Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1120

That last full day in Berlin

    Still catching up on the trip diary.  But this should do it.   We spent most of our last full day in Berlin in the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz (which is, itself, of historical significance).   And most of that we spent in the Museum für Film und Fernsehen   There’s more [Read More...]

Good news out of Turkey

    And no, I’m not talking (right now) about the establishment of a new mission, headquartered in Istanbul, under my friend and BYU colleague Jim Toronto (who, not so very long ago, took a break from teaching Arabic at BYU to preside over the mission in Sicily).   I’m talking about the surprising electoral [Read More...]

“Evidences for the Book of Mormon: Why the missionary zeal of Abish?”

    A nice little piece in the Deseret News by the Interpreter Foundation’s Taylor Halverson, citing the Interpreter Foundation’s Matthew Bowen:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   Posted from Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany    

More should not be required.

    “I have made as much out of myself as could be made of the stuff, and no man should require more.”  (“Jean Paul”)   Posted from Darmstadt, Germany    

Sabbath sailing along the Rhine

    We attended services today at the Darmstadt Ward, which claims to be the largest single German-speaking unit in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   I can believe the claim.  It was as a congregation as large as any ward that I’ve seen in Utah.     Afterwards, not wanting simply to return to [Read More...]

A passage from the great G. K. Chesterton, on Mormonism

      It’s not precisely admiring, but it’s amusing:   http://gkcdaily.blogspot.de/2015/05/m... Thanks to Nicol Sorenson-Legakis for alerting me to this. Posted from Darmstadt, Germany

“How Linguists are Pulling Apart the Bering Strait Theory”

    When I was growing up, the theory that all Amerindians, without exception, came to the New World  from northeastern Asia relatively recently across the now-submerged Bering land bridge was known with absolutely dogmatic certainty to be true.   Perhaps, though, some questions need to be asked:   http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork...   Thanks to Kevin Taylor [Read More...]

The Looming Desecularization of Europe?

    In an interesting little article, the eminent — if not downright venerable — Austrian-American sociologist of religion Peter Berger considers the possibility that there might be a religious revival of sorts occurring in German-speaking Europe.   He looks particularly at recent phenomena in Dresden and Stuttgart:   http://www.the-american-interest.com/...   If true, this wouldn’t altogether [Read More...]

“Scientist discovers new dinosaur, sneaks marriage proposal into the study”

    Here’s a cute little story from the “Scientists Are Human, Too” file:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sp...   Maybe not altogether inappropriate for the sabbath, since marriage is such an important element of the gospel and of the plan of happiness.  (I served for some time as bishop of a singles ward.  I like hearing about marriage [Read More...]

“UK Anglicans are in serious decline, say researchers”

    http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles...   Posted from Darmstadt, Germany