Science as “a profound source of spirituality”?

Last updated on: December 11, 2019 at 12:55 am By Dan Peterson

Here are two of my favorite comments from the late American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science popularizer Carl Sagan: “How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?’ Instead they say, ‘No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.’ A religion, old or new, that stressed... Read more

Memories of interreligious “trialogue” (I)

Last updated on: December 11, 2019 at 12:59 am By Dan Peterson

In a very recent blog entry here (“A memory from southeastern Austria”), I recalled an experience that I had many years ago in connection with an interfaith “trialogue” in Graz, Austria. I’ve been asked to say something more about that experience, so here’s a bit more — which will take two installments to record fully. (One of my purposes in maintaining this blog is to work on autobiographical sketches.) I had come to know the late James... Read more

LDS Inc. (Part Nine)

Last updated on: December 11, 2019 at 1:03 am By Dan Peterson

For at least a few critics of Church finances, the issue seems to be, to some extent anyway, one of aesthetics and politics. I have particularly in mind a certain critic — not surprisingly, an academic in an exceptionally impractical field (we’re akin, in that regard) — who has objected for years to the “corporate” character of the Church. His politics, so far as I can tell, trend distinctly leftward, and he apparently dislikes and distrusts business and... Read more

A memory from southeastern Austria

Last updated on: December 24, 2019 at 9:19 am By Dan Peterson

Many years ago, I participated for two successive years in an international and interreligious “trialogue” that involved roughly ten scholars each from the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. It had already been going for at least a year when I was asked to join in it. The first year that I particpated was in Graz, Austria. The next year was in Jerusalem, including a day in BYU’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. I’m not sure that the “trialogue”... Read more

Will computers ever become conscious? (B)

Last updated on: December 24, 2019 at 9:21 am By Dan Peterson

Continued from “Will computers ever become conscious? (A)”, drawing from Christof Koch, “Proust among the Machines: Within our lifetimes, computers could approach human-level intelligence. But will they be able to consciously experience the world?” Scientific American (December 2019): Contemplating the question of whether or not machines will ever be conscious, Christof Koch observes, “we inevitably come to a fork up ahead, leading to two fundamentally different destinations” (48). The first of the two alternative paths that he describes... Read more

LDS Inc. (Part Eight)

Last updated on: December 24, 2019 at 9:25 am By Dan Peterson

As I pointed out in “LDS Inc. (Part Seven),” I understand the desire for greater financial transparency on the part of the Church and — like one now-departed senior leader of the Church of whose position on the subject I was personally aware — I’m not unsympathetic to it. That said, however, I can think of at least one serious reason not to be fully open and transparent. Already, in the little discussions here, we’ve had avowed... Read more

LDS Inc. (Part Seven)

Last updated on: December 24, 2019 at 9:26 am By Dan Peterson

Since I began this little series on “LDS Inc.,” a number of critics, here on this blog and elsewhere, have responded to it by demanding more “financial transparency” from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which hasn’t issued expenditure reports since 1959. This is a distinct matter from the one that I’ve been addressing, but it’s obviously related. I haven’t wanted to become involved at this juncture in the controversy over opening the Church’s books, and... Read more

Will computers ever become conscious? (A)

Last updated on: December 24, 2019 at 9:23 am By Dan Peterson

From 1987 until 2013, the German-born Christof Koch was a professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, ultimately serving there as Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology. Currently, he is both the chief scientist and the president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington, and a member of Scientific American‘s board of advisers. I was struck by his article “Proust among the Machines: Within our lifetimes, computers could approach human-level intelligence.... Read more

Today’s two new articles from Interpreter

Last updated on: December 6, 2019 at 12:42 pm By Dan Peterson

Two new articles have just appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: David L. Clark, “Hugh B. Brown’s Program for Latter-Day Saint Servicemen During WWII” Abstract: Prior to U.S. involvement in WWII, the First Presidency asked Hugh B. Brown to initiate and serve as coordinator of a program that would reinforce the spiritual welfare of the increasing number of Latter-day Saint men entering the military. Brown initially answered the challenge by organizing religious services at training camps along the West... Read more

Latter-day Saints, the “Washington Post,” refugees, and religion as mere wish-fulfillment fantasy

Last updated on: December 6, 2019 at 4:10 pm By Dan Peterson

The latest installment of the joint biweekly Hamblin-Peterson column for the Deseret News has been published: “Religion is motivated by more than wish-fulfillment or death: The claim that religion is mere wish-fulfillment fantasy, motivated by fear of death, doesn’t apply to many of the world’s great religious traditions” *** My wife and I really, really liked the recent film Harriet. Unfortunately, though, I’m not sure that it’s done very well. I read at least one movie... Read more

How many "types" of Psalms are often recognized (e.g., praise, lament, wisdom)?