Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1055

What on earth am I doing?

    You may well be wondering to yourself, “How can that clown be off gallivanting around Church history sites right now?  Isn’t he teaching?  Doesn’t he have a job?”   Your questions would be understandable.   I do indeed have a job.  And, yes, we’re well into the Fall 2015 term at BYU.  I’m [Read More...]

In response to Jonathan Neville, Matt Roper sets the record straight

        I’ve known Matt Roper well for . . . I dunno, maybe a quarter of a century or so?   I know him to be a person of exceptional, irreproachable character and complete integrity.   Just so you know.   In other words, I take him at his word on this [Read More...]

“Zarahemla Revisited: Neville’s Newest Novel”

    This week’s new article from Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/zara...   Posted from Mentor, Ohio    

Mark your calendar and make plans

    Here’s an announcement issued by BYU Studies today:   We are pleased to announce our next Temple Studies event. Dr. Joshua Berman, Senior Lecturer in the Bible Department at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, will present a lecture on Wednesday, October 7, at 7:00 pm in the Varsity Theater at BYU, Provo, Utah. His [Read More...]

“Kindness over religion”

    Whoever the Salt Lake area Saints were in this case, I’m proud of them, and grateful for them:   http://billingsgazette.com/news/opini...   May we always behave this way.  May we always share the Savior’s love with those around us.   Posted from Mentor, Ohio    

On Joseph’s sense of humor

    Humor is in short supply among fanatics, and is something carefully avoided by most pretenders to sanctity. Yet George Q. Cannon remembered Joseph Smith’s “sense of gentle humor.”[1] Likewise, his modern biographer Robert Remini, a preeminent scholar of Jacksonian America and a non-Mormon, writes that he “came to like the man very much,” [Read More...]

“Bizarre Giant Hexagon on Saturn May Finally Be Explained”

    This is more than a little weird:   http://www.livescience.com/52272-myst...   Had you heard of it before?   Anyway, a natural explanation for it may now be available.   Posted from Mentor, Ohio    

“ISIS recently blew up an ancient temple in Palmyra”

    The brutal murders committed by the so-called “Islamic State” aren’t precisely redeemed by their determined cultural barbarism:   http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-n...   (Thanks to Ira Laney for reminding me of this tragic story.)   Posted from Mentor, Ohio    

Near Kirtland

    Joseph Smith recalled that, during the dedication of the Kirtland Temple on 27 March 1836, “George A. Smith arose and began to prophesy, when a noise was heard like the sound of a rushing mighty wind, which filled the Temple, and all the congregation simultaneously arose, being moved upon by an invisible power; [Read More...]

“Did Sidney Rigdon write the Book of Mormon?”

    Almost since the beginning, Sidney Rigdon has been a principal suspect among those who don’t want to believe Joseph Smith’s account of the Restoration.  He consistently declined the honor:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   Posted from Nauvoo, Illinois