Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1177

“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...]

New York Times: “Unlocking Scrolls Preserved in Eruption of Vesuvius, Using X-Ray Beams”

      Thanks to Paula Hicken, formerly of the Maxwell Institute at BYU, for bringing this item to my attention:   http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/sci...   BYU’s Maxwell Institute blazed the way on this effort, beginning back when the Institute was still known as the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (or FARMS), and a video was [Read More...]

“Dehlin’s Case is Not about Gay Rights”

    Chris Henrichsen has reposted an interesting earlier piece — “interesting” here meaning not only that I essentially agree with it, though there is that — in which he questions some of the public narrative about John Dehlin:   http://approachingjustice.net/2015/01...   It’s a narrative that he thinks (and, once again, I concur) that Mr. Dehlin [Read More...]

New Testament 42

    Matthew 8:1-4 Mark 1:40-45 Luke 5:12-16   We can only speculate as to why the Savior asked the cleansed leper not to tell others of his miraculous healing.  Maybe Jesus hoped — in vain, as it turned out, since the formerly afflicted man couldn’t contain his excitement at his new life — to have [Read More...]

The LDS violinist Lindsey Stirling

    Lindsey Stirling has been named to Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30″ music list:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   Here’s an enjoyable example — brought to my notice by Tanya Spackman via my wife — of why:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQb2...        

John Dehlin and the manipulation of the media

    I have absolutely no interest in becoming bogged down in the inevitable controversy that will swirl — that is already swirling — about John Dehlin and his impending disciplinary council.   But I’m sadly aware of the distortions that will surely appear in the media and across the Web about his case, and I [Read More...]