Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1119

Politics and economics, politicians and economists

    “The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.” Thomas Sowell    

Southern Baptists talking about “civil disobedience”

    As the legal and social climate in the United States becomes more adverse, where not altogether hostile, toward traditional religious values and beliefs, the question of how Christians should respond becomes an urgent one.   The conservative Catholic writer Rod Dreher, for example, has been writing about what he calls the “Benedict option,” which [Read More...]

“Death, be not proud.”

    I’m in a poetic vein.  And it’s the Sabbath.  So, here, I share one of the greatest religious poems in the English language, by John Donne.  I’ve modernized the spelling and simplified the punctuation a bit, for the sake of clarity:   Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and [Read More...]

“25 Famous Scientists Who Believed in God”

    An interesting list:   http://www.famousscientists.org/25-fa...   I realize, of course, that there’s been debate about Einstein’s religious views.  I’m inclined to think that, although he definitely wasn’t a standard or orthodox theist, he was, still, in a real sense, religious.  Certainly, on at least one occasion, he strenuously denied the claim that he [Read More...]

“We are witnesses”

    Cassandra Hedelius, Martin Tanner, and Bruce Webster joined in this 126th roundtable from the Interpreter Foundation to discuss Acts 1-5 in conjunction with 2015 Gospel Doctrine lesson 28:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scri...    

New Testament 180

    Luke 10:17-20 Compare Mark 16:17-18; John 12:31   This passage has always struck me as very interesting on a human level.   For instance, the surprised delight of the Seventy at the power that they’ve been granted seems very believable to me.  Jesus actually has to caution them that the vesting of that [Read More...]

More Jenkins and Hamblin

    I’ve already called attention to the exchange between Dr. Phillip Jenkins, a Catholic-turned-Episcopalian historian at Baylor University who has suddenly emerged as a harsh critic of the Book of Mormon and those who believe in it, and my friend Dr. William Hamblin:   Here.   And here.   The conversation has continued since then, [Read More...]

“He is not here, for he is risen”

    In the Interpreter Foundation’s 125th scripture roundtable, Cassandra Hedelius, Jeff Bradshaw, McKay White, and Dan Peterson discuss 2015 Gospel Doctrine lesson 27, which focuses on passages in Matthew 28, Luke 24, and John 20-21:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scri...    

“The Gods of the Copybook Headings”

    Somebody — to my embarrassment, I can’t now recall who it was — reminded me the other day of this prophetic 1919 poem by Rudyard Kipling.   In order to understand it, it’s important to know that copybooks were the notebooks used in class by nineteenth-century British schoolchildren.   Kipling’s phrase copybook headings refers [Read More...]

“Chiasmus Resources”

    It was nearly five decades ago now, in August 1967, that Elder John W. Welch first encountered the ancient literary device known as chiasmus while serving as a missionary in Regensburg, Germany — and then almost immediately discovered it in the Book of Mormon.   Here’s an online bibliography of materials on the [Read More...]