Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1104

“Volcanoes linked to cultural upheaval”

    A very promising tool for historical understanding:   http://www.realclearscience.com/artic...   Posted from Las Vegas, Nevada  

“The Goose and the Gander”: An Observer’s Note on the Jenkins/Hamblin Exchange

    In their online conversation about Book of Mormon historicity, Professor Phillip Jenkins has repeatedly demanded “evidence” from Professor William Hamblin, while Professor Hamblin has sought to first establish some methodological parameters for evaluating such evidence and what it means — plainly because he regards Professor Jenkins’s position as profoundly flawed, methodologically speaking.  (Which, [Read More...]

“For churches that won’t perform same-sex weddings, insurance begins to look iffy”

    It begins.   Panic before the tsunami.   Corporate America continues its craven retreat before the irresistible juggernaut of the all-powerful forces of Love and Tolerance:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article...   Thankfully, though, it’s all just my paranoid imagination.   Nothing like this is really going to happen.  Not ever.   And, anyway, those who [Read More...]

A Report from Las Vegas

    “Las Vegas is sort of like how God would do it if he had money.” (Steve Wynn)   It’s appropriate, I think, that a huge libertarian conference like FreedomFest should meet in Las Vegas.  This is not, by a long shot, a conservative city.  But it’s a libertarian one.  Everything goes.   That’s [Read More...]

“President Packer was working on upcoming conference talk when he died”

    A nice bit of background on President Boyd K. Packer of the Council of the Twelve:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   Posted from Las Vegas, Nevada    

“Are religious schools like BYU at risk of losing accreditation over same-sex marriage?”

    Tom Stringham has posted a very thoughtful (and thought-provoking) short essay on his blog:   http://virtuoussociety.com/2015/07/08...   Posted from Salt Lake City, Utah

“Man mocks alligators, jumps in water, and is killed”

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/04/us/texa...   This isn’t really funny.  Not at all.   But it is.   Sadly.   It will be a serious contender in the Darwin Awards competition, and attitudes parallel to this man’s may explain many American election results:  “Man disregards warnings, votes for Senator Bloviation T. Taxandspend, and reaps the obvious consequences.”   [Read More...]

Tyranny Watch

    We can always hope that nothing serious will come of such things.   But the Founding Fathers didn’t intend us to merely hope that freedoms wouldn’t be lost.  They wanted us to be watchful.  Even suspicious   So I’m watching.  Rather suspiciously.   Here are three items worth reading in that light:   [Read More...]

New Testament 198

    Luke 12:11-12 Compare Matthew 10:19-20; Mark 13:11; Luke 21:14-15; John 14:26   Jesus teaches his disciples that they’re to rely upon the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when they speak.   This does not, however, mean that they shouldn’t be trying to learn and to understand in the interim.  Later, he would tell [Read More...]

A debate regarding the Protestant doctrine of “sola scriptura”

    From time to time, I like to remind readers of Robert Boylan’s excellent blog, Scriptural Mormonism:   http://scripturalmormonism.blogspot.i...   He’s just posted a video of a 1995 debate in which three Catholic apologists debate three Protestant apologists with respect to the claim that Christianity is based upon written scripture alone — which, of course, [Read More...]