Some Thoughts on Science and Faith

Last updated on: November 14, 2021 at 12:35 am By Dan Peterson

*** I feel like sharing some quotations that I’ve previously gathered from believing scientists/mathematicians: “While . . . media attention goes to the strident atheists who claim religion is foolish superstition, and to the equally clamorous religious creationists who deny the clear evidence for cosmic and biological evolution, a majority of the people I know have no difficulty accepting scientific knowledge and holding to religious faith.” “Why do I believe in God? As a physicist, I... Read more

“Oh, that I were an angel”

Last updated on: November 5, 2021 at 11:28 pm By Dan Peterson

*** A new article appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. It was written by someone too mean-spirited, nasty, dishonest, and ignorant to mention. (I’ve been reading some anonymous online comments about the author, so I know.) “Oh, That I Were an Angel!” Abstract: Alma’s conversion experience was both unusual and unusually powerful, and yet he fervently wished that he could provide others with the same experience. So much so, in fact,... Read more

See it!

Last updated on: November 4, 2021 at 11:45 pm By Dan Peterson

*** My wife and I went last night to see a showing of The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C. S. Lewis. at a theater near the local campus of the University of California at Irvine. We were expecting to go with a friend who was to be along with us for most of this trip, but she had a family medical development that kept her home. My wife liked the film; I loved... Read more

“For Arthur VanWagenen and family”

Last updated on: November 4, 2021 at 11:26 pm By Dan Peterson

*** I’m deeply distressed to write this blog entry, but I feel that I should do so. Our friend Arthur VanWagenen, of Excel Entertainment, is in desperate medical straits. My wife and I met him slightly past midway in the development of the Interpreter Foundation’s Witnesses theatrical film. He was centrally involved in our recent Witnesses event at Provo’s Experience Events Center and we have been looking forward to working with him on the film’s DVD... Read more

On Imperfect Prophets and a Great President

Last updated on: November 6, 2021 at 12:03 am By Dan Peterson

*** A new installment of Kyler Rasmussen’s Bayesian reflections has just gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Estimating the Evidence Episode 18: On Imperfect Prophets [Editor’s Note: This is the eighteenth in a series of 23 essays summarizing and evaluating Book of Mormon-related evidence from a Bayesian statistical perspective. See the FAQ at the end of the introductory episode for details on methodology.] This in addition to the three items that went up yesterday: ... Read more

Testing the Sincerity of the Witnesses Oliver Cowdery and Peter Whitmer Jr.

Last updated on: November 5, 2021 at 12:02 am By Dan Peterson

*** Did you miss these articles when they appeared the first time? Daniel C. Peterson, “Vast Prairies and Trackless Wilds of Snow: A Good Test of Sincerity” Abstract: Embarking roughly six months after the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 1830–1831 “mission to the Lamanites” faced challenges that we pampered moderns can scarcely imagine. Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer Jr., Parley P. Pratt, Ziba Peterson, and, eventually, Frederick G. Williams demonstrated beyond reasonable dispute the depth of their... Read more

“Tamid: Zacharias and the Second Temple”

Last updated on: November 2, 2021 at 12:23 am By Dan Peterson

*** This article appeared earlier today (Monday) in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Lisle G. Brown, “Tamid: Zacharias and the Second Temple” Abstract: This essay follows Zacharias’ biography from entering the priesthood till the day the angel Gabriel appeared to him in Herod’s temple. After recounting the procedures to become a priest, Brown focuses on the day when Zacharias prepared to bring one of the two central standing offerings. He points out that likely,... Read more

From the city by the Bay

Last updated on: November 4, 2021 at 12:07 am By Dan Peterson

*** We spent a few moments on the grounds of the Sacramento California Temple late this morning, having driven across the Donner Pass and down into California’s great Central Valley, and then we enjoyed a quiet late afternoon and early evening walk in Muir Woods National Monument. (“The clearest way into the Universe,” John Muir is reported to have said, “is through a forest wilderness.” In a sense, Joseph Smith might have agreed.) Along the way, we... Read more

Happy Halloween! (“Ways of Remembering the Dead”)

Last updated on: November 3, 2021 at 11:57 pm By Dan Peterson

*** Here in the United States of America and in more than a few other places, the Halloween season is upon us. So here is my 2021 Halloween offering, in Meridian Magazine: “Ways of Remembering the Dead” With that in mind, I suppose it was appropriate that my wife and I devoted part of our time today to revisiting Donner Memorial State Park and working our way through the exhibits there. Tragic and sad as... Read more

“Mine House is a House of Zion and not a House of Babylon!”

Last updated on: November 3, 2021 at 11:45 pm By Dan Peterson

*** Today, a new article by Loren Blake Spendlove has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Mine House is a House of Zion and not a House of Babylon!” Abstract: In Doctrine and Covenants 132:8 we read: “Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.” I propose that the words “order” and “confusion” in this passage are literary allusions to the ideals, constructs, and outcomes that embody... Read more