Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 991

“The Left’s Attack on Religious Liberty Could Break America”

    An important article from David French:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article...    

“‘Nature’s’ 10: Ten people who mattered this year”

    Some of these seem more political/legal to me than scientific, but this list of ten consequential people compiled by the eminent science journal Nature still makes for interesting reading:   http://www.nature.com/news/365-days-n...    

New Testament 343

    Matthew 27:31-32 Mark 15:20-21 Luke 23:26-32 John 19:17 Compare Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27; John 19:18   Simon of Cyrene came from the city of Cyrene, a Greek colony in North Africa that had a very large Jewish-minority population.  Its ruins survive in today’s Libya, and that region of the country is still often [Read More...]

“Saudi Arabia forms Muslim anti-terrorism coalition”

    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12...   Whether, practically speaking, this will prove to be effective remains to be seen.  But it is, to a substantial degree, their fight even more than it’s ours.   By the way:  When I was in Istanbul a few weeks back, the Paris massacres were fresh and on everybody’s mind — the [Read More...]

New Testament 342

    Matthew 27:27-31 Mark 15:16-20 Compare John 19:2-3   The story is familiar to us, and we often pass over it without really permitting it to enter fully into our minds.  But this cruel mockery of a man who has already been condemned to death, and who will soon die in one of the [Read More...]

“The Triumph of Faith”

    My newest column in the Deseret News, in which I enthusiastically recommend a book that I found fascinating:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   Incidentally, I don’t argue — and I don’t believe — that large numbers prove religious faith (or a religious faith) true.  Some who seem either unable or indisposed to read what a [Read More...]

New Testament 341

    Matthew 27:24-26 Mark 15:15 Luke 23:24-25 John 19:16   These passages — and, most particularly, Matthew’s account of Pilate’s washing his hands of responsibility for the death of Jesus while the Jews say “His blood be on us and on our children!” — have served for centuries as a powerful basis (or pretext) [Read More...]

Drawing lines to include or to exclude

    Contrast this story with this story.   Which one involves Mormons?  Which one involves Evangelicals?   I don’t want to overgeneralize, but . . . well, there exists no Latter-day Saint equivalent to the countercult ministries, websites, seminars, newsletters, radio programs, Sunday school classes, television shows, pamphlets, picket lines, magazines, book genres, lecture [Read More...]

Two perfectly appalling items about today’s university campuses

    A somewhat lengthy and very infuriating article:   “It’s All About ‘Muscle’: Understanding the Campus Unrest”   And an astonishing — that is, horrifying — 2.5-minute video:   Yale students sign petition to repeal First Amendment   Jonah Goldberg’s 2008 book Liberal Fascism is becoming urgently relevant.    

That was me on the radio

    I just did an hour-long live radio interview with Mills Crenshaw on KLO Radio (AM 1430), regarding Islam.   I hope that at least a few people went away from the hour understanding a little bit more about the religion and its history, about Muslims, and about current events.   Now for the scary [Read More...]