Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 30

A curious story from the (real) life of Mark Twain

  This notice went out on the Witnesses Film Facebook Page earlier today: Hey, all you wonderful people! With this year’s Come, Follow Me gospel study centered on the Restoration, Church History and the Doctrine and Covenants, we wanted to remind everyone that in conjunction with the movies Witnesses and Undaunted, we did a series […]

Houston, You Have an Opportunity

  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will shortly be assaulted yet again by the entertainment media, this time in a soon-to-be-released Netflix series entitled American Primeval.  Here’s a piece on it that includes a heartwarming trailer:  “How did Kim Coates prepare for his role as Brigham Young in American Primeval? Details explored.” […]

Two discoveries in biblical archaeology from 2024

  Christianity Today has an interesting article up, written by Gordon Govier, under the title “Top 10 Biblical Archaeology Stories of 2024: From a Mediterranean shipwreck to a mosaic on display in Washington, DC, these are the discoveries that made scholars of the biblical world say “wow” this year.”  I share two of them here: […]

“We all have the same thing in common . . . we are dead.”

  I was out of the house for a substantial part of Saturday, and the power at our house was out for an even longer part of the day, and then it went out again, and then again, and then yet again — and, finally, I lost count, and I don’t know whether there were […]

“Looking Again at the Anthon Transcript(s)”

  A new article has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.  It is “Looking Again at the Anthon Transcript(s),” and it was written by John S. Thompson, who currently serves as a researcher for the Interpreter Foundation’s sister organization, Scripture Central. Abstract: The official account of Martin Harris’s visit to […]

Gratitude, and “Prayer with Uplifted Hands”

  I’m pleased to remind you that both Witnesses (2021) and Six Days in August (2024) are now available on DVD and Blu-ray through Deseret Book.  And I happily point out that each of them would very nicely accompany and complement this year’s Come, Follow Me curriculum at appropriate points. In that connection, I received […]

Welcome to 2025!

  First of all, I want to wish everybody who reads this a happy new year, a healthy and prosperous and satisfying 2025.  I’m not a big fan of the New Year’s Eve and New Years Day holiday, but I’m pretty positive about such ideas as finding personal satisfaction, prosperity, good health, and happiness, and […]

“Ring Out, Wild Bells!”

  What better words to end the year with than those of Alfred, Lord Tennyson? Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,    The flying cloud, the frosty light:    The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new,    Ring, happy bells, […]

“We’re captive on the carousel of time”

  Here is an interesting article by my friend Brian Hales and Michael Peterson (no relation) that was brought to my attention by another friend, Scott Gordon, the president of FAIR:  “Doubt in the Digital Age: How a Perfect Storm of Random Forces Inflated the CES Letter Beyond Its Merits: What triggered the wide dissemination […]

In the bleak post-Christmas midwinter

  When I was young, the weeks-long build-up to Christmas was always followed — usually by the afternoon of 25 December — by a severe let-down.  After at least a month of mounting anticipation, Christmas was done.  The presents had arrived, which was wonderful, but the surprises were past.  There was nothing left for me […]