Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 266

One Hundred and Ninety Years Ago, Today

    New, from Dr. Hales Swift and the Interpreter Foundation:   “A Video Supplement for Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 12: The Lord Labors with Us (Jacob 5-7)”   ***   Yesterday, I posted a blog entry (“Does This Thursday Mark the 200th Anniversary of the First Vision?”) in which I called attention to […]

“Church parking lots in Utah could be used as COVID-19 testing sites if needed”

    In a bid to continue helping you with your Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” Files even during this time of plague — we do take-out and home delivery! — I offer you this item, which provides further information on how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is responding to […]

Does this Thursday mark the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith’s First Vision?

    Several times previously here, I’ve mentioned an independently produced film that runs just slightly less than 35 minutes in length, and encouraged people to watch it.  It’s really relevant now:   “How Lovely Was the Morning”   The documentary describes the work of two researchers who independently decided that Joseph Smith’s First Vision most […]

Mutual Assured Destruction

    A metaphor for the COVID-19 pandemic and our response to it occurred to me last night, and I want to try it out here, to test drive it in order to see how it works.  Feedback is welcome.   Many, many years ago, I read an article by the late NASA astronomer and […]

“The Black Death: The World’s Most Devastating Plague”

    For relaxation last night, and to get away from the never ending bad news about COVID-19, my wife and I watched several episodes of an excellent and well-produced 24-part “Great Courses” lecture series on The Black Death: The World’s Most Devastating Plague, by Professor Dorsey Armstrong of Purdue University.  We found it for […]

ʿAjā’ib al-makhlūqāt wa gharā’ib al-mawjūdāt

    We live, as nobody has ever pointed out before, in a remarkable age.  For example, all of my classes have been cancelled — in terms of face to face instruction, that is — for about a week and a half.  So, over the past several days, I’ve recorded illustrated lectures on such subjects […]

“How Latter-day Saint Charities is helping during coronavirus crisis — in Utah and around the world”

    This is a really juicy one for your Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File.  Isn’t it regrettable that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built up a substantial rainy-day fund during those sunny days before the epidemiological and economic rains began to fall?  Don’t we wish that it hadn’t? […]

If you take Pascal’s wager and it turns out to have been a good one

    New, from the Interpreter Foundation:   Come, Follow Me — Study and Teaching Helps: Lesson 14, March 30-April 12: Easter (from Jonn Claybaugh)   Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 14: “He Shall Rise … with Healing in His Wings”: Easter Terry Hutchinson, John Gee, and Kevin Christensen were the discussants for the Interpreter […]

Introducing Pascal and his “wager”

    The Interpreter Foundation continues to post interesting material for you, even in this rather challenging time of “social distancing.”  For instance, this item went up earlier today:   In God’s Image and Likeness 2: Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel: Moses 8:1-30; Genesis 6:14-22: Noah and the Ark Part of our book chapter reprint […]

Mr. Trump, Senator Romney, and the Coronavirus

    “President Trump after hearing of Mitt Romney’s isolation due to coronavirus exposure: ‘Gee, that’s too bad’”   “Borger on Trump comment: He cannot get beyond himself”   With his kind permission, I share this Facebook comment from Jim Bennett (who is, among other things, a son of the late Senator Bob Bennett [R-Utah]): […]