Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1229

Where does Utah rank among the happiest or unhappiest American states?

    Some critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are already suggesting that the Church must have bribed or, somehow, unduly influenced the people who produced this report:   http://wallethub.com/edu/most-least-h...   That’s one way of reducing the cognitive dissonance, I suppose.   Another explanation that I’ve seen is that this is [Read More...]

Seeing God? A Note on the Qur’an

  One of the interesting things about this passage from the Qur’an is that, when Moses asks to see God, he’s not told that seeing God is a flat impossibility. Instead, it’s suggested that seeing God would be lethal—as it was in this account, even to a mountain. Which seems to imply that, although not [Read More...]

Can a religious believer, a slave of superstition, legitimately participate in modern technology, which is a product of rational thought?

    It’s a limited point — it proves no point of anybody’s religious doctrine true — but it’s a point that sometimes needs to be made.   So, as further evidence of the fact that first-rate scientific competence and understanding isn’t intrinsically incompatible with religious faith, I offer the example of Charles H. Townes, who [Read More...]

2 Nephi 4

    In the wake of the spectacular 2 Nephi 2, it’s easy to pass over the next few chapters without paying much attention to them.  After all, 2 Nephi 9, another very popular and rich chapter, is just ahead.   But that is to do these chapters something of an injustice.  There are, for example, [Read More...]

Cur Deus Homo? Why did God become human?

      “He [God] did not create the humans — He did not become one of them and die among them by torture — in order to produce candidates for Limbo, ‘failed’ humans.  He wanted to make Saints; gods; things like Himself.” C. S. Lewis, “Screwtape Proposes a Toast,” The Screwtape Letters    

“Exhibit Highlights Women in the Scriptures”

    http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article...    

The threat posed by ISIS to America’s Muslims, and to others

    The horrific ISIS-related beheadings of innocent Westerners in Iraq and Algeria, the abortive ISIS-encouraged plot to behead random people in Australia, and today’s beheading, by a recent convert to Islam, of a 54-year-old woman working in an Oklahoma food processing plant — such stories are very disturbing on multiple levels.   They’re intended to [Read More...]

2 Nephi 3

    Today’s reading, 2 Nephi 3, has bothered some because of the remarkable specificity of its prophecy of Joseph the Seer, who would be named after his father.   Joseph Smith Jr. and Joseph Smith Sr., right?   Get it?   And that prophecy has caused certain critics a great deal of merriment because, [Read More...]

“‘What thank they the Jews?’ (2 Nephi 29:4): A note on the name ‘Judah’ and Antisemitism”

    Today is the 113th Friday in a row that Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture has published at least one article:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/what...   Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture was founded roughly 114.5 weeks ago.    

“Romney 2016 is for real”

    ¡Basta!   Enough of this syrupy, sentimental praise for Barack Obama!   Now back to advocating my troglodyte political positions:   http://m.washingtonexaminer.com/romne...   (Whew.  That feels so much better.)