Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 201

“Video: Bishopric invites their congregation back to church with a little Billy Joel flair”

    I have to admit that this little item  is really, really well done.  Take three minutes and watch the video, a hilarious gift from the bishopric of the Highland Utah 19th Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:   “Video: Bishopric invites their congregation back to church with a little […]

An atmospheric miracle

    Below, I share with you three passages from Thomas Dubay, The Evidential Power of Beauty: Science and Theology Meet (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999):   Our earth’s atmosphere has been called a miracle.  One of its traits is the composition of the air we breathe.  If its makeup included 17 percent oxygen, we […]

“The Visions of Moses and Joseph Smith’s Bible Translation”

    A new article, this one by Professor Kent P. Jackson, has been posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation.  It will eventually appear in a volume of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   “The Visions of Moses and Joseph Smith’s Bible Translation” Abstract: This contribution focuses on the earliest […]

Revision 6.8 “The Modern Period, from 1800 to the Present”

    For convenience’s sake, Marshall Hodgson chose 1800 as the beginning of  what he termed the “Modern Period” of Islamic history.  But the event that he had in mind as marking the dawn of the Modern Period in the Middle East actually occurred in 1798.  I quote from Paul Strathern’s fascinating Napoleon in Egypt:   The […]

“How to be a Good Apologist”

    Nearly three years ago now, the astoundingly prolific and productive Irish Latter-day Saint writer Robert Boylan posted this interesting blog entry:   “Some tips on becoming an effective apologist”   Now, my friend Tarik LaCour, who is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy and a master’s degree in neuroscience at Texas A&M University, […]

“You cannot help but think of a Creator.”

    Two interesting passages from my reading of Thomas Dubay, The Evidential Power of Beauty: Science and Theology Meet (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999), 32-33.   As one astronomer has put it, “A slight increase in nuclear forces would have resulted in stars made almost entirely of helium, stars which have a shorter lifespan, […]

Revision 6.7 “Gunpowder Empires” (B)

    The Ottomans had yet another military asset that served them well. That was the so-called Janissary Corps. (The name is from the Turkish yeni cheri, meaning “new troops.”) These were soldiers very much on the old mamluk model, but instead of being conscripted from central Asia, the janissaries were taken from the Christian […]

“It was . . . intensely interesting”

    Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   Book of Moses Essays #24: Enoch, the Prophet and Seer: The End of the Wicked and the Beginnings of Zion (Moses 7:12–18)   ***   A passage from Edward L. Hart, Mormon in Motion: The Life and Journals of James H. Hart (1825-1906) […]

“You are never, ever alone.”

    Here’s a passage from the text of one of the lectures contained in Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Life after Death (Berkeley and Toronto: Celestial Arts, 2008).  Dr. Kübler-Ross, who died herself some years ago, was a Swiss-born physician and psychiatrist who became very famous for her revolutionary work with dying patients:   At the moment of […]

Revision 6.6 “Gunpowder Empires” (A)

    The Period of the Gunpowder Empires (1500-1800)   As might be guessed from Hodgson’s title for this period, the impor­tant fact about the time was gunpowder. This new technology, bor­rowed from the West (but, ultimately, from China), allowed the existence of greater states and thus permitted greater centralization of power. Putting it less […]