Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 51

A Global Effort on Behalf of Women and Children

  I lead off with something that, manifestly, comes directly from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™.  This is pretty big news.  Obviously, of course, there ought to be a law against such things — but alas, as long as theism and theist exist and are permitted free rein, these horrors will […]

Some art and music from Latter-day Saints beyond America

  I participated in a FAIR conference in Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden, several years ago, and we’ll be doing another conference there this coming Saturday.  The organizer for that previous event — which was extraordinarily well attended by members from Denmark, Norway, Finland, and even Germany, as well as from Sweden itself — was Louis Herrey, […]

“A fortuitous meeting of the chordal atoms”?

  My wife and I went out with Scott Gordon and his wife to the Salzburger Freilichtmuseum — the open-air museum — in Großgmain, not too far outside of Salzburg.  We walked around most of it, looking at the collection of traditional regional buildings (e.g., farmhouses, barns, a small chapel, and the like) that have […]

From the international Church

  We attended church today in the Salzburg Ward.  It was really fun for me to again sit in German-language sacrament and priesthood meetings, as I did so many times so many years ago during my mission in Switzerland.  I had the chance to speak in Arabic for a while, too; the missionaries had an […]

Two simple stories

  The in-person turnout for the FAIR conference in Rome a week ago was, frankly, disappointing — although, already about a day after it had concluded, I was told that its online viewership was in the range of roughly eight hundred.  Attendance in person at today’s conference in Salzburg — see the program here — […]

Christopher Hitchens and the Great Composers

  Two new items appeared today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: ““Armed with Righteousness and with the Power of God”: Allusions to Priestly Clothing, Priesthood, and Temple in 1 Nephi 14:14,” written by Matthew L. Bowen Abstract: Nephi saw in vision that in the latter-days “the saints of the church of the Lamb” […]

La Serenissima

  This morning, my wife and I walked over to the Doge’s Palace, the Palazzo Ducale, on the Piazza di San Marco, where she had booked a guided tour.  The Palazzo Ducale was the residence of the Doge or Duke of Venice from its construction in 1340 until the Napoleon-induced demise of the Republic of […]

A long and strenuous but glorious day

  There are, I regret to say, a few sad souls out there who have sought to weaponize the relatively high rate of suicide in Utah against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  If they deign to notice this article by Stephen Cranney, however, they will be sorely disappointed:  “Does faith drive suicide […]

Dante couldn’t return, but we have.

  Our group traveled from Rome to Florence this morning and, upon arrival, immediately set out in various directions on foot to see the city.  My wife and I spent our time in the city’s magnificent cathedral.  Truth be told, the interior is pretty open and sparse, a fact that some explain as part of […]

In the world’s smallest nation?

  As the late great Ray Bradbury once wrote, something wicked this way comes. I have in mind Episode 5 Trailer | A Marvelous Work. You’ve been warned. Today was principally devoted to the spectacular Musei Vaticani, the Sistine Chapel, and Saint Peter’s Basilica.  Magnificent.  Probably my favorite of the very many wonderful aspects of […]