Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 876

Why Filipinos have just elected a new “dictator”

    Rodrigo Duterte has just been elected president of the Philippines:   http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36...   Five days ago, Miguel Syjuco explained why he was likely to win:     There is much food for thought in Mr. Syjuco’s analysis — none of it very comforting.   Some have complained about my perception of similarities between the [Read More...]

Science as a kind of religion?

    “It is no more heretical to say the Universe displays purpose, as [Sir Fred] Hoyle has done, than to say that it is pointless, as Steven Weinberg has done.  Both statements are metaphysical and outside science.  Yet it seems that scientists are permitted by their own colleagues to say metaphysical things about lack [Read More...]

William Hamblin’s “‘I Have Revealed Your Name’: The Hidden Temple in John 17”

    A few of you may be unaware of, or may have forgotten, some of the interesting materials that were published in the very first volume of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture when it appeared in late 2012.  Here’s one of those intriguing articles:   “I Have Revealed Your Name”: The Hidden Temple in John

Are Mormons Christians?

    Thanks to Robert Boylan and his valuable blog for bringing this comment to my attention, from the non-Mormon historian (and biographer of Brigham Young) John Turner:   ” . . .  it no longer makes sense to consider Mormonism a ‘new religion,’ a ‘new world religion,’ or even a ‘new religious tradition,’ if [Read More...]

London’s newly-elected Muslim mayor slams Donald Trump

    http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/10/pol...   http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/11/politic...   And, of course, he’s right to do so.   Mr. Trump’s position on Muslim entry into the United States is not only indefensible and unconstitutional but plays directly into the hands of the Islamist loons who would love to foment a death-struggle between Islam and the West.   The people [Read More...]

“Recent scholarship and the search for the historical Jesus”

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   Posted from Terricciola, Italy    

On science as the only real path to knowledge

    Everywhere science is enriched by unscientific methods and unscientific results, . . . the separation of science and non-science is not only artificial but also detrimental to the advancement of knowledge.  If we want to understand nature, if we want to master our physical surroundings, then we must use all ideas, all methods, and not just a [Read More...]

A first visit to San Gimignano

    We spent a substantial part of our day today in the picturesque medieval town of San Gimignano, not terribly far from Siena.     It’s a gem.  Really a gem.  Stepping inside the walls, you’ve essentially entered the Middle Ages.  I would love to spend an evening within the gates.   We devoted most [Read More...]

DN: “The failing churches of ancient Roman Asia”

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   Posted from Terricciola, Italy    

I’ve been asked what I think about this article

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article...   Victor Davis Hanson — a farmer, a prolific historian, and a political commentator with a Stanford Ph.D. in classics (!) who is now associated with Stanford’s Hoover Institution — is one of my favorite writers, so I’m happy to comply:   I understand that many good people, solid conservatives, are coming [Read More...]