Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1246

The man who should be president, on American defense spending

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinion...   Posted from Seaside, Oregon    

“Even Children Get More Outraged at ‘Them’ Than ‘Us’”

    Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley, writes a wonderful regular column in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Mind & Matter.”   The column she published last weekend offers fascinating but worrisome insights into the difficulties we have in forming fair and even-handed [Read More...]

1 Nephi 4

    My comment on 1 Nephi 3 was posted very late last night, Oregon time.   Today, I’m commenting upon 1 Nephi 4.   The story of Nephi’s beheading of Laban is a fairly horrifying one — almost as much so as Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his own son Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19).  And it’s perhaps [Read More...]

“American Diversity and the Wild West”

    A few years ago, I discovered that, temperamentally and aesthetically, I’m a Westerner.  I hadn’t realized that before.  I had always, in fact, thought of myself as something of a New Englander who happened to have been born and raised, and to continue to live, in the American West.   But I really [Read More...]

1 Nephi 3

    I’m embarrassed to have come so close, so soon, to missing a day in my commitment to post a daily comment on the Book of Mormon.   But it’s difficult to post when you can’t get near your computer.   I had obligations tonight, until just a few minutes ago.  (Yes, even rootless [Read More...]

Islam, Murder, and the Worth of Individual People

    “Why should I condemn Osama bin Laden?” demanded the Islamist shaykh Omar Bakri Muhammad, who sheltered in the United Kingdom for twenty years, some time ago.  “I condemn Tony Blair, I condemn George Bush.  I would never condemn Osama bin Laden or any Muslims. . . .  We don’t make a distinction between [Read More...]

“Atonement, Charity, and Wisdom”

    Another entry on Ralph Hancock’s new blog:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/soulandc...   As Ralph himself described it in a note to me, “Just a preliminary reflection on , like, the biggest thing.”   Posted from Seaside, Oregon    

The Prophet Muhammad on the superiority of the Arabs

    Here’s a nice passage from the traditional text of the final address, the so-called “Farewell Sermon,” of the Prophet Muhammad in AD 632:   “O people! Verily your Lord is one, and your father is one. All of you belong to one ancestry of Adam, and Adam was created out of clay. There [Read More...]

“Joseph Smith wasn’t arrogant or boastful”

  As usual, today’s Deseret News column has drawn — among others — some amusing, not to say vexing, responses:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   One Craig Clark, of Boulder, Colorado, for instance, professes to be astonished at my supposed need to rationalize away each and every alleged imperfection in Joseph Smith.   He doesn’t seem to notice [Read More...]

Haystack Rock

      The most prominent natural feature at Cannon Beach, Oregon, is Haystack Rock, just off shore.  (It can be reached on foot at low tide.)  Immediately to the south of it are three smaller rocks called, collectively, “the Needles.”   All of these, made of basalt, were created somewhere between ten and seventeen [Read More...]