Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1127

What would Wesley do? Methodists coping with decline in numbers

    I have mixed feelings about whether or not the measures that this article mentions will really do much good:   http://www.moultrieobserver.com/news/...   And I think it significant that, while the socially and theologically liberal Protestant mainstream has seen precipitous decline in recent years, evangelical churches haven’t.   Posted from Atlanta, Georgia    

The Church’s video “World Report”

    Perhaps you’re already aware of it, but perhaps you’re not.   Every April and every October, the Church produces an informative (and, to my taste, quite enjoyable) “World Report”:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article...   Several different viewing options are available there on the page.   Posted from Atlanta, Georgia    

“Twelve reasons why I never argue with internet atheists”

    My friend and Interpreter Foundation colleague Mike Parker has brought this item, from Father Dwight Longenecker, to my attention:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standing...   I can’t, personally, claim “never” to have argued with internet atheists.  But I generally have little time for them — for pretty much the same reasons that Father Longenecker gives.   Posted [Read More...]

“10 Bands and Musicians You Didn’t Know Were Mormon”

    Something fun, brought to my attention by my Australian friend Ray Agostini:   http://www.fuse.tv/2015/05/mormon-ban...   Well, actually, maybe you did know some of them.  I did.  But did you know all of them?   You should have guessed, of course, from the sheer title of Lindsey Stirling’s “Beyond the Veil”:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg7L0...   [Read More...]

“Religion Poisons Everything!” (31)

    You may already have seen the statue above and regretted its existence.   I know, I know.   If only the sculptor hadn’t been ruined by religion — even his name is religious! — he might have amounted to something.  Maybe he could have been a stone mason.  Or a fishmonger.    

New Testament 167

    Mark 9:38-41 Luke 9:49-50 Compare Matthew 10:42   This passage offers a generous charter for making common cause with people whose values align with ours, but whose doctrinal agreements are only partial and approximate.   I’ve been sounding this theme myself for quite a while, in ways big and small, most recently here and [Read More...]

Morality and happiness

    Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness. Immanuel Kant

“Colesville Restoration”

    Some who know me are aware that I have a very strong “sense of place” — it’s among the reasons I travel so much — and that I’m passionately interested in questions of historical preservation, especially (but not solely) in connection with the story of the Restored Church.   So I was thrilled, [Read More...]

“How a Gay-Marriage Study Went Wrong”

      I posted an item yesterday about a remarkable case of academic fraud in the medical sciences.   As you might imagine, the temptation to falsify results can also be quite powerful in the social sciences, and especially when the subject involved is one on which there are passionate disagreements.   Well, here’s [Read More...]

“Iraq’s decline into chaos traces back to 2011, not 2003″

    This is an exceedingly important point:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article...   And it’s important not merely as an academic historical issue.  It sheds valuable light on one of Mr. Obama’s most vital foreign policy results — and on the judgment of Hillary Clinton, who was serving as his Secretary of State during the period in [Read More...]