Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1227

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...]

G. K. Chesterton on War

    “War is not ‘the best way of settling differences; it is the only way of preventing their being settled for you.” Illustrated London News (24 July 1915)   “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.” Illustrated London News (14 [Read More...]

Agnus Dei

    If you have eight minutes for music of extraordinary beauty, here’s a recommendation:  Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei (in which some will recognize the melody of his Adagio for Strings and which perhaps more will recognize from the soundtrack of the film Platoon): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFJ4h...   The text, familiar also as part of the Latin [Read More...]

“The Osmonds meet Led Zeppelin: A secret history of Mormon heavy metal”

    Okay.  Here’s an aspect of Mormon history that you’ve probably never even wondered about:   http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/22891...   Posted from Koloa, Kauai, Hawaii