Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 252

“A Democratic Salvation”

    A newly published article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship is available at no charge on the website of the Interpreter Foundation.  (That’s still probably more than it’s worth.)  Even without being told the identity of the author of the article, veteran readers will be instantly able to recognize […]

When it’s available, you should go back to church

    I continue with my notes from Paul McFate, 52 Good Reasons to Go to Church, Besides the Obvious Ones (Chicago: ACTA Publications, 2004).  Here are some more of the good things that might accrue to you and your family if you regularly attend religious services:    Stronger Marriages (25):  Church attendance evidently helps […]

A chiasm in King Benjamin’s speech

    This entry draws upon John W. Welch, et al., eds.  Knowing Why: 137 Evidences That the Book of Mormon Is True (American Fork: Covenant Communications, 2017), 192-194:   King Benjamin’s speech in the first portion of the book of Mosiah represents one of the high points of the entire Book of Mormon, and […]

Napoleon’s “Savants” and the Great “Description de l’Égypte”

    I have subtly hinted that I’m not exactly chairman of the Napoleon Fan Club.  But the fellow did do some good things, mingled with his evils.  He was very supportive, for instance, of certain academic and intellectual enterprises.  In fact, he himself plainly had intellectual interests.  I cite, again, from Paul Strathern, Napoleon […]

“Ancient astronomers of the Colorado Plateau,” living in “A Fortunate Universe”

    The latest installment of my regular bi-weekly column in the Deseret News has appeared.  Savvy readers will immediately recognize the nit-picky logic, debate acrobatics, lack of substance, and mean-spirited ad hominem viciousness that are the hallmarks of my writing style:   “Ancient astronomers of the Colorado Plateau and how they aligned their buildings: Many of the […]

On condemning Napoleon

    In my immediately preceding blog entry (“Napoleon, en route to Egypt”), I indicated my disapproval of Napoleon’s overweening ambition and his lust for land and “glory” through violent military conquest.  In Europe’s Napoleonic Wars alone, which commenced in 1803, five years after his 1798 invasion of Egypt, and culminated in his defeat at […]

Napoleon, en route to Egypt

    I share here two extracts from Paul Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt (New York: Bantam Books, 2008), about the event that is quite commonly used to mark off the dawn of the modern period of Middle Eastern history:   The invasion of Egypt by Napoleon in the summer of 1798 was the first great […]

Why not Kafka every day?

    Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt.   So runs the famous opening line of Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella Die Verwandlung (English, The Metamorphosis):   One morning, as Gregor Samsa awoke from restless dreams, he discovered that he had been […]

Why not Kafka everyday?

    Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt.   So runs the famous opening line of Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella Die Verwandlung (English, The Metamorphosis):   One morning, as Gregor Samsa awoke from restless dreams, he discovered that he had been […]

3 Nephi: Another Volcanological Perspective (1)

    I return to Jeff Wynn and Louise Wynn, Everyone is a Believer: The Growing Convergence of Science and Religion (2019).  Dr. Jeffrey C. Wynn, a former atheist who converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is a research geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey (USGS).  He is currently based at the Cascades […]