{"id":115662,"date":"2026-04-08T17:25:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T23:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=115662"},"modified":"2026-04-09T16:18:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:18:41","slug":"to-boldly-go-where-no-man-has-gone-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2026\/04\/to-boldly-go-where-no-man-has-gone-before.html","title":{"rendered":"“To boldly go where no man has gone before”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think that it\u2019s time to celebrate what the Artemis II mission has already accomplished and to pray for the crew\u2019s safe return to Earth. \u00a0So my photographic theme for (most of) this blog entry is images of Earth and the Moon taken from the Orion spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\"Earth<\/a>
This photograph was taken by Commander Reid Wiseman shortly after the four astronauts of Artemis II essentially exited Earth\u2019s gravitational pull. \u00a0(NASA public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This chapter \u201creprint\u201d \u2014 the concept of republishing a chapter is apparently a difficult one that, several years ago, sent a reader into a period of almost hysterical confusion, so please try to stay calm! \u2014 appeared today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0\u201c\u2018I, Abraham\u2019: The Father of the Faithful in Light of the Book of Abraham,\u201d Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition<\/em><\/a>, written by David M. Calabro<\/a>:<\/div>\n

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition<\/em>, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, John S. Thompson, Matthew L. Bowen, and David R. Seely. For more information, go to https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/abraham-and-his-family<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis paper addresses what I have long felt to be a gap in studies on the Book of Abraham. Scholarship on the book has tended to focus on the issue of its historicity\u2014or, more precisely, on whether it is best understood in an ancient context as an example of Joseph Smith\u2019s divine gift of translating ancient records, as many scholars within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> maintain, or in a modern context as an example of a bungled attempt at translating ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, as the critics maintain. To be sure, this issue is of great importance, both for those attempting to historically contextualize the book\u2019s message and for Latter-day Saints who struggle with the question of historicity as a test of Joseph Smith\u2019s seership. However, in the widespread scholarly preoccupation with this issue, there has not emerged, to my knowledge, a focused treatment of what I see as an equally important issue\u2014namely, the book\u2019s narrative art: how the narrative itself is crafted in a way designed to powerfully inspire readers. In this study, I examine how the Book of Abraham\u2019s narrative interacts with the biblical account of Abraham (Genesis 12\u201322). I attempt to show that the Book of Abraham is in dialogue with the biblical narrative, dynamically complementing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"amazing\"<\/a>
Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew\u2019s flyby of the Moon. A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth\u2019s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater\u2019s formation. (Image Credit: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve heard all of my life about \u201cFlat Earthers,\u201d but I hadn\u2019t really encountered any of them until the Artemis II mission began to get news coverage. \u00a0Now, though, I\u2019ve seen several of them popping up online, and I\u2019m still recovering from the shock of learning for myself that such people do actually exist \u2014 although one that I noticed was perspicacious enough to acknowledge that the evidence on the subject is, as he put it, \u201cmixed\u201d and indecisive. \u00a0He apparently also believes \u2014 of course! \u2014 that the Apollo moon landings were faked on a soundstage somewhere, that the seven astronauts aboard the Challenger<\/em> space shuttle survived the \u201cexplosion\u201d that \u201cdestroyed\u201d it in 1986 and are living under assumed names in a kind of NASA witness-protection program; that Lee Harvey Oswald was framed by the CIA; that the COVID pandemic was really a \u201cplan<\/em>demic,\u201d and that the anti-COVID vaccines were part of a plot to . . . \u00a0do something or other. \u00a0(I begin to zone out, sometimes.) \u00a0I\u2019m not sure, but I think that the fact that President Nelson and other leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints received the COVID vaccine is what took him out of the Church; he probably realized at that point that the Church is just one more part of the vast global conspiracy. \u00a0And, oh yes, he\u2019s an anti-Semite.<\/p>\n

I find myself wondering what it would be like to live in his world. \u00a0I can easily imagine that it might be very terrifying. \u00a0But it\u2019s also, I suspect, deeply gratifying for him to know that he\u2019s one of the elite few who know what\u2019s really going on.<\/p>\n

\"Amazing,<\/a>
Captured by the Artemis II crew during their lunar flyby on April 6, 2026, this image shows the Moon fully eclipsing the Sun. From the crew\u2019s perspective, the Moon appears large enough to completely block the Sun, creating nearly 54 minutes of totality and extending the view far beyond what is possible from Earth. The corona forms a glowing halo around the dark lunar disk, revealing details of the Sun\u2019s outer atmosphere typically hidden by its brightness. Also visible are stars, typically too faint to see when imaging the Moon, but with the Moon in darkness stars are readily imaged. This unique vantage point provides both a striking visual and a valuable opportunity for astronauts to document and describe the corona during humanity\u2019s return to deep space. The faint glow of the nearside of the Moon is visible in this image, having been illuminated by light reflected off the Earth. (Image Credit: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of those who were outraged at my disapproval of Mr. Donald J. Trump\u2019s threat to destroy \u201ca whole civilization\u201d in Iran pointed to his threat as evidence of his alleged brilliance in negotiation. \u00a0(They seem to believe that he himself has read The Art of the Deal<\/em>.) \u00a0He demands eleven and gets five, one told me, whereas conventional (i.e., lesser) statesmen demand two and get one. \u00a0Naturally, when news of the claimed two-week ceasefire broke, they triumphantly described it as vindication for them and as proof of his unprecedented genius.<\/p>\n

Well, we shall see. \u00a0At this point, the ceasefire appears to be rather shaky \u2014 though I must say that, if we\u2019ve really weakened Iranian command and control as much as we appear to have done, and if, as has long been suggested, units of the Iranian military system (including not only the regular military but the roughly parallel Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) have been designed to function, in the event of such an attack as the Americans and the Israelis have just carried out, without central command \u2014 it may simply be the case that outlying units haven\u2019t yet received the memo. \u00a0(The Iranian internet has been down since the beginning of the conflict.)<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also not yet clear to me that the ten-point peace plan that Mr. Trump and his acolytes are celebrating really represents much of a success. \u00a0In case some of you are able to access it, I recommend this important article in National Review<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cIran Prepares to Dupe the West Again.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Taco<\/a>
I like tacos, but I don\u2019t quite know why I thought of a taco just now. \u00a0Maybe because the ceasefire was announced on Tuesday? (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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