Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1167

“In Memoriam”

    I trust that my friend Bill Hamblin won’t mind my posting a link to his funeral tribute to his mother, posted nearly two weeks ago:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/enigmati...   I thought that it eloquently expressed not only his admiration and affection for his mother, but, more generally, why so many of us think the [Read More...]

“In Los Angeles, Muslim women find empowerment in female-only Friday prayers”

    I’ve often expressed my belief that the future direction of Islam will be decided — certainly, I hope it will be decided — by Muslims living in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other such free nations, far from the corrupting influence (and oppressive tyranny) of the purportedly “Islamic” states of [Read More...]

“Mormon Feminist Watch”

    I guarantee to you that this site is interesting, and that many will find it controversial.    

The secret of being miserable

    “The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation, because occupation means pre-occupation; and the pre-occupied person is neither happy nor unhappy, but simply alive and active, which is pleasanter than any happiness until you are tired of it.” [Read More...]

Some benefits of attending Sunday meetings

    Not infrequently, I read comments from purportedly liberated ex-Mormons about the glories of churchless Sundays.  Instead of attending mind-numbingly dull and repetitious meetings, they claim to spend most of their Sundays skiing, golfing, biking, reading classic books, listening to superb music, perfecting their highly toned bodies through exercise, enjoying the beach, and sipping fine [Read More...]

“Girls should pursue worthy hobbies and so should boys”

    I like Neylan McBaine.  She’s very bright.  I think she has a lot to offer, I agree with a great deal of what she has to say, and I recognize her as being on the same side.   I’m somewhat bemused by the controversy reflected in this piece, though, and by some of [Read More...]

Goha, his son, and their donkey

    There’s a famous folkloric character who shows up across much of the Middle East, in the Balkans, and etc.  He goes by various names — e.g., Nasruddin Hoca (pronounced Nas-ru-deen Ho-jah) or Nasreddin Hodja in Turkish, and Mulla Nasruddin, and, in Arabic, Juha (or, in the dialect of Cairo and Lower Egypt), Goha – in hundreds of jokes [Read More...]

New Testament 58-59

    Matthew 5:38-48 Compare Luke 6:27-36   A very memorable passage.  (There are, of course, few sayings of Jesus in the gospels that aren’t memorable.)   First of all, there is his description of radical Christian love, directed even at enemies.  Such love can sometimes even stop an enemy in his or her tracks. [Read More...]

“What separates the Bible from a book of moral fables such as Grimms’ Fairy Tales?”

    A prominent American Catholic thinker (in whose company I was once privileged to spend about a week during small meetings on the island of Malta) responds to a granddaughter’s question:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/michaeln...    

“God, Science, and the Big Questions: Leading Christian Thinkers Respond to the New Atheism”

    If you have two hours — or, perhaps more realistically, if you can watch it in bits and pieces — and if you have any interest in questions about contemporary science and religious belief, you might really enjoy (and profit from) this discussion, held on the campus of Biola University, in La Mirada, [Read More...]