Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 9

Does science compel unbelief?

  I want to share a passage from a 2023 book by Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ, entitled Science at the Doorstep to God: Science and Reason in Support of God, the Soul, and Life after Death (Ignatius Press) that I marked while reading it a while ago: Though some have contended that scientific evidence overwhelmingly […]

An ongoing challenge to a materialistic worldview

  Some of you, I think, will be interested in this ninety-minute interview: “Mayim Bialik Chats with Bruce Greyson on Remarkable ‘Breakdown’ Podcast: Check out the new episode of Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown Podcast, where she sits for a chat about NDEs with IANDS founder Dr. Bruce Greyson.” “Mayim Bialik Explores Near-Death Experiences With Bruce Greyson, […]

War

  As I sit in the airport at Kansas City, waiting for a flight back to Salt Lake City that has been repeatedly delayed, news has just come out that American B2 bombers have struck nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.  The bombers are now safely out of Iranian airspace. The big […]

A Combinatorial Approach to the Golden Plates, etc.

  The Interpreter Foundation’s bizarre obsession with Brigham Young — it’s all Brigham, all the time, right? — unabashedly continues with the Foundation’s latest publications, which were made available today: I’ve been looking forward to the appearance of this article since Josh Coates first told me that he was working on it:  “A Combinatorial Approach […]

There is no room for anti-Semitism in the Church. Period.

  The Interpreter Foundation’s weirdly obsessive fixation on Brigham Young continues to be unashamedly displayed in these materials that have recently been posted on its website: The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs: “How Luke’s Gospel Portrays Jesus as the Exodus or Way of the Temple,” written by John S. Thompson:  Part of our book chapter […]

Out of Liberty

  Here’s a little interview with me (not quite forty-two minutes long) on Keystone that some at least might find of interest: “LDS scholar: The Book of Mormon witnesses are DANGEROUS” The witnesses of the Book of Mormon “golden plates” either lied, were tricked, or were telling the truth. In this episode, David sits down […]

From Jackson County

  Arriving here in Missouri today, I’ve thought of the hymn “Adam-ondi-Ahman,” written by William W. Phelps and included in the first Latter-day Saint hymnbook in 1835.  But I’m thinking of it very specifically in my favorite recording of it, which I have at home on vinyl but cannot find online.  That recording is by […]

“We said hello at the same time that we said goodbye.”

  I realize that I posted a melancholy blog entry about her just a few days ago, so I apologize for returning to her again so soon.  But the previous entry marked her birthday and this one commemorates the day of her death.  Her life was that brief. I maintain a blog for many reasons. […]

Can we know what he looked like?

  The authors of the Bible, even across the centuries of its composition and the very different languages in which it was written, share a large number of distinctive traits. Among those, curiously, is a striking lack of interest in describing the principal figures in its narratives. Can you deduce from the New Testament gospels […]

Is our reasoning ability overdeveloped? A biological error?

  Some readers here may recall that, in fits and starts, I’ve been working very occasionally on a massive project — planned to result, if it ever results in anything at all, in four or five sizable volumes — for which my working title has long been The Reasonable Leap into Light: An Argument for […]