Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 231

“Area Seventy, Pfizer Head of Anti-Viral, Has Good News on COVID-19,” Plus a Fascinating Near-Death Account

    There hasn’t been a whole lot of really encouraging news about the coronavirus pandemic that has transformed our lives and ruined our economy and killed far too many, but here’s some potentially great news:   “Area Seventy, Pfizer Head of Anti-Viral, Has Good News on COVID-19”   In the meanwhile, these two items […]

Sensationalism and Missing Words

    Two new pieces appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   “Missing Words: King James Bible Italics, the Translation of the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith as an Unlearned Reader” Stan Spencer Abstract: Chapters from Isaiah quoted in the Book of Mormon use the King James Bible as […]

A case for the resurrection of Christ (1)

    In Acts 17:31, Luke writes of God the Father that   he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.   The point […]

Volcanism in Mesoamerica

    Among other things, Jerry D. Grover, Jr., Geology of the Book of Mormon (2014) supplies a good general background to the relevant elements of seismology and volcanology before entering into a specific discussion of the individual volcanoes that are located in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.  And, once again, he offers some cautions:     It […]

Revision 1.7. “The First Jewish Revolt”

    The death of Herod the Great marked the end of the last period of stable Jewish rule in Palestine until, in the middle of the twentieth century, David Ben Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel. True, Herod had sons, but they proved unworthy and incompetent. Archelaus, to whom Herod left Judea, was deposed […]

“DNA suggests people from the Americas had a role in the peopling of Pacific islands”

      “South Americans may have traveled to Polynesia 800 years ago: DNA suggests people from the Americas had a role in the peopling of Pacific islands”   ***   But now, back to the most pressingly practical contemporary scientific, social, economic, and political issue, an issue that is affecting almost all of the […]

Revision 1.6 “Herod the Great”

    In 63 B.C., Judea became a client-state of the new superpower, Rome. Thus, as the Christian era dawned, the vast majority of the Jewish population—in Palestine and in other centers such as Alexandria—lived in areas under Roman control. At first, the Romans didn’t rule Palestine directly. They preferred rule through locals, such as […]

“I stood with the Prophet Joseph Smith in the presence of the angel”

    Some further notes drawn from Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter, Martin Harris: Uncompromising Witness of the Book of Mormon (Provo: BYU Studies, 2018):   According to Edward Stevenson, Martin Harris told him the following story from the several decades that Harris spent pretty much completely estranged from the Church of Jesus Christ of […]

My most recent acts of villainy

    Some new accusations have recently been made against me online.  I don’t want to give those who trade in them any free publicity, but — and I apologize in advance to those who will find this puzzling and cryptic — I feel that I need to respond to them:   An email or […]

“BYU Vocal Point pays tribute in CNN performance to COVID-19 victims”

    On national television:  “BYU Vocal Point pays tribute in CNN performance to COVID-19 victims”   ***   I’m honestly baffled why many don’t appear to be taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously, and why some seem to imagine that it’s really just about politics.  The COVID-19 virus doesn’t care who is elected president this […]