Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 994

“Church Honours Freedom of Religion or Belief at the European Union on International Human Rights Day”

    I’m pleased and proud that the Church is so deeply involved in matters of religious liberty, worldwide:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org.uk/arti...    

Suicide bombing in the Middle East: Is it really motivated by religion?

    ““No atheist that I know,” an atheist commentator on my blog writes, “would blow himself up in a crowded marketplace for some blithering nonsense about an afterlife.”   Atheist, meet facts:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...    

“149th temple in the world is dedicated in Tijuana, Mexico”

    http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article...   Such news always makes me happy.    

“Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness by 91 Percent: Here’s How”

    Some of the more extreme critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints like to portray the state of “Utard” as a kind of Hell on Earth because of the large number of hateful, smug, brain-dead “Morgbots” and “sheeple” who populate it.   But, apparently, not everything about my adopted home [Read More...]

The top ten physics breakthroughs of 2015

    http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/n...    

“Threats, harassment, vandalism at mosques reach record high”

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/10/living/...   This is very unfortunate.   I hope, though, that the apparent absence of such attacks from the Mormon Kulturgebiet will continue.   One other observation:  Some will say that American Muslims ought to be focusing more on the denunciation of acts of violence done in the name of their faith than [Read More...]

“Revelation 5-6 and 19-22: Views and Perspectives”

    The Interpreter Foundation has published at least one article per week for nigh unto three and a half years now.  But that’s far and away not the only activity at the Foundation.   Here’s a helpful piece for students and teachers of the current Church Gospel Doctrine curriculum:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/reve...    

“Muslim man’s photo of prayer in LDS church is going viral”

    http://kutv.com/news/local/muslim-man...   I’ve been involved in many interfaith meetings held in LDS meetinghouses — in the United States and abroad — where, when the time came for Islamic salat prayers, a room was made available for the Muslims involved to pray.   This has always seemed to me (and, plainly, also to the local [Read More...]

A very merry very secular Christmas!

    A thought for the season from the most prominent English-speaking atheist of the twentieth century:   That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations [Read More...]

Music of Christmas 13

    I have a sad confession to make:  I’ve heard and sung the carol Silent Night so very many times over the course of my ridiculously many decades of mortal life that its impact on me has, I regret to say, been blunted a bit.   But BYU produced a very nice film about the genesis [Read More...]