Religion, Death, and Self-Control

Last updated on: May 8, 2023 at 6:30 pm By Dan Peterson

I’m late in calling attention to this brief article, which went up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation on Friday, 5 May 2023: “Interpreting Interpreter: A Dark Mark,” written by Kyler Rasmussen. This post is a summary of the article “Understanding the Lamanite Mark” by Clifford P. Jones in Volume 56 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter series is available at https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought/. The Takeaway: Jones argues that descriptions of the Lamanites’ dark... Read more

Are there arguments and evidence for theism? Should there be?

Last updated on: May 7, 2023 at 12:17 am By Dan Peterson

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“In all areas except religion,” Richard Dawkins claimed in a blogged panel discussion back in 2010, “we believe what we believe as a result of evidence.” By contrast, he went on to say, religion is “a nonsensical enterprise” that “poisons everything.” It is a “delusion,” he wrote in, well, The God Delusion ([New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2008], 28), a “persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence.” According to his fellow New Atheist Sam Harris... Read more

Jesus, Osiris, and the Mystery Cults

Last updated on: May 6, 2023 at 3:04 pm By Dan Peterson

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From time to time, whether on the internet or in pamphlet form or even in a triumphant personal email sent directly to me, I run across dismissals of the story of Jesus as purely fictional — on the grounds that all of the important facets of his life were merely (and obviously) borrowed from the legends of other dying-and-resurrecting gods, etc. I wrote a column back in mid-2012 in which I briefly responded to this fairly common atheist... Read more

“Understanding the Lamanite Mark,” and Other Issues

Last updated on: May 5, 2023 at 4:10 pm By Dan Peterson

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A new article has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Understanding the Lamanite Mark,” writtten by Clifford P. Jones Abstract: The Book of Mormon describes a dark mark on the skin that distinguished people who rebelled against God and his laws from those who obeyed God. The Old Testament refers to a mark that fits this description and has nothing to do with natural skin color. The law of Moses prohibited the Lord’s covenant... Read more

Touching a Third Rail

Last updated on: May 5, 2023 at 4:20 pm By Dan Peterson

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Godfrey J. Ellis has published a really nice piece about Interpreter in Meridian Magazine. I commend it to your attention: “Ten Hidden Gems from the Interpreter Journal” I wrote here yesterday about “An Interfaith Gathering at the Salt Lake Tabernacle, Focused on the Old Testament Tabernacle.” The LDS Church News has also published an article about that event: “Elder Pearson at interfaith fireside: Religions ‘add immeasurably to the quality of life’: Elder Kevin W. Pearson, Utah Area president,... Read more

An Interfaith Gathering at the Salt Lake Tabernacle, Focused on the Old Testament Tabernacle

Last updated on: May 3, 2023 at 10:26 pm By Dan Peterson

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At the invitation of an acquaintance who is on the faculty at the medical school of the University of Utah, my wife and I joined him and two Egyptian-American Muslim guests for an interfaith gathering at the Salt Lake Tabernacle last evening. The fireside was connected with the model of the Old Testament tabernacle that has been touring Utah in recent weeks and months, and, although it was conducted under the auspices of the Church of Jesus Christ... Read more

Two Holy Lands?

Last updated on: May 2, 2023 at 3:47 pm By Dan Peterson

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My wife and I took Lou Midgley out to lunch today. He is one of our very favorite people, and it was a vintage visit with the irrepressible Lou: I don’t think that he had been thirty seconds in our car before he was well into a discussion on David Hume, Hume’s famous skepticism, and Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Great stuff. Over a seafood lunch, we also discussed the Second World War, the atrocities committed by the... Read more

On Being “Perfect” (Part Three)

Last updated on: May 2, 2023 at 10:45 am By Dan Peterson

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Note: This blog entry is a continuation of the discussions at “On Being ‘Perfect’ (Part One)” and “On Being ‘Perfect’ (Part Two)” and should be read in the context provided by those brief entries. “Be ye therefore perfect,” says the King James Version’s translation of Matthew 5:48, “even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Let’s first look at the original Greek words that are twice translated as “perfect.” The first, as one might expect,... Read more

“The Temple: Pathway to Heaven”

Last updated on: May 1, 2023 at 4:08 pm By Dan Peterson

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At the conclusion of last night’s Interpreter Radio Show, in which I joined with Martin Tanner and Terry Hutchinson, Terry kindly gave me a copy of a new book that he and his father in law have just self-published: Grant R. Gifford and Terry L. Hutchinson, The Temple: Pathway to Heaven (Alpine, UT: Pine Ridge Publishing, 2022). It looks very interesting, and I eagerly anticipate getting into it. The book is available in paperback form, I notice, at... Read more

Atheism before the firing squad?

Last updated on: April 29, 2023 at 5:49 pm By Dan Peterson

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The estimable Jeff Lindsay has penned an enthusiastic book recommendation: “Relational Faith: An Essential Book for Understanding “Faith” as Used in New Testament Times and for Appreciating the Restoration” Here’s an excerpt from what he has to say: There’s a new book, Brent Schmidt’s Relational Faith, that may be one of the best resources around to help Latter-day Saints and perhaps many other Christians understand and explain what the Bible means when it talks about faith in Christ. Not... Read more

What is the lesson of the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds?