A utopian view of science

Last updated on: February 6, 2018 at 10:42 pm By Dan Peterson

After completing undergraduate work at the University of California at Berkeley and earning his doctorate in molecular biology at Caltech (the California Institute of Technology), Douglas Axe went on to post-doctoral work and then to a research scientist position, both at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. In other words, he has some experience in the world of science (both substantively and sociologically). Here are three related passages from his book Undeniable: How Biology... Read more

Islamic Law (Part 3)

Last updated on: February 6, 2018 at 10:43 pm By Dan Peterson

Plodding forward . . . Actually, what I have been saying is an oversimplification. It was only gradually that the chain of transmitters, known in Arabic as an isnad, became a required part of a hadith report. For approximately the first century after the death of the Prophet, no special care was taken in the transmission of traditions about him. Perhaps the Muslims could not imagine anybody willing to lie or to forge in the name of... Read more

The Intuition of Design

Last updated on: February 6, 2018 at 10:45 pm By Dan Peterson

Douglas Axe received superb training in engineering and molecular biology. After completing undergraduate work at the University of California at Berkeley and earning his doctorate at Caltech (the California Institute of Technology), he went on to post-doctoral work and then to a research scientist position, both at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. I’ll be extracting some notes from his book Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed (New York: HarperCollins, 2016):... Read more

The Mountain of the Lord’s House

Last updated on: February 5, 2018 at 11:41 am By Dan Peterson

I’m still working my way through John W . Welch, et al., eds., Knowing Why: 137 Evidences That the Book of Mormon Is True (American Fork: Covenant Communications, 2017): “How Does Nephi Help Readers Today Understand Isaiah?” (109-110) Drawing on the work of my friend Donald W. Parry, this article offers three keys for understanding Isaiah, taken from the Book of Mormon: Understand the “manner of prophesying among the Jews” Do not do “works of darkness” or “doings of abominations” Be filled... Read more

Islamic Law (Part 2)

Last updated on: February 6, 2018 at 10:49 pm By Dan Peterson

Still ladling out portions of my manuscript: The opposite of sunna, first in pre-Islamic Arabia and ultimately within Islam itself, was bid’a (“innovation”), which eventually came to mean “heresy” Thus, the Islamic community became a conservative one in which “heresy” was divergence from the established practice of the community. (It might be seen why one sect of Islam claimed for itself the title of “Sunni.” They were calling themselves orthodox—and, not by accident, implying that those who... Read more

Nephite Isaiah

Last updated on: February 6, 2018 at 10:51 pm By Dan Peterson

Some further gleanings from John W . Welch, et al., eds., Knowing Why: 137 Evidences That the Book of Mormon Is True (American Fork: Covenant Communications, 2017): “Why Did Early Nephite Prophets Speak about the Scattering of Israel?” (103-104) The second stage of the early Nephite prophetic worldview involved the scattering of Israel — something that the Nephites felt acutely, because they themselves represented one of the first Israelite groups to be scattered. Nephi himself, along with his brother Jacob and the... Read more

“Personal Explanation”

Last updated on: February 6, 2018 at 10:53 pm By Dan Peterson

A passage from Keith Ward, Why There Almost Certainly Is a God: Doubting Dawkins (Oxford: Lion, 2008), 22-23: [T]he existence of conscious minds introduces a new form of non-scientific explanations for why things happen as they do. Scientific explanation, in general, works by referring to some initial state (a ’cause’) and a general mathematically describable law. That law predicts what regularly follows from the initial state, and it does so without any reference to purpose, value or... Read more

Islamic Law (Part 1)

Last updated on: February 6, 2018 at 10:54 pm By Dan Peterson

The manuscript plows forward: Making Arabic the language of administration in the empire was part of a larger and very important process by which the Middle East became both Arab and, overwhelmingly, Muslim. The first Arab conquerors had been content to let the old bureaucracies from the Persian and Byzantine states continue to run things. But now, some Muslim thinkers wondered if there was not a specifically Islamic way of doing things and whether they ought to... Read more

Isaiah in the Book of Mormon and Interpreter on the Radio

Last updated on: February 6, 2018 at 10:56 pm By Dan Peterson

Moving forward with my notes from John W . Welch, et al., eds., Knowing Why: 137 Evidences That the Book of Mormon Is True (American Fork: Covenant Communications, 2017): “Can Textual Studies Help Readers Understand the Isaiah Chapters in 2 Nephi?” (96-98) Royal Skousen’s pathbreaking work on the textual history of the Book of Mormon offers a number of insights into the Book of Mormon’s use of Isaiah. The base text for 2 Nephi’s Isaiah quotations is definitely the King James... Read more

The rise of classical Arabic civilization

Last updated on: February 6, 2018 at 10:57 pm By Dan Peterson

Beginning a new chapter from my manuscript: Classical Arabic Civilization The late Marshall G. S. Hodgson, one of the greatest Western students of Islam of the twentieth century, developed an outline of Islamic history that I find very helpful.[1] In it, he distinguishes seven different periods. Let me summarize them here. First, Hodgson states, there was the “Pre-Islamic Period.” It isn’t hard to understand what this is about, since it simply refers to the years from earliest... Read more

Which book in the New Testament has the fewest chapters?