A blog entry for Friday the Thirteenth

Last updated on: June 13, 2025 at 7:34 pm By Dan Peterson

These two new articles went up online today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence in Book of Mormon Criticisms, Chapter 7, “Records, Writing, and Language,” written by Matthew Roper [Editor’s Note: We are pleased to present chapter 7 from a book entitled Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence in Book of Mormon Criticisms. It is presented in serialized form in this volume of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.] ““Get Thou Up... Read more

Thinking about a member of the Quorum of the Twelve

Last updated on: June 12, 2025 at 4:19 pm By Dan Peterson

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Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs: ““That I May Lift Up My Eyes”: Bartimaeus as a Temple Petitioner before the Veil,” written by Spencer Kraus Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/the-temple-plates-patterns-patriarchs/. For video and audio recording of this conference talk, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2022-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/videos/kraus/.... Read more

In Defense of My Friends

Last updated on: June 11, 2025 at 1:19 pm By Dan Peterson

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An important new entry in an important series of blog posts has just gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “The Heartland Versus Mesoamerica Part 9: Population Density and Social Complexity,” by Brant A. Gardner. “A lie,” Mark Twain (along with a number of others) is incorrectly alleged to have said, “can travel all around the world before the truth has got its boots on.” I doubt that the handful of merry madcaps over at the Peterson... Read more

Some Good News for the Interpreter Foundation

Last updated on: June 11, 2025 at 11:34 am By Dan Peterson

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I’m very pleased to share this news release, which I’ve just received from our friend and colleague James Jordan: Global Media Award Recognition for The Interpreter Foundation and RedBrick FilmWorks’ Historical Feature Film SIX DAYS IN AUGUST Orem, Utah, Jun 6, 2025 /TIFNewswire/ — The Interpreter Foundation and their media partner RedBrick FilmWorks announced today that they are the winner of three Telly Awards for their theatrical feature film, Six Days in August. The Telly Awards is a global... Read more

Some notes on the origin of life and the Shroud of Turin

Last updated on: June 9, 2025 at 1:50 pm By Dan Peterson

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A little article of mine went up this morning in Meridian Magazine: “When “Great” Men Are Anything But: Rethinking Power Through the Lens of Christ” Statues may rise for those called “great,” but history often forgets the blood they shed to get there. The world crowns the conqueror, but heaven sees greatness another way. I have never had strong feelings or a firm opinion about the famous Shroud of Turin and, although I find it interesting, I haven’t spent a... Read more

An ancestor whose example challenges me to be faithful, too

Last updated on: June 9, 2025 at 11:19 am By Dan Peterson

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As I’ve noted here, I was born to a marginally active Latter-day Saint mother and a nominally Protestant father. It was many years before I discovered the depth of the roots of my maternal family in the Restoration. But I want to say something about one of my ancestors here. Polly Peck was born in Cumberland County, New York, on 16 April 1774, two years before the Declaration of Independence was written. She married Joseph Knight in Windham County,... Read more

Rightly Understanding the Restoration’s Doctrinal History

Last updated on: June 7, 2025 at 2:11 pm By Dan Peterson

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One of my nephews — my late brother’s eldest son — has been in town, along with a daughter of his who is participating in a camp at BYU. On Thursday evening, they took us out to dinner at AjiPeru. I enjoyed the lomo saltado and washed it down with glasses of cold chicha morada and maracuya. (I’m not even remotely a “foodie,” but describing meals and menus clearly drives a few of my anonymous online critics mad[der], which... Read more

Remember!

Last updated on: June 6, 2025 at 3:50 pm By Dan Peterson

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Eighty-one years ago today, Allied troops came ashore on the beaches of Normandy during “Operation Overlord,” more widely known as the “D-Day” invasion. Although much fighting, suffering, destruction, and death remained to be endured, it was the beginning of the end of the Third Reich. The debt that we owe to those who fought on the coast of France, and especially to those who gave their lives on that horrible day, can never be repaid. And it should never... Read more

An autobiographical fragment

Last updated on: June 5, 2025 at 4:50 pm By Dan Peterson

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Newly posted on the comatose and never-changing website of the Interpreter Foundation: The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs: “Ancient Israelite Temple Ritual through the Telescope of Restoration Scripture,” written by David M. Calabro: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/the-temple-plates-patterns-patriarchs/. For video and audio recording of this conference talk, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2022-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/videos/calabro/. “One of... Read more

Irreducible consciousness?

Last updated on: June 4, 2025 at 7:36 pm By Dan Peterson

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I’ve just finished reading the 2024 book Lucid Dying: The New Science Revolutionizing How We Understand Life and Death (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2024), written by Sam Parnia, M.D., Ph.D. I found it both enjoyable and fascinating. I may even re-read it, and I heartily commend it to the notice of anybody who is interested in the problem of consciousness and/or in near-death experiences (or in what Dr. Parnia himself prefers to call “recalled experiences of death”). As... Read more