The Inexorable Progress of Christmas

Last updated on: December 17, 2019 at 6:06 pm By Dan Peterson

You may be aware of “Moore’s law,” which holds that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. I would like to point out another seeming fact of development or evolution: Christmas classics are arriving on the scene at an ever accelerating pace. Consider the facts: The great novella A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, was published in 1843. Frank Capra’s immortal film It’s a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, appeared 103 years... Read more

LDS Inc. (Part 12)

Last updated on: December 17, 2019 at 12:37 pm By Dan Peterson

By now, many of you will be aware of the Washington Post exposé entitled “Mormon Church misled members on $100 billion fund, whistleblower alleges.” There has already been an official response from the First Presidency: “First Presidency Statement on Church Finances: Statement provided in response to media stories” There will probably be other responses, and I look forward to reading them. Here is an excellent reply that has appeared in the Deseret News: “The Washington Post says... Read more

Obituary and Funeral Information

Last updated on: December 16, 2019 at 11:23 pm By Dan Peterson

I hope that his family won’t mind my posting Bill Hamblin’s obituary here. Quite a number of people have asked me about it, and about funeral plans. I’m deeply saddened to say that it seems that I myself will likely be unable to attend; my wife and I have long planned to be in the east on that date, spending Christmastime with my son and his family. William James (Bill) Hamblin passed away suddenly from a cardiac... Read more

“There is no profit in helping other people”

Last updated on: December 16, 2019 at 11:26 pm By Dan Peterson

From a comment made earlier today on my blog by an advocate of socialism: “There is no profit in helping other people, therefore the private, capitalist industry will not lift one finger to do so.” But free markets — capitalism — have done incomparably far more to help people, to reduce poverty, and to alleviate human suffering, than any other economic system in human history. And there are clear reasons why this is so. From the... Read more

Meet the Magi

Last updated on: December 16, 2019 at 11:27 pm By Dan Peterson

Bill Hamblin and I published this column in the Deseret News several years ago at Christmas time: The search for wise men and women is a perpetual quest in every age—alas, often with dubious results. The search for the wise men in the Christmas narratives in the New Testament is, unfortunately, equally difficult. All Christians are familiar with the story of the three magi from the east bringing gifts to the infant Jesus, a tale that provided... Read more

Christmas in the Qur’an

Last updated on: December 16, 2019 at 12:14 am By Dan Peterson

The Qur’an on the Annunciation of Christ Behold! The angels said: “O Mary! Truly God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of all the worlds. O Mary! Worship your Lord devoutly: Prostrate yourself, and bow down [in prayer] with those who bow down.” This is some of the news of the unseen that We reveal unto you [O Muhammad]: You were not with them when they cast lots with arrows as to... Read more

“An ill-judged reductionist triumphalism”

Last updated on: December 16, 2019 at 12:18 am By Dan Peterson

In an earlier post, “The supposed war between science and religion,” I cited Sir John Polkinghorne as among other things, declaring that, to the extent that there’s a scientistic hostility to religion among scientists today, he perceives it to be more pronounced among writers on biology — he expressly mentions Richard Dawkins — than among those who write about the physical sciences. Polkinghorne, who is both a Knight of the British Empire (KBE) and a Fellow of the prestigious Royal... Read more

Christmas reflections

Last updated on: December 16, 2019 at 12:20 am By Dan Peterson

I published this column in the Deseret News for Christmas 2016: Behind the tinsel and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, beyond Santa Claus, Christmas represents an enormously serious claim—the incarnation of God or, literally, God’s “enfleshment.” “And the Word was made flesh,” says John 1:10, “and dwelt among us.” It’s a proposition unique to Christianity among the Abrahamic religions; Judaism and Islam make no such claim about the divine. In the first chapter of Genesis, God repeatedly... Read more

“Midway”

Last updated on: December 16, 2019 at 12:22 am By Dan Peterson

The anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred a week ago. Perhaps I just missed it, but I didn’t notice much mention of that anniversary. Nor did I say anything about it. So I offer, here, something of a small atonement for that oversight: With two colleagues with whom I still work and with whom I served in the Switzerland Zürich Mission back in the late Cretaceous Period, I saw the movie Midway a couple of... Read more

Post Deleted

Last updated on: December 14, 2019 at 11:34 pm By Dan Peterson

I’ve been wrestling with some impenetrably puzzling Patheos glitches. In the end, I’m simply deleting this post because I can’t fix it. Read more