Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 941

Open up!

    Moonlight floods the whole night sky, from horizon to horizon;How much it can fill your room depends on your windows. Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273)    

Scientific evidence suggests that fear of divine punishment encourages social cooperation

    “Religion,” the late Christopher Hitchens loved to assert, “poisons everything.”   It was a silly statement.   And now along comes still more (redundant) evidence that Mr. Hitchens was spectacularly wrong:   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-11...   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii    

“The Faith to See: Burning in the Bosom and Translating the Book of Mormon in Doctrine and Covenants 9″

    Interpreter didn’t miss a day yesterday.  That will almost certainly happen, eventually, but it hasn’t happened yet and it’s not likely to happen for at least a while to come.   It’s just that I spent much of yesterday on airplanes, and much of the rest of it in cars, and . . [Read More...]

The passing of Justice Scalia

      The passing of Justice Antonin Scalia is very bad news for America and horrible news, I think, for conservatism and the cause of limited government — which, in the age of Clinton Inc., Comrade Bernie, and Trumpism, scarcely need more bad news.   It’s extremely unlikely that President Obama will hold off, or be [Read More...]

“What A 19th Century Campaign To Declare Mormons ‘Non-White’ Tells Us About Modern Islamophobia”

    I was already aware of W. Paul Reeve’s very interesting book Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness, but I’m grateful to Kevin Taylor for alerting me to this specific article:   http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016...   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii    

“The secret ‘anti-languages’ you’re not supposed to know”

    An interesting piece on slang, underground dialects, argots, jargon — whatever term you prefer; how about, say, “Diet Dr. Pepper”? — brought to my attention by Nathaniel Hancock:   http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160...   Be warned:  There is some slight raunchiness here, as you might expect.  But it’s very, very slight.   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, [Read More...]

“Do Mormons Believe in Hell?”

    Here’s one perspective:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mette-i...   How would you answer the question?   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii    

BOM 2 Nephi 25

    In today’s reading, 2 Nephi 25, the prophet Nephi returns to speaking in his own voice — and it’s a voice very distinct from Isaiah’s.   Four brief observations:   1.   In verses 1-7, Nephi explicitly contrasts his own approach with that of Isaiah, indicating that there was an Old World Jewish method [Read More...]

Seeking the truth, and seeking God

    “When you seek truth, you seek God whether you know it or not.” Edith Stein Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii    

“BYU’s first physics grad earns posthumous Grammy award”

    This is a nice bit of overdue but well deserved recognition:   https://news.byu.edu/news/byu’s-first...   Posted from Salt Lake City, Utah