“Gay, transgender youth at ‘significantly higher risk’ of suicide than heterosexual peers”

Last updated on: October 6, 2019 at 2:34 pm By Dan Peterson

I just read this summary and commentary: “Gay, transgender youth at ‘significantly higher risk’ of suicide than heterosexual peers: study” It is based upon this article in the JAMA [Journal of the American Medical Association] Pediatrics, which I have not yet read: “Estimating the Risk of Attempted Suicide Among Sexual Minority Youths: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis” From the summary article: Dr. Michelle Cretella, executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, told The... Read more

“Dealing with the Dead”

Last updated on: October 6, 2019 at 2:36 pm By Dan Peterson

If you’re interested in contributing financially to the work of the Interpreter Foundation, here is how to do it: “Donating to The Interpreter Foundation” *** The latest Hamblin/Peterson column has appeared in the Deseret News: “Dealing with the dead: One of life’s great truths is the inevitability of death. How to understand death and treat the dead are among the great questions facing religions.” *** One of the bits of supporting evidence that some... Read more

“Lehi, Joseph, and the Kingdom of Israel”

Last updated on: October 6, 2019 at 2:38 pm By Dan Peterson

I’m behind in announcing this because . . . well, because I was back in the nineteenth century much of today, a time when the social media were much less developed. But there’s a new article up in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. It was written by Dr. Richley Crapo, formerly a member of the Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology at Utah State University with a dual appointment in USU’s Department of Psychology... Read more

Lucy Harris v. Joseph Smith Jr.

Last updated on: October 6, 2019 at 2:39 pm By Dan Peterson

My wife and I spent a large part of today up at the This is the Place Heritage Park on the east side of Salt Lake City, near the zoo, on and around the set of the Interpreter Foundation’s Witnesses film project. The work back east — in Upper Canada Village, Ontario, and Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts — is now complete. This week, the crew has been working locally. And today was our first opportunity to be on... Read more

The subject that cannot be discussed

Last updated on: October 6, 2019 at 2:42 pm By Dan Peterson

Here are some of the publications of the late Dr. Joseph Nicolosi (1947-2017), a prominent advocate of the controversial practice of “reparative therapy” or “conversion therapy” that, he said, could mitigate or even eliminate same-sex attraction and replace it with heterosexual desires: Nicolosi, Joseph (1991). Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality: A New Clinical Approach. Jason Aronson, Inc. ISBN 0-87668-545-9. Nicolosi, Joseph (1993). Healing Homosexuality: Case Stories of Reparative Therapy. Jason Aronson, Inc. ISBN 0-7657-0144-8. Nicolosi, Joseph; Byrd, A. Dean; Potts, Richard W. (June... Read more

These supposed “parallels” are quite bogus

Last updated on: September 26, 2019 at 11:09 pm By Dan Peterson

I published the following column in the Deseret News back on 17 May 2012: From time to time, some triumphant atheist or other challenges me with a list of supposed parallels between the biblical depiction of Jesus and the stories of other important religious figures (mythical or historical), such as Krishna, Tammuz, the Buddha, Muhammad, Mithra, Cadmus, Osiris and Baal. The biographies of these characters are said to resemble each other right down to minute details: They commonly if not always came into the world via a virgin’s immaculate conception;... Read more

Two new temples

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

The 22 September 2019 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show is now available, with discussants Steve Densley and Matthew Bowen. This episode features an interview with Hany Tawfik on travel in Egypt, a discussion of stylometry, and a conversation about a recent address by President Nelson. Also included is the upcoming Come, Follow Me lesson #40 on Philippians and Colossians: Interpreter Radio Show — September 22, 2019 The Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me New Testament Lesson 40, “I Can... Read more

Order in Nature and Another of the Social Benefits of Religion

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

Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt. So runs the famous opening line of Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella Die Verwandlung (English, The Metamorphosis): One morning, as Gregor Samsa awoke from restless dreams, he discovered that he had been transformed in his bed into a monstrous verminous bug. I read Kafka’s story — the first time that I have ever read it in... Read more

“Last Chance to Book ‘Ultimate Egypt’!”

Last updated on: September 26, 2019 at 11:19 pm By Dan Peterson

I just now received a note from the folks at Cruise Lady, and I thought that I would pass it on for my reader or readers here: Last Chance to Book Ultimate Egypt! We have been informed that tomorrow, September 27, will be the last day we can book space on our Nile cruise that takes place on our 12-Day Ultimate Egypt Tour. If you want to visit the stunning temples built by Ramses II for himself... Read more

People, events, and ideas

Last updated on: September 26, 2019 at 11:25 pm By Dan Peterson

I’ve been thinking, yet again, about a rather well known quotation that is commonly — albeit, it seems, incorrectly — attributed to former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt: Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. The statement may actually derive originally from a comment made by the prominent late-nineteenth-century British historian Henry Thomas Buckle: Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest... Read more