Is “Islamist” suicide bombing in the Middle East really motivated by religion?

Last updated on: September 14, 2019 at 10:34 pm By Dan Peterson

My friend Dr. William J. Hamblin and I published the following column in Salt Lake City’s Deseret News on 11 July 2015: The so-called “New Atheists” differ from previous generations of vocal unbelievers (e.g., Bertrand Russell and Antony Flew) by not merely repudiating the existence of God but aggressively denying the moral legitimacy and cultural value of religious faith. They’re fond of citing the great 17th-century mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal: “Men never do evil so completely... Read more

“Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions”

Last updated on: September 14, 2019 at 10:33 pm By Dan Peterson

We had one of our comparatively rare meetings of the Interpreter Foundation board of trustees today, lasting from 9 AM until about 1:30 PM. It could have been longer, but it was at my house . . . and my wife and I had tickets for a play at 2 PM. It’s been difficult to get us all together — and not only because of my frequent travel. One of our vice presidents is just back, with... Read more

Is there a hint of a premortal existence, and even of a premortal council, in the Qur’an?

Last updated on: September 13, 2019 at 11:30 pm By Dan Peterson

First, in order to set the stage, I offer my hasty translation of Qur’an 7:172-173: And when your Lord took their descendants from the children of Adam, from their loins, and caused them to testify against themselves. “Am I not your Lord?” “Yes, we have testified.” Lest you should say, on the Day of Resurrection, “We were unaware of that.” Or should say “Our fathers were idolators before us, and we are their descendants following after them.... Read more

“If Truth Were a Child”

Last updated on: September 13, 2019 at 11:32 pm By Dan Peterson

Just published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Amanda Colleen Brown, “Never Static, Never Simple: One Woman’s Conversations Within the Marginalia of If Truth Were a Child” Review of George B. Handley, If Truth Were A Child: Essays, (Provo, Utah: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2019), 253 pp. $19.99 (paperback). Abstract: George B. Handley challenges his readers to reevaluate conventional definitions of truth and the approaches they employ to define their own truths. He argues that the individual... Read more

The mosquito in history

Last updated on: September 13, 2019 at 11:34 pm By Dan Peterson

I will, alas, almost certainly never read the book. Life is short. But the review of The Mosquito, by Timothy Winegard, in the 3 August 2019 issue of The Economist was fascinating. Here are some notes that I’ve taken from that review: During World War Two, American troops stationed in Asia were said to face two lethal enemies. The first enemy, of course, was the Japanese. To illustrate that point, as if it needed illustration, one wartime propaganda poster... Read more

Enormous radio bubbles, an unearthly mineral, mass extinction, and another note on the perils of rural England

Last updated on: September 13, 2019 at 11:36 pm By Dan Peterson

As I acknowledged a few days ago in “The Deadly Jungles of England,” I’m an Anglophile. I admit it without shame. It follows, therefore, that my wife and I went out this evening for a screening of Downton Abbey. Nobody is likely to confuse the movie with Vertigo or Citizen Kane or The Godfather, let alone with the immortal Groundhog Day, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. And we wallowed in English landscapes and in the grace (for the correct... Read more

“The Record of the Jews and the Record of the Nephites are One.”

Last updated on: September 13, 2019 at 11:38 pm By Dan Peterson

Interpreter Radio Show — 8 September 2019 The 8 September 2019 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show is now accessible (as always) at no charge and stripped of commercial interruptions. The discussants in this particular recording are Terry Hutchinson, John Gee, and Kevin Christensen. Among other things, the episode includes an interview with Terryl Givens regarding his new book The Pearl of Greatest Price as well as a discussion of the upcoming Come, Follow Me lesson #38 on Galatians. If, however,... Read more

What a difference a little translation choice can make!

Last updated on: September 13, 2019 at 11:42 pm By Dan Peterson

One of the courses that I’m teaching this term focuses on reading the Qur’an in English translation. We’re using M. A. S. Abdel Haleem’s version, in the Oxford World’s Classics series. I haven’t examined every English translation of the Qur’an — there are quite a few more of them today than there were back when I was a student — but Abdel Haleem’s is certainly pretty good and I have no major bone to pick with it. Nor... Read more

“Evolution on Display at BYU,” and Other Science News

Last updated on: September 11, 2019 at 3:13 pm By Dan Peterson

There is a new exhibit in the Life Sciences Museum at Brigham Young University: “Evolution on Display at BYU” In related news: “Found: A Windfall of Neanderthal Footprints in France: 257 small steps for our human cousins, one giant leap for paleoanthropology.” And here’s an article on a relevant topic that might be discussed or debated: “Evolution Doesn’t Proceed in a Straight Line, so Stop Drawing It That Way” The authors seem... Read more

The roots of the Restoration, and its fruits

Last updated on: September 11, 2019 at 12:16 pm By Dan Peterson

Once more, I’m going to share a number of photographs from Upper Canada Village in Ontario, where the Interpreter Foundation’s film crew has been working on the first portion of the shooting for our Witnesses project. Interspersed between these photographs, I’ll include some other material that is, in at least some loose sense (perhaps comprehensible only to me), connected with the general subject of the film effort. Many of you will be familiar with Dennis Prager.... Read more