Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 8

A blast from this blog’s past

  Some of you may have been wondering, even worrying, about what happened to our long-time resident atheist here, “gemli.”  Well, I want to reassure you that he’s still out there.  And, occasionally, he tries to post here.  You don’t see him, but I do (if I choose to look). You may recall that he […]

Living the Good Life!

  One of the reasons for the notorious fact that the Interpreter Foundation’s website rarely if ever posts anything new has now been revealed, with his characteristically piercing insight and financial acumen, by my Malevolent Stalker:  The Foundation’s financial resources, you see, are largely if not entirely devoted to paying for my travel and my […]

Comments on Current Politics, with a Nod to the 15th Century

  One of the most spectacular acting performances that I’ve ever seen was in 1994, at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City.  (We had hoped to slip down there for two or three plays this week, but I’ve been a bit under the weather.)  Even after thirty-one years, I still remember Gary Armagnac playing […]

Some notes on the Gold Plates

  I want to share some passages that I marked a while back  from Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023). The account of the golden plates as we know it is documented very early: The first known mention of the gold plates in writing […]

Twenty-two years ago

  Incredibly to me, my father died twenty-two years ago today.  Soon, it will have been a quarter of a century. I still miss him very much.  Somewhat to my surprise, I still think about him every day.  Certain sights always, invariably, remind me of him, sometimes for reasons that aren’t clear to me.  There […]

On hunting ghosts

  Our (superb) guide on the recent Interpreter Foundation Church history tour, Peter Fagg — whom my wife and I have known for years now, and who will also, if all goes according to plan, accompany us on a Christian history-themed tour of England in May of 2026 — shared these remarks with us while […]

181 Years Ago, Today

  Today, 27 June, is the 181st anniversary of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.  I haven’t been looking for such things, but I have already seen one celebratory note about the murders.  It was posted by a former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it puts me in […]

“I shall bloom in another place before you get back.”

  I’ve begun writing down notes for the presentation that I plan to give on Friday, 8 August, at the 2025 FAIR Conference.  And, by the way, the conference organizers have included a special discount code that folks can use in order to register for the conference at a reduced rate — which, the organizers […]

Why bother with a Restoration?

  Yesterday on social media, I noticed an attack by a former Latter-day Saint on the idea of a “great apostasy” of the early Christian church.  I didn’t spend much time reading what he had to say, and I’m not specifically engaging with him here — I may or may not yet do so — […]

Having fun with two ex-Mormons and the history of astronomy

  After considerable discussion that began several months ago and grew more intense within recent weeks, we at the Interpreter Foundation have decided to move on from our long-running radio program and to turn, in its place, to a video and audio podcast.  Our inaugural effort, in two parts, can be accessed through the following […]