had prepared. There was still a substantial amount of time to discuss the nature of spirits, the pre-existence, ministering of angels, life on other planets, and so on, but there seemed to be a great deal of interest in our basic beliefs. Daniel was also able to talk about the books and the experiences and research that led to them. We hope this was an enlightening experience for all involved. Daniel had a good time and the hosts were quite pleasant and sincere. In fact, he wouldn't mind doing this again.

Click here to listen to the audio archive.
Click here to listen to a podcast in iTunes.

06 April 2012

Evidence for horses receives attention

Daniel's recent article about horse bones from the Yucatán has been attracting attention on the Internet. Someone posted it on the LDS Freedom Forum and got a response from Steven Jones, who used to be a professor at BYU. He and another professor, Wade Miller, have done research including DNA testing and Carbon-14 dating on other ancient horse remains from the Americas. The findings show that horses unrelated to the European varieties brought by the Spanish were here before Columbus. There is some good information in these posts and links to other helpful articles as well.

Daniel registered with the forum and added some replies to the topics being discussed. He is also in contact with Professors Jones and Miller to see what other work they have done in this area. A lot is coming to light these days that supports the existence of horses in ancient America for a long time, not just before the last Ice Age.


Click here to read the posts at the LDS Freedom Forum.