Popular Television and Book of Mormon Place Names

Last updated on: December 2, 2021 at 6:03 pm By Dan Peterson

*** The latest installment of Kyler Rasmussen’s series of Bayesian explorations went up on the Interpreter Foundation’s website earlier today: Estimating the Evidence Episode 20: On Place-Name Plagiarism [Editor’s Note: This is the twentieth 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.] It seems unlikely that Book of Mormon place names would be so... Read more

Yes, it’s that time of year again (and I’m not talking about the holidays)

Last updated on: December 2, 2021 at 11:30 pm By Dan Peterson

*** Yesterday, I received this item (part of a longer solicitation from a would-be fundraising advisor) in my inbox. It reminded me that, yes, that dreaded time is almost upon us: Many nonprofits focus tons of their year-end efforts on Giving Tuesday. However, the data shows that Giving Tuesday is hardly the most important giving day of the season. In fact, it’s not even close. According to our data, Giving Tuesday efforts likely accounted for about... Read more

Scripture, Temples, and Hugh Nibley

Last updated on: November 15, 2021 at 8:25 pm By Dan Peterson

*** Here are a few links to articles that have previously appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. Perhaps you missed one or more of them: John Gee, ““Put Off Thy Shoes from Off Thy Feet”: Sandals and Sacred Space” Abstract: While many have written on ancient temples looking at the big picture, John Gee discusses one small detail on a single Egyptian temple from the New Kingdom. He focuses on depictions of Ramses... Read more

“Remember Pearl Harbor!”

Last updated on: November 15, 2021 at 8:35 pm By Dan Peterson

*** I would like to call your attention to a new website — rather quietly launched a week or two ago by the new B. H. Roberts Foundation — that, I think, represents the first fruits of an effort that could well prove to be very significant: https://mormonr.org/ *** I’m also going to share a quite irrelevant experience that I once had with the famed conservative writer William F. Buckley, Jr., in the middle... Read more

“The Toll of Unbelief”

Last updated on: November 14, 2021 at 12:22 am By Dan Peterson

*** I would like to call your attention to a short but important article in the December issue of the invaluable magazine First Things, written by Brendan W. Case, who currently serves as the associate director for research at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science. It joins a very large and growing array of articles and studies that plainly seem to demonstrate the positive effects of religious belief and religious affiliation on... Read more

Book of Mormon Language and Book of Mormon Historicity

Last updated on: November 15, 2021 at 9:02 pm By Dan Peterson

*** Two new articles went up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Stanford Carmack, “Personal Relative Pronoun Usage in the Book of Mormon: An Important Authorship Diagnostic” Abstract: This study compares personal relative pronoun usage in the earliest text of the Book of Mormon with 11 specimens of Joseph Smith’s early writings, 25 pseudo-archaic texts, the King James Bible, and more than 200,000 early modern (1473–1700) and late modern (1701–1800+) texts. The linguistic pattern of... Read more

Sex and the Church

Last updated on: November 12, 2021 at 12:27 am By Dan Peterson

*** In my surfing of the web this evening during a brief break from more important tasks, I ran across a curious comment. Its author, obviously a disaffected member or former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, idly wondered why the Church is so “obsessed” — his or her word, not mine — with sex. Why does the Church care what consenting adults do with their bodies? Sex is, after all, merely a... Read more

“Gold Mountain”

Last updated on: November 14, 2021 at 12:06 am By Dan Peterson

*** First of all, Kyler Rasmusssen presses on with his Bayesian reflections on the Book of Mormon: “Estimating the Evidence Episode 19: On Uto-Aztecan” [Editor’s Note: This is the nineteenth 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.] Also new on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me... Read more

“Salvation is neither a gift won nor a reward earned”

Last updated on: November 9, 2021 at 2:23 pm By Dan Peterson

*** Here’s a new item that’s just appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation, kindly supplied by Jonn Claybaugh: Come, Follow Me — D&C Study and Teaching Helps Lesson 47, November 15-November 21: D&C 133-134 — “Prepare Ye for the Coming of the Bridegroom” And this has also just one up on Interpreter’s website: Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants Lesson 47 “Prepare Ye for the Coming of the Bridegroom”: D&C... Read more

Lighting the World

Last updated on: November 13, 2021 at 11:50 pm By Dan Peterson

*** I’m delighted at this news, which comes right out of the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File©: “Light the World Giving Machines Return During Christmas Season: Donations accepted at 10 US locations in 2021” And, while I was browsing in the Hitchens File©, I also came across this interesting piece: “US Muslims gave more to charity than other Americans in 2020” *** And some of you might find this... Read more