Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1173

“The Paradoxes that Threaten to Tear Modern Cosmology Apart”

    https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-...   Articles such as this one (which was kindly brought to my attention by David Wills, of Adelaide, Australia) are reminders of why humility is actually a very important attribute for scientists, as well as for ordinary mortals.    

Margaret Barker and the Maxwell Institute

    LOL.  I’ve just happened upon the suggestion, offered pseudonymously online (natch!), that the changes at the Maxwell Institute in 2012 may have been motivated by a desire to persuade the extraordinarily interesting British biblical scholar Margaret Barker to publish with the Institute.  It seems that, until my brand of apologetic pseudo-scholarship was surgically [Read More...]

“Hebrew Inscriptions”

    John Gee weighs in, yet again, on the general topic of history and the Hebrew scriptures, which has been a matter of controversy online over the past few weeks:   http://fornspollfira.blogspot.com/201...   It’s a discussion that I’ve proposed continue directly between the three main interlocutors, so that corrections might be made, positions clarified, implications [Read More...]

“The Parable of Chesterton’s Fence”

    One of my favorite LDS commentators, Cassandra Hedelius, reflects upon one of my favorite comments from G. K. Chesterton:   http://ldsmag.com/the-parable-of-ches...    

“A tribute to heroes in the kingdom”

    This week’s Thursday Deseret News Peterson column has appeared:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...    

“Who’s Afraid of Secularism (4): Humility, Patience, and Progressive ‘Moral Convictions’”

    Another thoughtful piece from my friend and BYU colleague Ralph Hancock:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/soulandc...    

How to interact with others

    “Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” Og Mandino (d. 1996)    

“How Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ led a radical Muslim to moderation”

    Here’s an interesting personal story:   http://www.npr.org/2015/01/15/3774423...   I don’t think that we’re fighting the war of ideas anywhere near as well as we should be.  This story, though, shows that it can sometimes be won.    

More on history and the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament)

    John Gee has posted another pair of interesting (and informed) reflections on the question of history (or historicity) and the Hebrew scriptures, a topic of some recent controversy in the small world of the Mormon bloggernacle:   http://fornspollfira.blogspot.com/201...   http://fornspollfira.blogspot.com/201...    

Legalize love!

    For those of you who can take it — consider yourselves warned! — here’s an arresting article:   http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/01/...   And why not, right?   They’re adults.   I mean, are you a hater?   Do you remember what the actor Jeremy Irons had to say?   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04...   What a loon.  Right?   [Read More...]