Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1118

“A Thought from Elder Scott”

    I liked this item, posted today by my friend and former FARMS and Maxwell Institute colleague John Gee:   http://fornspollfira.blogspot.com/201...   May those hear Elder Scott’s message who need to hear it.   Posted from San Antonio, Texas  

“Right on Target: Gidgiddoni”

    Does the Book of Mormon personal name Gidgiddoni have any plausible place in the ancient Near East?   Yes, as a matter of fact.  It does:   http://etherscave.blogspot.com/2015/0...   My friend and former FARMS colleague Matt Roper continues to do very valuable work.   Posted from San Antonio, Texas    

Sunday in San Antonio

      My wife and I attended church at my niece’s Canyon Springs Ward today.  They meet in an unusually pretty chapel, surrounded by woods, meadows, and pastures.   The congregation was large, and there were two sacrament meeting speakers.   The first, Elder John Armbruster, had just returned a week ago from two years [Read More...]

Deliverance Day

    Three years ago today, the Maxwell Institute, formerly known as FARMS (or the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies), was purged of the mean-spirited pseudo-scholarship that had dominated it for so many years.   Thus, today is a day for humble gratitude and great rejoicing, a great day in the history of [Read More...]

“Education for Eternity”

    In my judgment — and not in mine alone — this is one of the greatest prophetic statements ever made regarding education:   https://education.byu.edu/edlf/archiv...   It’s been nearly fifty years since Elder Spencer W. Kimball delivered this address.   Where do we stand now?  Have we made any progress since then?  Are we still [Read More...]

Can religious believers think science important and the universe glorious?

    I’m mystified by the implicit insistence of certain atheist polemicists that religious faith precludes the acceptance of science and/or interferes with a sense of the wonder and grandeur of the cosmos:   “How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and conclude, ‘This is better than we thought!  The [Read More...]

Pre-mortality and perhaps even a pre-mortal council in the Qur’an?

      My hasty translation:   And when your Lord took their descendants from the children of Adam, from their loins, and caused them to testify against themselves.  “Am I not your Lord?”  “Yes, we have testified.”  Lest you should say, on the Day of Resurrection, “We were unaware of that.” Or should say [Read More...]

Memories

    Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering — because you can’t take it in all at once.  (Audrey Hepburn) Posted from San Antonio, Texas  

A very prominent Protestant scholar takes up the question of whether Mormonism is Christian

    And, despite his superb credentials and despite his genuine attempt to be friendly and fair, he’s produced an article that I, at least, find quite depressing:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereol...   If so friendly and fair-minded a scholar fails to get us right, is there much hope that many outsiders ever will?  And is there much [Read More...]

Families are forever

    Today has been a very happy day, tinged with substantial melancholy.   We came to San Antonio to attend the temple wedding of my niece’s daughter, my late brother’s granddaughter.   I felt, in a way, as if I were representing my brother.  I miss him horribly.  I know how happy and how [Read More...]