Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 64

Puʻuhonua

  I sometimes encounter the complaint from some atheists that they don’t even desire immortality because, they say, eternal life would be unendurably boring.  I don’t take the complaint very seriously.  On any given day, if I were to be told that I could choose between my life ending at midnight, on the one hand, […]

Pre-Columbian contact between South America and New Zealand?

  The standard view of the origins of the Polynesians, and specifically of the Māori of New Zealand, is that they derive from the Lapita civilization of Melanesia and Micronesia.  Here is a passage from Māori History: A Captivating Guide to the History of the Indigenous Polynesian People of New Zealand (2022), apparently written by […]

For Groundhog Day

  “Temple Themes in the Book of Abraham,” written by Stephen O. Smoot Abstract: The Book of Abraham is replete with temple themes, although not all of them are readily obvious from a surface reading of the text. Temple themes in the book include Abraham seeking to become a high priest, the interplay between theophany […]

The Book of Mormon and then-prevailing notions of scripture

  Conference Talks: The Symbolism of the Cupped Hand in Ancient Egypt and Israel: Iconography, Text, and Artifact, presented at the Interpreter Foundation’s 2018 Temple on Mount Zion Conference by Stephen Smoot Stephen Smoot spoke on “The Symbolism of the Cupped Hand in Ancient Egypt and Israel: Iconography, Text, and Artifact” at the fourth Temple […]

ESP and other supposedly discredited things

  Two books particularly stand out for having opened my mind to the possible reality of such things as clairvoyance (aka “remote viewing”), telepathy, and even communication with the dead via mediums.  None of these is essential to my worldview or my faith.  (If anything, indeed, spirit mediums seem to be antithetical to my doctrinal […]

“Psychic functioning has been well established”

  A few days ago, I posted some quotations from an interesting paper that I had just read — Stephan A. Schwartz, “Nonlocality and Exceptional Experiences: A Study of Genius, Religious Epiphany, and the Psychic,” Explore 6/4 (July/August 2010): 227-236.  My doing so gave such extraordinary joy to the denizens of the Peterson Obsession Board […]

A note on Joseph Smith and Muhammad

  Meridian Magazine has just posted a new article of mine entitled “The Problem of Unanswered Prayers.”  I hope that some of you will find it helpful or of interest or, at least, not objectionable. My new article could, I think, fittingly be paired with another piece that I wrote a while back, “On Choosing […]

Writing history is easy if you toss out the facts.

  Somehow, I failed to call attention here to this little essay, even though it was published in Meridian Magazine a full week ago.  Incidentally, too, just to clear up any confusion, despite the title of the article (which, I admit, could easily mislead many readers) it is not an entry taken from my wife’s […]

“I am sure it will be so”

  A reader of this blog by the name of Laralee Nelson shared a couple of links in a blog comment that, with her kind permission (and since they’re in the public domain over at FamilySearch), I’m now sharing here more generally. The first link is to the last will and testament of one Samuel […]

Important Additions to the Library

  These new items have appeared on the nearly comatose and virtually moribund website of the Interpreter Foundation.  Happy weekend!  We hope that you will enjoy them. “An Important Addition to the Library,” written by Kevin Christensen Review of Grant Hardy, The Annotated Book of Mormon (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023). 912 pages; $37.95 (hardcover). […]