Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1244

1 Nephi 2

    1 Nephi 2.   Lots to discuss here.   I’ve vowed to discuss only one item per chapter, and to do it briefly.   I still plan usually to adhere to that rule — I hope to go through the Book of Mormon multiple times, on this blog and in other media, before I [Read More...]

An Israeli view of Mitt Romney

      From probably the leading Israeli newspaper:   http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premi...   (Ironic but genuine thanks to my friend Jabra Ghneim for bringing this item to my attention.  He’s not in favor of either Israel or Romney.)   Posted from Seaside, Oregon    

The Soul and the City

    My very thoughtful friend and colleague Ralph Hancock is now a Patheos blogger:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/soulandc...   Posted from Seaside, Oregon    

For my friends who’ve recently lost loved ones

    My colleague Eric Huntsman has recently lost his mother, to whom he was obviously very close.   I’m out of Utah, but I’ve been moved by his online expressions of grief and deep loss.  From too many painful personal experiences over the past eleven years, I know exactly how he feels.  I know [Read More...]

This must be exasperating to some.

    Hindutva — or, roughly, militant Hindu nationalism — is on the rise in India, seeking to purify the subcontinent of “foreign” influences such as Christianity and Islam.   But Islam has been interwoven in Indian culture with Hinduism — which is itself not a monolith, but a syncretistic amalgam (so much so that [Read More...]

Elder Bednar is on Facebook

    Plainly, he’s practicing what he recently preached:   https://www.facebook.com/lds.david.a....   Posted from Seaside, Oregon    

What will happen when nobody believes in free will any more?

    I suppose that the best answer to that question would be that what happens will be what had to happen.  There’s no way out of it; it was all set at the Big Bang, if not before.   Still, as they were fated to do billions of years ago, Azim Shariff (University of [Read More...]

“The Winooski Syndrome”

    The Jewish commentator Dennis Prager sees considerable significance in this very small story:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article...   So, alas, do I.   But I also see a way in which I, as a non-drinker of coffee, may be able to wrap myself in the glorious robes of victimhood and, thus, manipulate those around me.  Perhaps [Read More...]

Of “flotsam and jetsam”

    Have you ever wondered about the phrase flotsam and jetsam?  Have you ever puzzled over how, precisely, the one is to be distinguished from the other?   Nah.  Probably not.   But, walking along the shore here in Oregon, the question suddenly weighed upon me.  Because my wife asked.   And here’s the [Read More...]

1 Nephi 1

      Today, I offer the second installment of my project to read the Book of Mormon through in company with others here.  We begin, today, with the text of the Book of Mormon proper, with 1 Nephi 1.  (Yesterday, we looked briefly at the Title Page of the Book of Mormon.)   I [Read More...]