“Answering New Atheism and Seeking a Sure Knowledge of God”

Last updated on: January 12, 2023 at 11:51 pm By Dan Peterson

Up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Conference Talks: Answering New Atheism and Seeking a Sure Knowledge of God,” given by Amy L. Williams In these remarks, which were delivered in 2013, Dr. Williams describes and counters the arguments of the “New Atheism,” a loose movement that some have characterized as espousing the belief that religion should be actively countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument. She also describes the role of faith and verifiability in... Read more

Doing for Jews what has already been done to/for Latter-day Saints?

Last updated on: January 10, 2023 at 10:17 pm By Dan Peterson

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To the considerable irritation of at least a few extremely irritable critics, the Interpreter Foundation continues to produce. Here are three items that went up just today: Come, Follow Me — New Testament Study and Teaching Helps: Lesson 4, January 16 — January 22: John 1 — “We Have Found the Messiah” As he’s been doing very consistently for a long time, Jonn Claybaugh yet again provides a concise set of notes for students and teachers of the... Read more

“At that time I was no longer in my body.”

Last updated on: January 17, 2023 at 11:38 pm By Dan Peterson

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Many years ago, there was a period when my speaking engagements on behalf of the old FARMS — the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, predecessor to the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and, organizationally, to BYU’s new-direction Maxwell Institute — got a bit out of hand. I was being sent out at least once a month, often to one of the coasts and, once or twice, first to one coast and then immediately, on... Read more

England, anybody?

Last updated on: January 9, 2023 at 1:52 pm By Dan Peterson

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With a group of friends (mostly neighbors and former neighbors), we are putting together a private bus tour for this summer to church history and general historical sites in England and just a bit of Scotland. (Some of the sites will probably play a role in our new “Six Days in August” film project, and it’s likely that at least one of our principal filmmakers from Witnesses and Undaunted and the “Insights” short-video series, and perhaps all three,... Read more

It Came from Outer Space, Maybe, or Perhaps from the Black Lagoon

Last updated on: January 8, 2023 at 12:03 am By Dan Peterson

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I think that I’ll post another set of draft notes inspired by (and, to a considerable extent, drawing upon) Michael Guillen’s Believing is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Refresh, 2021). The question of the origin of life on Earth — the question of abiogenesis, the emergence of life from non-life — continues to puzzle researchers. Michael Guillen sees two broad categories of proposed... Read more

““We Don’t Know, So We Might as Well”: A Flimsy Philosophy for Same-Sex Sealings”

Last updated on: January 6, 2023 at 8:03 pm By Dan Peterson

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Today’s new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship reviews an essay by a friend and former student of mine (one of the brightest that I’ve ever had). It touches on a sensitive and often inflammatory subject: ““We Don’t Know, So We Might as Well”: A Flimsy Philosophy for Same-Sex Sealings,” written by Matthew Watkins Review of Nate Oman, “A Welding Link of Some Kind,” Thoughts from a Tamed Cynic (Substack, September 27, 2022). Abstract: Nate Oman claims to... Read more

Meditations and Reflections

Last updated on: January 6, 2023 at 6:59 pm By Dan Peterson

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I first read the Meditations of the Stoic Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) back when I was in high school. (I belonged to some sort of book club through which I bought fairly inexpensive hardback editions of classic works; I still own the copy that I bought and read when I was about fifteen or sixteen.) I’ve had a deep fondness for him ever since, and (although he himself was a pagan and not particularly friendly toward... Read more

“I made a mistake in growing weary of the Gospel.”

Last updated on: January 4, 2023 at 9:30 pm By Dan Peterson

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New material on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Conference Talks: “From All Eternity to All Eternity: Deep Time and the Gospel,” written and presented by Bart J. Kowallis in November 2013 Geology professor Bart J. Kowallis takes readers to the realm of “deep time,” referring to that vast length of time it took for the earth and heavens to reach their current form and station. On the way, he discusses three myths about time and creation:... Read more

Benedictus est

Last updated on: January 4, 2023 at 2:04 pm By Dan Peterson

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His death has received (to me) surprisingly little coverage, probably because he was no longer the reigning pope and because he had gone into fairly complete seclusion since resigning the papacy nearly a decade ago. Those are, of course, very much the reasons why his funeral — although it will take place in St. Peter’s Basilica and although the currently reigning Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, will preside over it (which is, to put it mildly, a rarity)... Read more

Incomprehensibly Old, but Not Infinitely So

Last updated on: January 2, 2023 at 5:16 pm By Dan Peterson

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Gotcha. Its title notwithstanding, this is not an autobiographical essay. In the writing project for which these preliminary notes are intended, I need to do a fair amount of “setting up,” which, in this portion of the project, means that I need to lay out some general background on certain issues of physics, astronomy, cell biology, paleontology, and the like. Therefore, not being a scientist myself, I’ll be drawing for those general discussions on actual scientists and... Read more

What was the primary liquid measurement in Biblical times?