I highly recommend a look at this fourteen-minute film, available for free on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n900e80R30 I first saw it back in the summer of 2015 at FreedomFest in Las Vegas. It’s a fascinating venture into an aspect of intellectual history with which I was unfamiliar. I’ve long been aware, of course, that Social Darwinism was a major tributary feeding into National Socialism (see below), but I hadn’t realized how important it was as a factor... Read more
On 20 January 2011, I published the column below in the Deseret News, under the title “Anti-Mormon mockery can actually lead to teaching moments.” So far as I’m aware, one of the plays that are mentioned in the column seems to have disappeared almost immediately. The other, a musical entitled The Book of Mormon, didn’t exactly disappear: Two plays about Mormonism are scheduled to premiere shortly in the northeastern United States. According to advance publicity, one of... Read more
From Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2018), 186-187. Christianity achieved the well-nigh impossible. The Christian doctrine elevated the individual soul, placing slave and master and commoner and nobleman alike on the same metaphysical footing, rendering them equal before God and the law. Christianity insisted that even the king was only one among many. For something so contrary to all apparent evidence to find its footing, the idea that worldly... Read more
Matthew 7:24-27 Compare Luke 6:47-49 The image of the house built upon a rock is a memorable one, and clearly understandable. The fundamental point, obviously, is that we should found our lives upon the truth about God. It can be extended, though, to illustrate (among other things) the idea that, even if your reasoning is otherwise sound, if you’re basing your argument on faulty premises it’s not going to be very solid or reliable. Thus,... Read more
As should be evident, I’ve been reading Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2018). Thus far, the chapter in the book that has resonated most with me has been “Rule 5: Do Not Let Your Children Do Anything That Makes You Dislike Them.” I share a passage from that chapter that struck me, although it isn’t necessarily representative of the chapter’s thesis: It’s . . . not for the best... Read more
Bill Hamblin and I published this article in the Deseret News very nearly five years ago, on 7 March 2014: Although Manicheism — the religion founded by the Mesopotamian prophet Mani — is dead, its influence still continues in subtle and indirect ways. Mani was born in A.D. 216 near the modern city of Baghdad in Iraq, which was then part of the Persian Empire. Although a Persian, Mani was raised in a Gnostic Christian sect known... Read more
Do you care about the environment? Do you care about human lives? About the economy? About the welfare of endangered species? This essay is really, really, really important: “Why Renewables Can’t Save the Planet” It would be nice — but not merely nice; it’s actually vitally and urgently important — that there be an infusion of data, reason, and common sense into discussions of the future of our planet and the living creatures who live... Read more
The latest installment of the joint bi-weekly Hamblin/Peterson column has appeared in the Deseret News: “Theodor Herzl, from integration to segregation” *** Eve Koller, “An Egyptian Linguistic Component in Book of Mormon Names,” BYU Studies 57/4 (2018) is currently available, perhaps only temporarily, for free download: “An Egyptian Linguistic Component in Book of Mormon Names” Here’s the summary of Dr. Koller’s article that appears on the BYU Studies website: There are several... Read more
“The Book of Mormon includes a history of an ancient people who migrated from the Near East to the Americas.” So opens the new official statement on “Book of Mormon Geography” from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Today has been a very busy and rather long day. Still, in stolen moments, I’ve been watching a small handful of overeager critics of the Church with amusement. They’ve been peering desperately at the distant horizon, hoping... Read more
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New Testament Notes 76-79
Matthew 7:28-29 Compare Mark 1:21-22; Luke 4:32; 7:1; John 7:46 His audience’s perception that Jesus “taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes,” has always struck me powerfully. And it’s clear that he does precisely that. When he performs a miracle, he doesn’t perform it “in the name of” someone else — that is, by borrowed authority. His authority is innate. It’s his. When he goes up onto the mount, it’s to proclaim his law —... Read more