Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 105

The Passing of a Pope, and of a Year

    He’s been out of view for quite a while now, but this is still a big story in the world of religion and beyond:   Deseret News:  “The former pope has died. What will happen next?  Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died Saturday at age 95” And here are some short items from a […]

Stained Swords, False Prophecy, and Accurate History

    The Interpreter Foundation has published its last articles for 2022; absolutely no more new 2022 articles will ever appear.  I expect, therefore, that some of the Foundation’s critics will stay up late tomorrow night, partying in celebration.  Here are the two articles that finish out the year: “Stained Swords: A Psalm of Redemption,” […]

Cosmological 1

    A recording of this lecture and its text were posted yesterday on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Conference Talks:  “The Outer Solar System: A Window to the Creative Breadth of Divinity,” originally presented in November 2013 by Professor Jani Radebaugh In this article, planetary scientist Jani Radebaugh explores the creative side of […]

Out with the old and in with the new

    I’ve just returned with two of my sons from watching Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans.  (My wife chose, instead, to spend the time with our visiting three-year-old granddaughter, who is, I readily admit, irresistibly adorable.)  Although Indiana Jones doesn’t appear in the film and although it’s somewhat different from Jaws, Close Encounters of […]

Religiosity, Depression, and Life Expectancy

    But, first, these three new items went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Nibley Lectures: Time Vindicates the Prophets — “Prophets and Ritual” Between 7 March 1954 and 17 October 1954, Hugh Nibley delivered a series of thirty weekly lectures on KSL Radio that were also published as pamphlets. The […]

Physics in Wonderland

    I now return briefly to writing up some notes that are inspired by and/or are based upon Michael Guillen’s Believing is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Refresh, 2021).  They are, as I’ve previously explained, an initial hasty and unpolished […]

Notes on the Nativity, and a Christmas Carol’s Back Story

    “Opinion: The true power of Christmas in a world filled with violence and hate: For people in Ukraine and other war-torn nations, Christmas may offer little joy this year, and yet the true power of Christmas remains the world’s great hope” “Zelensky rallies Ukrainians with defiant Christmas message after deadly Russian barrage in Kherson”:  […]

‘Twas the night before Christmas

    Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by […]

“Puritans, Pagans, and Imperfect Christmas Gifts”

    For the better part of a decade now, Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship has published special essays — usually more personal, and not necessarily academic — for Christmas and Easter.  They always appear on the Friday prior to the holiday (or sometimes, obviously, in the case of Christmas, on […]

Noting tomorrow’s anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith

    Perhaps, had he not been born so close to the super-holiday of Christmas, Joseph Smith’s birthday would have been widely commemorated among contemporary Latter-day Saints in the manner of, say, Pioneer Day.  I rather doubt it, but perhaps.  As it is, like a celestial object that’s positioned adjacent to the sun in the […]