Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1079

A fun faith-promoting tale

    Faith-promoting folk tales abound among Latter-day Saints.   Did you know, for example, that Alice Cooper and Steve Martin are Mormons?  Have you heard that Albert Einstein once said that “Next to me, James Talmage is the greatest scientist in the world”?   But we have no monopoly on such bogus anecdotes.   And, [Read More...]

“A modern-day Oskar Schindler”

    http://www.aish.com/jw/s/A-Modern-Day...   I’m thinking about this one.  Quite seriously.   Should I join in?  Should you?   Do such efforts reward and fund ISIS?   Will such payments actually encourage the taking of more hostages?   On the other hand, can we simply sit back and do nothing?   The plaque shown above [Read More...]

“The widening world of hand-picked truths”

      I might quibble at one or two points, but I share his overall concern — regarding science and other areas, too:   http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/sci...   Posted from Erfurt, Germany    

“The Long Rise of the Secular Faith”

    And why it’s a growing threat to religious liberty and to freedom generally:   http://mosaicmagazine.com/response/20...   Posted from Erfurt, Germany    

The first full day of the conference

    The University of Erfurt, which has about 5500 students today, was founded in the fourteenth century. But it was refounded only in the late twentieth century, and so its campus is quite unromantically modern-functional.   The conference is almost entirely located on the university campus.   We began the day by listening to [Read More...]

Two from Meister Eckhart

    “The more we have the less we own.”   “To be full of things is to be empty of God. To be empty of things is to be full of God.” Meister Eckhart   The inscription on the door above, dedicated to a native son of the region, reads, in English translation, “The [Read More...]

“In defense of my messy desk”

    If only my desk and my office were as neat as the those shown in the illustration chosen to show messiness for this article:   http://www.psmag.com/health-and-behav...   Posted from Erfurt, Germany  

“Blake Ostler: Wise Pearls”

    Here’s a chance to hear one of the most prolific and consistently interesting thinkers in contemporary Mormonism:   http://www.mormondiscussionpodcast.or...   Posted from Erfurt, Germany    

“Why there will never be another Einstein”

    http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/c...   Posted from Erfurt, Germany    

“Demand for coffee can create ecological, economic rift with poorer nations”

    http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_release...   I’m not particularly inclined in this direction, but the thought amuses me:  Mormons are so commonly depicted as complacent white capitalists.  How about touting obedience to the Word of Wisdom as an act of revolutionary international economic justice?   In that connection, here’s a little known song by Che Guevara, writing [Read More...]