Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1171

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...]

On not reading good books

    “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” Mark Twain (1835-1910)    

“Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God”

    Jeffrey Bradshaw, Kristine Frederickson, Benjamin McGuire, Daniel Peterson, and Bruce Webster join up for The Interpreter Foundation’s 107th “scripture roundtable”:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scri...   The discussion focuses on Lesson 9 in the 2015 Gospel Doctrine manual, which treats Matthew 6.    

On the frontiers of geoengineering

    A relatively recent article in the Economist (“Into the great wide open,” 13 December 2014) describes forthcoming experiments that might be used to modify earth’s climate.   If, for example, low-lying maritime clouds — that is, clouds over Earth’s oceans — could be made just a tiny bit brighter, thus reflecting sunlight back [Read More...]

New Testament 57

    Matthew 5:33-37   Some Christian groups have, quite understandably, taken this passage to mean not merely that disciples of Jesus shouldn’t swear falsely but that they should never take oaths (e.g., of citizenship) at all.   But this seems to me mistaken, and quite impractical.   Why?  Because our society runs on promises [Read More...]

Salt in the wound

  My wife is really rubbing it in.  She sent these last night:           I think that I may change the locks on the doors of our house.    

Two contrasting responses to the Church’s stance on gay rights and religious liberty

    A gay activist welcomes the Church’s stance on anti-discrimination protection:   http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/jo...   However, many — this one, for example — haven’t been so enthusiastic.  It seems clear to me that some are demanding total surrender.  People who disapprove of homosexual acts must not only tolerate them but, effectively, endorse them.  Or be [Read More...]