Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 242

“Understanding Ritual Hand Gestures of the Ancient World”

    Here are two new items on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   “Understanding Ritual Hand Gestures of the Ancient World: Some Basic Tools” Abstract: The ritual use of hand gestures in covenant-making in ancient times is a topic of peculiar interest to Latter-day Saints. In this article, David Calabro summarizes results drawn […]

“A Planet is Born”

    I enjoyed an article in the current issue of Scientific American about “circumstellar disks.”  It’s by a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder who is reporting on work carried out at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope high up in the Atacama Desert of Chile:  Meredith A. MacGregor, “Astronomers Watch […]

President Nelson, the NAACP, Senator Romney, and some observations on the passing scene

    This is an older item, but one element of it has been on my mind since I first read it, and I still want to comment on it:   “More than 1,000 march downtown in more peaceful protest: Mayor issues weeklong curfew for Salt Lake City; governor declares emergency”   In the article, we’re […]

A brief and perhaps somewhat too colorful autobiographical fragment

    The Sabbath seems, especially when one is effectively under house arrest, an appropriate day to do personal and family history, and, candidly, I’ve been prompted quite a bit over the past two years or so to get serious about genealogy.  Here, though, is a short sketch of something that came to my mind […]

A further note on Acts 6

    An astute reader of this blog who goes under the moniker of dCyl — I know his identity, and have even met him, but don’t feel authorized to use his real name here — has prompted me to return to commenting upon the brief sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles:   […]

A brief note on the suggestion of multiple universes

    One explanation of the apparent fine tuning of the universe is to suggest that ours is just one of a virtually (or actually) infinite number of universes, and that we just happen to live in this one.  Most such universes would probably be barren of life.  Perhaps most were actually still born; gravity […]

Once more, on the plague

    My two very recent posts on the surge of coronavirus cases in Utah have received considerable pushback, as I pretty much expected they would:   “We’re headed for an upsurge in deaths, and there’s no valid reason for it”   “If you’re not taking this seriously, you’re wrong.”   The second of the […]

If you’re not taking this seriously, you’re wrong.

    One of the most highly valued commenters on my blog is Dr. Sam LeFevre, who, as an official with the Utah Department of Health, has been deeply involved with the Utah’s efforts to manage and to combat the coronavirus pandemic.  Tonight, he posted a comment on my blog that was so important, in […]

We’re headed for an upsurge in deaths, and there’s no valid reason for it

    Disturbing news, following hard on the heels of yesterday’s disturbing news:   “Utah breaks yet another daily record with 546 new confirmed COVID-19 cases: Veterans’ advocate dies with COVID-19 in facility that bears his name”   I get it.  People don’t want theirs rights and their freedom taken away.  I understand the anger against […]

Infighting in Acts 6

    In what has become, without any really conscious intent, my weekly Saturday commentary on a chapter of Acts — I may, in a short while and for nefarious purposes of my own, take a detour to look carefully at part of a chapter in 1 Corinthians and then at part of a chapter […]