{"id":93164,"date":"2021-11-03T12:54:07","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T18:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=93164"},"modified":"2021-11-06T00:03:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-06T06:03:00","slug":"on-imperfect-prophets-and-a-great-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2021\/11\/on-imperfect-prophets-and-a-great-president.html","title":{"rendered":"On Imperfect Prophets and a Great President"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Los Angeles California Temple by night
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A new installment of Kyler Rasmussen\u2019s Bayesian reflections has just gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Estimating the Evidence\u00a0Episode 18: On Imperfect Prophets<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s Note: This is the eighteenth in a series of 23 essays summarizing and evaluating Book of Mormon-related evidence from a Bayesian statistical perspective. See the\u00a0FAQ<\/a>\u00a0at the end of the introductory episode for details on methodology.]<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This in addition to the three items that went up yesterday:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me<\/em> Doctrine and Covenants Lesson 9: \u201cThe Worth of Souls Is Great\u201d <\/em>D&C 18-19<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

During 1978, 1979, and 1980, Hugh Nibley taught a Doctrine and Covenants Sunday School class. Cassette recordings were made of these classes and some have survived and were recently digitized by Steve Whitlock. Most of the tapes were in pretty bad condition. The original recordings usually don\u2019t stop or start at the beginning of the class and there is some background noise. Volumes vary, probably depending upon where the recorder was placed in the room. Many are very low volume but in most cases it\u2019s possible to understand the words. In a couple of cases the ends of one class were put on some space left over from a different class. There\u2019s some mixup around D&C90-100 that couldn\u2019t be figured out so those recordings are as they were on the tapes. Even with these flaws and missing classes, we believe these these will be interesting to listen to and valuable to your\u00a0Come, Follow Me<\/em>\u00a0study program. This week we have three Lectures relevant to the January 25-31\u00a0Come, Follow Me<\/em>\u00a0lesson.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me<\/em> Doctrine and Covenants Lesson 46 \u201cWhen We Obtain Any Blessing from God, It Is by Obedience\u201d <\/em>D&C 129-132<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me<\/em>\u00a0Doctrine and Covenants Lesson 46,\u00a0\u201cWhen We Obtain Any Blessing from God, It Is by Obedience,\u201d<\/em> on D&C 129-132, featured Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye, and Hales Swift. Liberated from commercial and other interruptions, it was extracted from the 3 October 2021 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show.\u00a0 The complete show may be heard at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreter-radio-show-October-3-2021\/<\/a>.\u00a0 Moreover, the Interpreter Radio Show can be heard each and every Sunday evening from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And this, kindly contributed by Jonn Claybaugh:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Come, Follow Me<\/em> \u2014 D&C Study and Teaching Helps Lesson 46, November 8-November 14, D&C 129-132 \u2014\u00a0\u201cWhen We Obtain Any Blessing from God, It Is by Obedience\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Driving down from Solvang yesterday, we spent a bit of time in Santa Barbara.\u00a0 Flawless weather.\u00a0 Beautiful place.\u00a0 Then, going a bit further, we drove by a beach campground just north of Ventura that I remember very well.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the story:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My parents and I were in our camper or motorhome there on the beach.\u00a0 I recall that it was dark; I seem to recall that I was asleep and it seems that perhaps all of us were.\u00a0 Suddenly, there was loud and urgent knocking at our door.\u00a0 It was a ranger or park official, telling us that there had been a massive earthquake in Alaska and that a \u201ctidal wave,\u201d a tsunami, was headed our way.\u00a0 I recall him saying that it might be as high as two hundred feet.\u00a0 Needless to say, everybody cleared off the beach and out of the immediate area as soon as they were able.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was the 1964 Alaska earthquake, also known as the Great Alaskan Earthquake or the Good Friday Earthquake.\u00a0 27 March 1964.\u00a0 At magnitude 9.2 and lasting fully four minutes and thirty-eight seconds, it still ranks as the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America and as the second most powerful earthquake recorded in the history of the world.\u00a0 (There have, I believe, been larger earthquakes in prehistoric times, but this one was huge.\u00a0 Please recall that the Richter magnitude scale is logarithmic, which means that each one-point increase on the scale represents a ten-fold increase in the magnitude of the quake.\u00a0 The enormously destructive and lethal Indian Ocean quake of 2004 came in at 9.1.\u00a0 The great San Francisco quake of 1906 was probably at or just under 8.0.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

After we returned home, we learned that my brother, ten years older than I, hearing of the earthquake, had immediately raced with his surfboard and one or two friends out to Santa Monica, where they spent the night on their boards out on the water, eagerly awaiting The Wave.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, fortunately for my brother and his pals, the 200-foot tsunami never materialized.\u00a0 There was considerable damage in the Pacific Northwest, and even some damage in Hawaii. Twelve people were killed in Crescent City, California, including four children.\u00a0 Some boats were harmed along the coast near Los Angeles, but the wave, when it came to southern California, wasn\u2019t much more than a bump.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, it was a memorable evening for me, and a horrible night for too many.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We were also able to spend some time at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in Simi Valley.\u00a0 This was at least my third visit to the Library, which is also the burial place of President Reagan and his wife, Nancy Wilson Reagan, the First Lady.\u00a0 I was actually at the library, with my friend and current Interpreter Foundation associate Ed Snow, on the day that President Reagan died, 5 June 2004.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was good to be reminded, yet again, of a time when the presidency still seemed a dignified office \u2014 as Reagan himself often said, and as he is quoted at the Library as saying, an office larger than any of its transient occupants.\u00a0 It was good to remember a good and decent man who loved his country and fought for principle.\u00a0 And, with that, I will bite my tongue.\u00a0 I don\u2019t idealize or sentimentalize the Reagan years \u2014 I lived through them \u2014 but they were, in many, many ways, a much better time than this ignorant present.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last night, with the widow of our former branch president in Cairo and her daughter and with an Egyptian artist friend and two of his daughters \u2014 people that we have known since, as newlyweds, we first went to live in Egypt \u2014 we enjoyed dinner practically under the shadow of the Los Angeles California Temple (my temple, growing up) at the Sunnin Lebanese Restaurant<\/a> on Westwood Boulevard.\u00a0 The food was excellent.\u00a0 The company even more so.\u00a0 Lots of stories and lots of laughter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I often think, in connection with such gatherings as these, of such passages as this, from Doctrine and Covenants 130:2:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I hope that I can be forgiven if I also think of these lines, from the late John Denver:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been lately thinking about my life\u2019s time<\/span>
\nAll the things I\u2019ve done, how it\u2019s been.<\/span>
\nAnd I can\u2019t help believing in my own mind<\/span>
\nI know I\u2019m gonna hate to see it end.<\/span><\/div>\n
I\u2019ve seen a lot of sunshine, slept out in the rain,<\/span>
\nSpent a night or two all on my own.<\/span>
\nI\u2019ve known my lady\u2019s pleasures, had myself some friends,<\/span>
\nAnd spent a night or two in my own home.<\/span><\/div>\n
I have to say it now, it\u2019s been a good life, all in all.<\/span>
\nIt\u2019s really fine to have a chance to hang around<\/span>
\nAnd lie there by the fire and watch the evening tire<\/span>
\nWhile all my friends and my old lady sit and pass the pipe around.<\/span><\/div>\n
Talk of poems and prayers and promises and things that we believe in.<\/span>
\nHow sweet it is to love someone, how right it is to care.<\/span>
\nHow long it\u2019s been since yesterday and what about tomorrow?<\/span>
\nWhat about our dreams and all the memories we share?<\/span><\/div>\n
The days they pass so quickly now, nights are seldom long.<\/span>
\nTime around me whispers when it\u2019s cold.<\/span>
\nThe changes somehow frighten me, still I have to smile.<\/span>
\nIt turns me on to think of growing old.<\/span><\/div>\n
For though my life\u2019s been good to me there\u2019s still so much to do,<\/span>
\nSo many things my mind\u2019s never known.<\/span>
\nI\u2019d like to raise a family, I\u2019d like to sail away<\/span>
\nAnd dance across the mountains on the moon, yes I would.<\/span><\/div>\n
I have to say it now, it\u2019s been a good life, all in all.<\/span>
\nIt\u2019s really fine to have the chance to hang around<\/span>
\nAnd lie there by the fire and watch the evening tire<\/span>
\nWhile all my friends and my old lady sit and watch the sun go down.<\/span><\/div>\n
Talk of poems and prayers and promises and things that we believe in.<\/span>
\nHow sweet it is to love someone, how right it is to care.<\/span>
\nHow long it\u2019s been since yesterday and what about tomorrow?<\/span>
\nWhat about our dreams and all the memories we share?<\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Newport Beach, California<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 A new installment of Kyler Rasmussen\u2019s Bayesian reflections has just gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0 Estimating the Evidence\u00a0Episode 18: On Imperfect Prophets [Editor\u2019s Note: This is the eighteenth in a series of 23 essays summarizing and evaluating Book of Mormon-related evidence from a Bayesian statistical perspective. 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