Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1224

There will be worship.

    “Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God.” G. K. Chesterton, Christendom in Dublin (1933) Think of the French Revolution’s Culte de la Raison, of the Führer and the Third Reich, of the essentially scriptural “thoughts” of Chairman Mao, of the League of the Militant Godless and the omniscient will of [Read More...]

2 Nephi 10

    I’m quite late, but it’s still very much 3 October where I’m writing.  So today’s reading is still 2 Nephi 10.   Especially if one views of the Book of Mormon as a modern production, and especially in the light of the horrific treatment of Jews that has repeatedly scarred human history during the [Read More...]

“Kudos to Panetta for telling truth about Obama and Iraq”

    http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/1...   Posted from Koloa, Kauai, Hawaii    

Meet Peter Kassig. ISIS has him.

    ISIS is a nihilistic death cult that brutally murders aid workers.   That provides a pretty clear look into their souls, or their lack thereof:   http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/03/world/m...   Posted from Koloa, Kauai, Hawaii    

“The Cult of Neil deGrasse Tyson”

    In the spirit of my recent posts on Richard Dawkins and on exaggerated claims for science, here’s an item on the current Carl-Sagan-like scientific-popularizing superstar (and critic of religious belief) Neil deGrasse Tyson:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article...   And this one might also be worth a look, if you’re really interested:   http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/...   Posted [Read More...]

“Job: An LDS Reading”

    The Interpreter Foundation was launched one hundred and fifteen and a half (115.5) weeks ago.   Today marks its hundred and fourteenth (114th) consecutive week of article-publication:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/job-...   Posted from Koloa, Kauai, Hawaii    

Our absentee president

    No wonder ISIS, and the Ukraine, and Benghazi, and the collapse of Iraq, and the Islamist surge in Libya, and so many other foreign policy disasters have caught him by surprise:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article...   The outcome of the 2012 presidential election looks more and more foolish as each day passes.  Americans thought they [Read More...]

A note on the level of online discourse about Mormonism

    The tone and “substantiveness” of the comments following this article exemplify what I would very much like to see — but seldom (if ever!) do — in online discussions of Mormonism and related topics:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/a-lo...   Certainly most of the comments following my Deseret News articles don’t maintain this level of discourse. [Read More...]

“7 Wonders of the Mormon World”

    It’s an interesting list.   One could certainly choose other items for such a catalogue, and I found several of the selections — e.g., Joseph Smith’s unfinished, never used, and now lost tomb, and Pit Tomb 33 in Egypt’s Valley of the Nobles — rather surprising.  In fact, now that I think of it, does [Read More...]

“The Closed Mind of Richard Dawkins”

    I thank my Australian friend Ray Agostini for bringing this interesting review essay about the British biologist and well-known atheist polemicist Richard Dawkins — written by a respected fellow British academic who is himself an atheist — to my attention:   http://www.newrepublic.com/article/11...   Incidentally, here’s a little anecdote that I ran across in [Read More...]