Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 142

Who ya gonna call?

    ***   A whole circle of freak-show demagogues once swirled around the professional anti-Mormon mountebank Ed Decker, who achieved somewhat more than merely his fifteen minutes of fame with the 1982 film The God Makers.  (Decker is still reputed to be alive in some sense, up in Washington State.). One of Decker’s associates, […]

“Life is meaningless. Isn’t it beautiful?”

    ***   On the flight yesterday, I watched the three-part Hulu series McCartney 3, 2, 1, which I really, really enjoyed.  The Beatles were, in my judgment, unambiguously the greatest rock band in history.  By light years.   ***   I’m still slowly going through past blog entries in order to extract things […]

“A very skillful Watchmaker”?

    ***   I have no idea whether or not any tickets are left for the 4 March 2021 premiere of the new Interpreter Foundation docudrama Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, or, if there are, how many of them might remain.  So, if you’re interested in attending the premiere, which will take […]

Evil and Death Amid Beauty on the Road to the Temple

    ***   After a morning swim, we drove into Honolulu to take a look at a couple of historical sites — Iolani Palace and Washington Place — that were connected with the last queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani, who was deposed in 1893 by a conspiracy of white businessmen and who died in 1917.  […]

On the psychology of atheism?

    ***   I originally published this column in Provo’s Daily Herald, back around 14 April 2000, under the title “Faith of the Fatherless.”  In the past two or three days, my blog’s most dogged resident atheist commenter has suggested that theistic belief originates in psychological defect and insinuates that, if I understood psychology, I […]

Progress, Science, and Religion

    ***   If you would like to watch the two-hour video of a Witnesses-related event that occurred in Provo, Utah, back on 14 October 2021 without needing to get through Deseret Book’s paywall, you can do so here.  The completion of the video and its full going-public were slowed by a nearly tragic […]

“A Deeper Understanding of the Temple in 175 Entries”

    ***   A new review article appeared earlier today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   “A Deeper Understanding of the Temple in 175 Entries,” by David M. Calabro Review of Donald W. Parry, 175 Temple Symbols and Their Meanings (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2020). 310 pages. $26.99 (hardcover). […]

Supportive, but Not Conclusive

    ***   Two new items from the astoundingly prolific Jeffrey Mark Bradshaw went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   Old Testament Commentary: Genesis 11 Overview: The Tower of Babel   Old Testament Commentary: Genesis 12-17: The Covenant of Abraham   ***   And this is worthy of mentioning here, […]

Which reminds me of a couple of true anecdotes

    ***   Don’t forget about the upcoming 2022 LDS Film Festival, which will run 2-5 March at the SCERA Theater in Orem, Utah.  The Interpreter Foundation’s new docudrama, Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, will receive its premiere there, on the evening of Friday, 4 March, and tickets are now available.   […]

“A common sense interpretation of the facts”

    ***   Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Old Testament Lesson 7 “To Be a Greater Follower of Righteousness”: Genesis 12–17; Abraham 1–2 Shorn of commercials and other distractions, the Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me Old Testament Lesson 7, “To Be a Greater Follower of Righteousness,” on Genesis 12–17; Abraham 1–2, is now archived […]