Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1030

How arguments are properly evaluated

    A critic of the Church, writing last night, has faulted a list of scholars formerly associated with the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies and/or the subsequent Maxwell Institute because they’re all Latter-day Saints.   It’s not the first time I’ve seen such a thing.  Nor even the hundredth time.  This dismissal, [Read More...]

New Testament 281

    Matthew 22:23-33 Mark 12:18-27 Luke 20:27-40 Compare Matthew 22:46; Mark 12:34   The point of the exchange recorded in these passages is obviously not about marriage as such.  Rather, the Sadducees were using a highly unusual story (which happened to involve marriage) in order to demonstrate, by their lights, the absurdity of the [Read More...]

“Goliath’s Humongous Gate Found”

    http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem...   Humongous is a technical term in advanced archaeological science, roughly synonymous with ginormous.    

“Elder Ballard Addresses the Importance of Traditional Marriage at World Congress of Families”

    I’ve seen comments describing this organization as a “hate group” and characterizing this meeting, in advance, as a “hate fest”:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article...   Such comments simply indicate, to me, how radically intolerant — and, yes, hateful — some of those advocating the redefinition of marriage and family have become over the past few [Read More...]

“Whole Foods: America’s Temple of Pseudo-Science”

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles...   I’ve had dinner with John Mackey a couple of times and listened to him speak on several occasions.  I like him.  And I like his libertarian views.   But I don’t share his veganism, and I have to admit that I think this article lands some solid hits.   Furthermore, it makes [Read More...]

What is faith?

    “Faith is trust in what the spirit learned eons ago.”  (B. H. Roberts)    

We should be making progress.

      A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life. Muhammad Ali    

“Cracking the Indus Script”

    An interesting read on perhaps the most important remaining undeciphered ancient script in the world:   http://www.nature.com/news/ancient-ci...    

New Testament 280

    Matthew 22:15-22 Mark 12:13-17 Luke 20:20-26 Compare Mark 12:12; John 3:2   The episode described in these passages is pivotal for the history of western civilization, because it offers a basis for the separation of church and state.  No such basis is clearly established in the Hebrew Bible, and it’s not evident in [Read More...]

“How to Be a Successful Millennial Ex-Mormon: A Guide for Beginners”

    I’ve already seen squeals of indignation complaining that Stephen Smoot is painting them with a broad brush, that what he says isn’t entirely representative of each and every ex-Mormon.  That his little piece is unfair.   Obviously.   But broad generalizations are virtually indispensable to satire.   Satire (think, for example, of political [Read More...]