Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 834

“How the Secretary to Three Popes Became a Mormon”

    http://www.ldsliving.com/How-the-Secr...   For more on Sister Piera, see   “Amazing Testimony”   “Piera Bellaviti — Nun Convert”    

“Medina Bombing is An Assault on Islam Itself”

    This is a valuable historical-background explanation, but it’s also important because it’s the voice of a believing Muslim:   http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/04/opinion...   I recommend it to those who want to understand something of the current crisis in the Middle East and the Islamic world.    

Worried about the courts? You have good reason.

    David Blankenhorn, the head of the Institute for American Values — with whom and under whose auspices I’ve spent time at extremely valuable long seminars and meetings on Malta, in southern Spain, and at the Carter Center in Atlanta, dealing with relations between the Islamic world and the West — spearheaded the writing [Read More...]

JFK on the Mormons

    “I speak for all Americans in expressing our gratitude to the Mormon people—for their pioneer spirit, their devotion to culture and learning, their example of industry and self-reliance. But I am particularly in their debt tonight for their successful battle to make religious liberty a living reality—for having proven to the world that [Read More...]

It’s not only calendar-marking time, it’s REGISTRATION time

    The 2016 FairMormon conference will be held on Thursday (4 August) and Friday (5 August), at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo — very near to the newly dedicated Provo City Center Temple.  Here’s further information about it:   http://blog.fairmormon.org/2016/06/27...      

BOM Alma 47

    The comparison that comes immediately to my mind when I consider the story of Amalickiah as it’s told in Alma 47 is Shakespeare’s depiction of Richard III.   “And thus I clothe my naked villainy With odd old ends stol’n out of holy writ; And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.” [Read More...]

“Watch these brothers’ emotional reaction to seeing colors for the first time”

    http://www.today.com/parents/watch-th...   A recurring element of many near-death experiences or NDEs is the indescribable richness of colors in what seems to be “the next world” — the profusion, the incomprehensible splendor, of the incredibly lush flowers and vegetation in that place.   There are, some experiencers say, colors for which they have no words.  Colors [Read More...]

“KnoWhy’s By the Numbers: The First 6 Months”

      As Neal Rappleye illustrates, Book of Mormon Central has done impressive work over its first half-year:   http://www.studioetquoquefide.com/201...   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: The heights by great men reached and kept        Were not attained by sudden flight,  But they, while their companions slept,        Were toiling upward in the night.   I look forward [Read More...]

“A Nation Ruled by Science Is a Terrible Idea”

    On Neil deGrasse Tyson’s dream of “Rationalia”:   http://www.slate.com/articles/health_...   See also   “The Road to Rationalia”   and   “A Visit to Neil deGrasse Tyson’s ‘Rationalia'”   Kevin Williamson calls Neil deGrasse Tyson “the dumbest smart person on Twitter,” and I’m inclined to agree that, at the least, Dr. Tyson ranks high on [Read More...]

“A Postscript on Book of Mormon Battle Numbers

    A follow-up piece from Stephen Smoot:   http://www.plonialmonimormon.com/2016...