Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 225

The Teachings of Enoch, a Gift-Giving Idea, and an Anecdote Involving Cleon Skousen and Olivia de Havilland

    On the website of the Interpreter Foundation, a new item (including an audio download) from the staff at Book of Mormon Central, Jeffrey Bradshaw, and Matthew Bowen:   Book of Moses Insights #14: The Teachings of Enoch: Enoch as a Teacher (Moses 6:51–68)   ***   And don’t forget about the latest book […]

Three passages from B. H. Roberts

    The testimony of the eight witnesses differs from that of the three witnesses in that the view of the plates by the latter was attended by a remarkable display of the glory and power of God, and the ministration of an angel; but no such remarkable display of God’s splendor and power was […]

Revision 2.16 “The Blessings of Ishmael”

    There were other connections between Arabian paganism and the religion of the biblical peoples. The pre-Islamic Arabs thought of themselves as the descendants of Ishmael. Beyond that, they seem to have been familiar with a story according to which both Ishmael and his father Abraham had come to central Arabia and had constructed […]

“Witnesses”: A Brief Progress Report

    This evening (Saturday evening) we participated in the showing of our Witnesses dramatic film on a full screen in a commercial theater at Thanksgiving Point.  There were twenty of us scattered about the largish auditorium, and masks were plentiful.  The movie still needs to have its sound and its color regularized, and one […]

On Invoking the “Gutzon Borglum” of the Gaps

    Humans always want to know “why.”  Especially children.  It seems that it’s an inherent part of the human mind.   At very young ages, kids ask why something is the way it is.  But when an adult answers the question with “because x,” the child will ask “But why x?”  And if that […]

Revision 2.15 “Arabia on the Eve of Islam”

    This is a vitally important point to understand:   The vast majority of the Arabs on the eve of the rise of Islam were pagans. But this statement, true though it is, requires some careful explanation. Not all Arabs were pagans. There were Christians and Jews in some parts of the peninsula who […]

Of ancient plagues and really, really ancient extinctions

    The latest installment of my bi-weekly Deseret News column went up yesterday.  I’m just really slow in posting a link to it.  But here’s the link:   “How ‘trivia,’ ‘alma mater,’ ‘liberal arts’ and religion are tied to the medieval roots of modern higher education”   ***   Here’s a bit of interesting […]

“Visions, Mushrooms, Fungi, Cacti, and Toads: Joseph Smith’s Reported Use of Entheogens”

    A new article by Brian Hales has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   “Visions, Mushrooms, Fungi, Cacti, and Toads: Joseph Smith’s Reported Use of Entheogens” Abstract: An article recently published in an online journal entitled “The Entheogenic Origins of Mormonism: A Working Hypothesis” posits that Joseph Smith used […]

Revision 2.14 “The leader of the poets to hellfire”

    I pick up here with a brief allusion to the story that I told yesterday (Thursday):   Several observations can be made about this story. First of all, like the story before it, it illustrates the power of the pre-Islamic Arabian poet. But it also says a great deal about primitive Arab notions […]

What happened to the early apostles?

    Shortly before our departure for Colorado, a good friend — formerly our branch president in Cairo and, upon his retirement from government service in many parts of the world, an Arabic teacher in my department at BYU — brought over a gift that he and his family quite rightly knew that I would […]