{"id":93561,"date":"2021-12-17T18:42:37","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T01:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=93561"},"modified":"2021-12-21T21:50:35","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T04:50:35","slug":"memories-at-arlington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2021\/12\/memories-at-arlington.html","title":{"rendered":"Memories at Arlington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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\"\"<\/a>
Robert F. Kennedy\u2019s grave is perhaps a hundred feet from his brother John\u2019s and, on the other side, about twenty-five feet from his brother Ted\u2019s (which is very similar and, plainly, very simple).
Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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

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Two new pieces, both of them book reviews, went up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA Masterpiece on Resisting Our Impulses to Leave,\u201d<\/a> by Daniel Ortner<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Review of S.\u00a0Michael\u00a0Wilcox,\u00a0Holding On: Impulses to Leave and Strategies to Stay<\/i>\u00a0(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021). 128 pages. $11.99 (paperback).<\/span><\/p>\n

Abstract:\u00a0<\/i><\/b>In his latest book, S.\u00a0Michael\u00a0Wilcox has written a\u00a0masterpiece on grappling with doubts and overcoming our impulses to leave the Church. Wilcox displays a\u00a0refreshing degree of personal vulnerability and openness, deep empathy and compassion for the struggling; and concrete and memorable suggestions for successfully dealing with faith crises. These traits give this book a\u00a0power that no other work published by Deseret Book on this topic can match.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cBeyond Calculation: A Review of Robert J. Sawyer\u2019s\u00a0Calculating God<\/em>,\u201d<\/a> by Jeff Lindsay<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Review of Robert\u00a0J.\u00a0Sawyer,\u00a0Calculating God<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2000). 336 pp. $23.99 (paperback).<\/span><\/p>\n

Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>In an entertaining and provocative science fiction novel, Calculating God, Robert\u00a0J.\u00a0Sawyer presents us with a\u00a0likable alien scientist visiting earth to obtain more data about God\u2019s ongoing work of creation. The alien is astounded that a\u00a0human scientist does not believe in God despite the obvious evidence. Sawyer\u2019s work introduces a\u00a0variety of reasonable scientific arguments for the existence of God in a\u00a0series of cleverly conceived dialogs and uses dramatic events to develop some perspectives on God. Sawyer\u2019s purpose is not to evangelize, and the troubling concept of an utterly impersonal God who emerges in Sawyer\u2019s interplay between multiple worlds is quite alien to Christianity and especially to the revelations from Joseph\u00a0Smith, which offer a\u00a0much more hopeful perspective. Calculating God is a\u00a0delightful read that raises some questions that need to be discussed more often, but to obtain meaningful answers, a\u00a0different calculus is needed.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s Note: We have, from time to time, published reviews or essays that draw upon disciplines that some may not consider as having bearing on The Interpreter Foundation\u2019s mission. For example, how can a\u00a0literary genre such as science fiction fit into our mission? Some may even scoff, presuming that science fiction has no place in academic discourse. Consider, though, that science fiction attempts to create fantastic worlds, and that those worlds (and the beings that populate those worlds) necessarily reflect a\u00a0\u201cworld view\u201d consistent with the cultural views of the authors. In the realm of religion, Joseph\u00a0Smith similarly described and promoted a\u00a0future world which he credited to revelation and interaction with the divine. Perhaps we can learn new insights by comparing the man-made views of our potential future with the revealed views of our future. In this review, Jeff Lindsay describes one science fiction author\u2019s take on the question of God\u2019s existence and compares the God in these pages to the God described by Joseph\u00a0Smith.]<\/span><\/p>\n

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And this went up on the Interpreter website yesterday:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Interpreter Radio Show \u2014 November 21, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n

The 21 November 2021 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show, liberated from commercial and other interruptions, has now been archived and made available at no charge online.\u00a0 This episode featured Bruce Webster, Kris Frederickson, and Mike Parker, and the first hour of it introduced the Books of Abraham and Moses, in accordance with the upcoming curricular year of Come Follow Me.\u00a0 The second portion of the show also focused on the opening lesson of the forthcoming curricular year.\u00a0 It was devoted to a roundtable discussion of the upcoming Come Follow Me lesson #1 (Moses 1; Abraham 3). The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard each and every Sunday evening from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not in Salt Lake Valley, reception will be very poor.\u00a0 But not to worry!\u00a0 \u00a0You can listen in live on the Internet from anywhere<\/i> at ktalkmedia.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

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Incidentally, I\u2019ve seen some reports that, sometime during the past twelve to twenty-four hours, I\u2019ve been deleting comments here.\u00a0 But I haven\u2019t been.\u00a0 So far as I can recall, I haven\u2019t deleted a single comment.\u00a0 <\/span>(I very seldom do.)\u00a0 <\/span>Disqus sometimes does odd things, though, such as deleting comments that contain apparently offensive words like Muhammad<\/i> and Islam.\u00a0 Sometimes it deletes comments for no evident reason.\u00a0 Both have happened to me.\u00a0 (It might not surprise you to learn that I\u2019m perhaps more prone than the average infidel to use words like Islam<\/i> and Muhammad<\/i>.)\u00a0 And there is even a chance that somebody, and perhaps not a friend, is marking these comments as \u201cspam.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 In any event, it\u2019s almost never yours truly.\u00a0 Typically, when I notice that perfectly appropriate comments have been deleted (including, yes, those from critics), I manually restore them.\u00a0 However, when I\u2019m traveling and largely away from my computer \u2014 as, not coincidentally, I am right now \u2014 I can go several hours, or a whole day, or even sometimes several days without having a chance to do so.<\/p>\n

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

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We spent most of the afternoon today strolling the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery, where, among many other things, we silently and solemnly watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.\u00a0 We also walked over to the burial place of President John F. Kennedy and his immediate family, and to the very simple nearby graves of Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy.\u00a0 Politically, I\u2019m a free market conservative and a federalist, and so, even apart from the peccadillos of the Kennedy clan, I\u2019m not a particular fan of theirs.\u00a0 (I rather liked Bobby\u2019s style.)\u00a0 But the Kennedys loomed large over much of my conscious life span, and I\u2019m old enough to remember not only RFK\u2019s shocking assassination in my home city but the national trauma that had earlier followed his brother\u2019s death in Dallas.\u00a0 (I still recall my elementary school teacher sobbing as, having abandoned any pretense of lessons, we watched the somber television news coverage of that horrible Friday.)\u00a0 President Kennedy was a Democrat, and I was already on my way to becoming a conservative.\u00a0 But it just didn\u2019t matter that day.\u00a0 We were less divided then, and an American icon \u2014 the young, glamorous President of the United States \u2014 had been stricken down by a murderer.\u00a0 We were deep in sorrow across party lines and across the nation.\u00a0 Or so it seemed to me then.<\/p>\n

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Posted from Washington DC<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 Two new pieces, both of them book reviews, went up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: \u00a0 \u201cA Masterpiece on Resisting Our Impulses to Leave,\u201d by Daniel Ortner Review of S.\u00a0Michael\u00a0Wilcox,\u00a0Holding On: Impulses to Leave and Strategies to Stay\u00a0(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021). 128 pages. 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