Humanities Center Blog

—Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem I wanted to light the candle. I wanted to press it gently to the flame, see the wick catch, tilt the yellow shaft so the wax wouldn’t drip on my hand. I wanted to pay homage, be a pilgrim, worship. I wanted to do it boldly, smoothly, reverently, as …

Rain drummed a steady symphony against our umbrella as my husband and I trekked through the sidewalk puddles in front of BYU’s Museum of Art. Couples and excited family home evening groups rushed past us, clutching donuts and flyers to their chests. Gold light streamed through the MOA’s glass doors. Dancing reflections rippled across the …

There is one simple question that I’ve grown to dread. People around me can answer it in the flash of a second, like a reflex. But I always have to pause. The question is so common and so fundamental to a person’s identity that to be left there stumbling over one’s words trying to come …

In recent years, the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning has revolutionized the way we interact with technology. One of the most impressive developments in this field is the creation of language models such as ChatGPT, a tool that is changing the way students of computer programming learn and study. In this blog post, …

I’m just out to find / the better part of me. —Five for Fighting, “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” I have an existential crisis about once a week. Upon writing that sentence, I’m realizing I don’t know precisely what an existential crisis is—that’s just what my wife and I call these episodes. Fortunately, the initial Google …

Four hard, but incredible and rewarding years of college all amounted to this moment for me. This semester I took on the responsibility of student teaching at a local high school, the final step in my preparation for my university diploma and teaching licensure. Over the past couple of months, I had the opportunity to …

I can’t remember my great grandmother. She died just before I turned five, and she’d been suffering from dementia long enough that she likely wouldn’t have known my face or name. If, in some hypothetical world, we were to pass each other on the street, I am unsure if I would even recognize her. More …

We live in a world that abhors discomfort. Watch 30 minutes of television and you will see numerous ads testifying that product X will make your life better because it will be easier. There’s an app for everything and all promise to make you healthy, wealthy, and wise without having to exert yourself or experience …

The world of ancient Christianity can be daunting, complex, and easily misunderstood. In fact, unless you hold multiple PhDs in archaeology, art history, ancient near eastern studies, patristics, classics, and theology—not to mention the ability to read Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Syriac—then you may be at a loss for where to even begin learning about …

Last November, OpenAI, a Bay Area research company specializing in artificial intelligence, introduced the universe to a program called ChatGPT-3. Within five days, one million people had jumped on the program to play around with it.  For reference, it took Facebook ten months to reach one million users and Netflix three and a half years. …