Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 789

“Giant Triassic Predator, Named for Baby-Eating Monster, Discovered in New Mexico”

    http://westerndigs.org/giant-triassic...   And no, it’s not about me.    

Dissent will not be tolerated.

    War is peace.   Freedom is slavery.   Ignorance is strength.   These three declarations, together, form one of the slogans of English socialism (Ingsoc) in the Oceania of George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.  Along with Newspeak, they are designed to eliminate dissent by eliminating the very possibility of thinking dissenting thoughts. [Read More...]

“LDS Church launches ‘Preventing Suicide’ website during National Suicide Prevention Week”

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   Unfortunately, if I wanted to, I could write the critical responses that, in some circles, will inevitably attach themselves to this announcement.   It would be really nice, though, to have none of those on my blog or on my Facebook page.  Wouldn’t it just be wonderful to agree that trying [Read More...]

“Three Degrees of Gospel Understanding”

    Sometimes, in order to keep our record going — of publishing at least one journal article every week — we at the Interpreter Foundation really have to scrape the bottom of the barrel.  Here for example, with all of the ad hominem nastiness and sheer shameless dishonesty that are the author’s trademarks, is [Read More...]

“Flat-Earthers Have a Wild New Theory About Forests”

        This is absolutely fabulous stuff:   http://www.theatlantic.com/science/ar...   It will transform your view of the world around you, of science, of conspiracies, of . . . well, everything.   Have you, by the way, checked out the latest models of tin-foil hats?  They’re better than ever.    

“Of bread, bribes and fungus”

    First of all, I want to say something about the photograph above, which I really like:   Running across the photo are, to the right of center, the Red Sea, with its two antenna-like arms extending toward the left — the upper one being the Gulf of Aqaba (or, if you’re an Israeli, [Read More...]

“The Day an LDS Woman Saw Heaven and Decided to Stay on Earth”

    I’ve lost count of how many stories similar to this one — which is by no means the most spectacular of the lot — I’ve heard and read.  Many hundreds, I expect.   Although there are, no doubt, false memories and outright fraudulent poseurs, I’m strongly disposed to credit these accounts generally:   [Read More...]

Another potentially very grave threat to religious liberty

    “Massachusetts: Churches may be covered by transgender discrimination bans, as to ‘secular events’”   My thanks to Cassandra Hedelius (herself an attorney) for calling my attention to this Washington Post article by Eugene Volokh, a professor at UCLA’s school of law.   (He’s Jewish, by the way.  I mention that in an effort to [Read More...]

“Extreme Vetting”

    A reader of my blog declared his support this morning for Mr. Donald J. Trump’s proposal of “extreme vetting” for immigrants.  I couldn’t help but think, with that in mind, of a funny four-and-a-half-minute video that one of my sons recently shared with me:   “Putting Donald Trump Supporters Through an Ideology Test”   [Read More...]

The most accurate portrait of Joseph Smith ever?

    Thanks to Dr. Ugo Perego for calling my attention to this:   The Prophet Revealed – Joseph Smith Portrait