Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1162

New Testament 82

    Luke 6:43-45 Compare Matthew 7:15-20; 12:33-35   Immediately following a strong exhortation not to judge, Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Plain has Jesus explain that, just as trees are known by the quality of their fruit, people are known by their actions.   This is, very plainly, a recognition that we [Read More...]

“Dr. Dan Peterson”

    I was delighted, a couple of days ago, to discover that the British ITV mystery/detective series Midsomer Murders (1997-) has, at least in the past, featured a character named “Dr. Dan Peterson.”   Who, I wondered, could they have hired to portray a person bearing so solemn — so august, respectable, and important [Read More...]

BYU and a national ranking of undergraduate programs in Arabic

    http://foreign-language-colleges.com/...   The efforts of many have gone into creating a program that’s so highly ranked.  Superb and dedicated people have built it over the past three decades, and they continue to improve it.   It can certainly be said, though, that this ranking is a tribute to, and a legacy of, the labors [Read More...]

“Why are Christian movies so painfully bad?”

    There is much — very much — in and about Hollywood that is, to put it mildly, distasteful.  Antithetical to my value and beliefs and opposed, frankly, to those of many people, Mormon and non-Mormon alike, in Hollywood’s audience.   I wish that there were a strong tradition of excellent Christian film-making.  I [Read More...]

“A Letter Concerning Muslim Toleration”

    A moderate Muslim voice, reminding us of a moderate Muslim tradition:   http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/opi...    

“LDS congregation members still clean own meetinghouses”

    http://www.standard.net/Faith/2015/02...   It’s a pleasant enough little article, a nice description of ward members taking care of their meetinghouses.   If you have the stomach for it, though, take a look at the comments following the article.  They illustrate quite clearly the problem that has virtually destroyed the online comments sections of many [Read More...]

A crazy theory?

    “We all agree that your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough?” Niels Bohr, 1922 Nobel laureate in physics (1885-1962)

“The authenticity of scripture”

    The latest Hamblin/Peterson column for the weekend Deseret News has gone up a bit early:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...    

New Testament 81

    Luke 6:37-42 Compare Matthew 7:1-5; 12:36-37; Mark 4:24-25; John 13:16; 15:20   I like Luke’s fuller version of the warning not to condemn others.  In the quotation below, which comes from the Revised Standard Version, I italicize the words that don’t really have a parallel in Matthew 7:1:   “Judge not, and you [Read More...]

“No one is immune to magical thinking”

    Militant atheists often deride religious believers as dominated by “magical thinking.”  Yet, as a very short article in the March 2015 issue of The  Atlantic reports, they themselves are, very likely, prone to precisely such “superstition”:   http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/a...   And you might enjoy this little item, as well:   http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/2008/01/...