Bill Hamblin and I published the following column in the Deseret News on 11 December 2015:   When we think about the Nativity of Jesus, we tend to harmonize what the Gospels have to say. We often assume that the shepherds and the wise men all came on the night of Jesus’ birth, though it’s quite possible they came at different times days or even weeks after the birth. Generally, we create a unified narrative something like this:... Read more

    The latest installment of my bi-weekly “Defending the Faith” column appeared in the print edition of the Deseret News this morning and, for the first time in quite a few weeks, went up online on the Deseret News website rather than at LDS Living:   “Exploring how ‘Faith is Not Blind'”   Speaking of LDS Living, though, here’s something that is directly relevant to the subject of my column:   “What Do You Do When You Don’t ‘Know... Read more

    There are, plainly, still some fundamentally important things left out there to be discovered — although it seems that one of them just was:   “What a Newfound Kingdom Means for the Tree of Life: Neither animal, plant, fungus nor familiar protozoan, a strange microbe that sits in its own “supra-kingdom” of life foretells incredible biodiversity yet to be discovered by new sequencing technologies.”   ***   This is an interesting and informative article:   “‘Useless Quirks’ of... Read more

  My wife and I have just finished watching Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen in the 1954 musical White Christmas, which is built around Irving Berlin’s famous song of that name.  (Parenthetically, let me say that, on the whole, I’m not a fan of old dance musicals and I don’t enjoy watching dance or, for that matter, dancing.  My wife doesn’t even bother to take me to the ballet or to dance concerts.  She gave up, long... Read more

    Matthew Wheeler kindly calls the following item to my attention, which reminds me of an incident that really needs to be better known in the West because of what it reveals about Muhammad’s attitude toward Mary and Jesus:   “The Prophet Muhammad Safeguards Jesus and Mary’s Icons in the Kaba: Traditions that can be traced back to the early formative period of Islam show reverence and not disdain towards Christian iconography, particularly icons of Jesus and Mary.”   It... Read more

    New, via the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   “Luke’s Jesus,” an interview with S. Kent Brown   ***   Clayton M. Christensen, the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, who has been described as “the world’s most influential management thinker,” wrote the Interpreter Foundation’s second Christmas message.  It first appeared just prior to Christmas 2016:   ““He Did It”: A Christmas Message”   ***   Your children might enjoy this short presentation of... Read more

    I would like to thank all of those who, in response to my request yesterday, have offered advice regarding the fellow who’s been obsessively sending me crude, insulting emails since at least 2012.  (I’ve received three more from him today, thus far.)  I’ll be sifting through the responses today, as time allows.   One person suggests that I should do as Jesus counsels, and turn the other cheek.  That’s always great advice, of course.  I think that I... Read more

  “InSight takes its first selfie on Mars”   “Hear the ‘sound’ of wind on Mars”   ***   From roughly the same area where I was two or three weeks ago, this is potentially good news for those who are concerned about the seemingly shaky future of the world’s coral reefs:   “Nearly 200 Great Barrier Reef coral species also live in the deep sea: The unexpected coral bounty means deep reefs have a richer biodiversity than thought”  ... Read more

    The 9 December 2018 program of the Interpreter Radio Show is now available online.  Terry Hutchinson, Dan Peterson, John Gee, and Kevin Christensen came together for it in order to discuss various topics, including Julie M. Smith’s new commentary on the gospel of Mark.  Featured on the program, in fact, was an interview with Julie Smith herself:   https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreter-radio-show-december-9-2018/   ***   Great news:   “Barranquilla Colombia Temple Is Dedicated: 161st temple in the world”   When I was... Read more

    I commented yesterday on a fellow — I’m confident that it’s a male — who has been sending me short, crude, and insulting anonymous emails for well over six years, sometimes at the rate of several per day:   https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2018/12/the-odd-couple-part-two.html   Apparently, being noticed has inspired him to yet greater efforts because, this afternoon, while I was teaching my course on classical Arabic texts, he emitted his longest and most sustained creation in a very long time (and,... Read more