Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 59

Fact and Theory and Extraordinary Claims

  An article in The New York Times Magazine for 26 April 1981 entitled “Rosetta Stones from Space” opened as follows: The first recorded meteorite fell in Phrygia in Asia Minor about 2000 B.C. The object was carried to a local temple and then later transported to Rome, where it remained for 500 years before […]

A transient paradise

  Traveling around Hawai’i — we went up and around to Princeville today, and out to the overlook by Kilauea Point Lighthouse — it’s interesting to see evidences of the forces that made its islands and that are now, in most places here, very slowly unmaking them.  As the tectonic plate on which the Hawaiian […]

Jodi Hildebrandt, Ruby Franke, and Mosiah’s Dynasties

  Two new items appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation today: “Prophet or Loss: Mosiah1/Zeniff, Benjamin/Noah, Mosiah2/Limhi and the Emergence of the Almas,” written by Val Larsen Abstract: Mormon’s overwhelmingly dominant rhetorical purpose is to testify of Christ, which he and his protagonists often directly do. But he also communicates his testimony more […]

Light, Fire, Gold, and Death

  Two non-new articles have newly appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation.  I hope that you will enjoy them: Conference Talks:  Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement, was delivered at the Interpreter Foundation’s 2020 “Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses Conference” by […]

Links between heaven and earth

  A friend picked us up at our hotel early this evening and took us out to the grounds of the Sydney Australia Temple in Carlingford.  I presented a fireside there on the witnesses to the Book of Mormon.  It was good to friends here again.  We’ve just returned. I share some notes from my […]

“Parting is such sweet sorrow”

  Well, our cruise ended this morning where it first began.  We disembarked from our ship, the Ovation of the Seas, and made our way to our hotel in Sydney.  Our group had said their goodbyes last night.  Most of them are over the Pacific Ocean by now.  The Australians who were among us are […]

Memories Connected with Sydney (and Rome)

  If all goes according to plan and if my understanding is not mistaken, I will be speaking at Buckland House on the grounds of the Sydney Australia Temple this Thursday night, 22 February 2024.  I don’t know the time yet, but it will be in the evening.  I’m guessing that it will begin at […]

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

  For my own undoubtedly dishonorable purposes, I’m extracting here some more of the passages that I marked during my recent re-reading of Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer’s posthumously-published 2008 book Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind.  And, to reorient those who may be reading, I once again cite the brief […]

Of fjords, both under water and in the mountains

  The Interpreter Foundation continues to generate substantial materials for interested audiences.  Here are two recently posted specimens: (1)  “Not by Bread Alone Episode 1: Stories of the Saints in the DR Congo,” by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw For more information on the “Not by Bread Alone: Stories of the Saints in Africa” series, go to […]

“Water, water everywhere”

  Two new articles went up at noon on Friday on the website of the Interpreter Foundation.  I hope that you will enjoy them: “Trees and the Love of God,” written by David M. Belnap and Nalini M. Nadkarni Abstract: Trees play real and metaphorical roles in the beliefs and holy scriptures of many world religions, […]