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Faith is By Choice An LDS Faith Blog

Sic Et Non

“Oh say, what is truth?”

2 weeks 6 days ago
  Cody Quirk has kindly called to my notice an article about an interesting discovery in Central America:  “Archaeologists in Panama find ancient tomb filled with gold treasure — and sacrificial victims.” Although the site and the golden artifacts that were found by the archaeologists date to a period that is somewhat after the end […]
Dan Peterson

A clear rebuke in the House of the Lord at Kirtland

3 weeks ago
  I hope that I don’t offend or violate any confidences with the little story that I’m about to tell.  I wasn’t asked to keep it confidential, and I won’t share the crucial personal name — not least because, having never known it, I’m unable to share it.  Moreover, I hope that I’m accurately recalling […]
Dan Peterson

A few more thoughts on the Kirtland Temple deal

3 weeks 1 day ago
  Amidst the general rejoicing among Latter-day Saints at our church’s recovery of the Kirtland Temple (and other properties in Kirtland and in Nauvoo) — joy in which I enthusiastically share — we should probably not forget that the transaction has caused deep sadness among not a few members of the Community of Christ, including […]
Dan Peterson

This is a banner day!

3 weeks 2 days ago
  For anybody who cares about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, today’s news is absolutely thrilling.  I have been hoping for these developments for a many decades: “Responsibility and Ownership of Sacred Sites and Historic Documents Transfer to Church of Jesus Christ: Acquisitions include Kirtland Temple, historic buildings in […]
Dan Peterson

“The Easter Connection”

3 weeks 3 days ago
  Interpreter Radio Show — February 25, 2024 For the 25 February 2024 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, Steve Densley and John Thompson spoke with their special guest, Kerry Muhlestein. They discussed Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson 12 and Kerry’s new book The Easter Connection. Their conversation, shorn of commercial breaks and […]
Dan Peterson

“The Power of Boundless Compassion”

3 weeks 4 days ago
  My wife and I have belonged for many years to a monthly reading group — its formal name is The Gadianton Polysophical Marching and Chowder Society — that I’ve mentioned here at least once or twice before.  Tonight, we were the leaders of a discussion that was centered on a book that we had […]
Dan Peterson

“Christ’s Resurrection (UCLA)”

3 weeks 5 days ago
  While going through and trying to organize some materials on my computer, I came across the following file, which was titled “Christ’s Resurrection (UCLA).”  Evidently, it is a set of notes for some sort of undated presentation at or near UCLA that I can no longer recall.  Their reliance upon an article by the […]
Dan Peterson

“Kingly Names, Kingly Ambitions”

3 weeks 6 days ago
  “Proper Names and Political Claims: Semitic Echoes as Foundations for Claims to the Nephite Throne,” written by Lyle H. Hamblin Abstract: The Book of Mormon contains examples of phonemes in character names that resemble Semitic root words. The possible meanings of the names and their timing in the Book of Mormon narrative provide a […]
Dan Peterson

Christian California

4 weeks ago
  I would like to call your attention to a few articles by Latter-day Saint social scientists whom I find consistently interesting and worth reading.  One of them is Stephen Cranney: “How many churches still favor traditional marriage?  Have most American churches accommodated by now the sea change in public attitudes about marriage? Not really” […]
Dan Peterson

With aroha for all

1 month ago
  According to accounts preserved in Hawaiian mythology, the great gods Kāne (pronounced KAH-nay), Lono, Kū, and (possibly) Kanaloa existed before the creation of the world. In the beginning, according to one tradition, nothing existed except a chaotic blackness called the “Po” (“night”). But Kāne awoke and, realizing that he was distinct from the Po, […]
Dan Peterson

“We Rejoice in Christ”

1 month ago
  Some of the polymathic scientists and  littérateurs over at the Peterson Obsession Board like to picture me as a gourmand and a foodie who waddles incessantly between high-end multiple-course meals.  That isn’t actually me at all — last night, we had grated cheese on tortilla chips for dinner, whereas the previous two nights had […]
Dan Peterson

Ignorance is No Defense

1 month ago
  This blog entry is, to a considerable extent, a continuation of the thinking that I began yesterday. Considerable merriment has been occasioned among a handful of merry madcaps over at what I call the Peterson Obsession Board by my repeated invitations to an atheist commenter on my blog (whom we shall call “gemli”) that […]
Dan Peterson

Fact and Theory and Extraordinary Claims

1 month ago
  An article in The New York Times Magazine for 26 April 1981 entitled “Rosetta Stones from Space” opened as follows: The first recorded meteorite fell in Phrygia in Asia Minor about 2000 B.C. The object was carried to a local temple and then later transported to Rome, where it remained for 500 years before […]
Dan Peterson

A transient paradise

1 month ago
  Traveling around Hawai’i — we went up and around to Princeville today, and out to the overlook by Kilauea Point Lighthouse — it’s interesting to see evidences of the forces that made its islands and that are now, in most places here, very slowly unmaking them.  As the tectonic plate on which the Hawaiian […]
Dan Peterson

Jodi Hildebrandt, Ruby Franke, and Mosiah’s Dynasties

1 month ago
  Two new items appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation today: “Prophet or Loss: Mosiah1/Zeniff, Benjamin/Noah, Mosiah2/Limhi and the Emergence of the Almas,” written by Val Larsen Abstract: Mormon’s overwhelmingly dominant rhetorical purpose is to testify of Christ, which he and his protagonists often directly do. But he also communicates his testimony more […]
Dan Peterson

Light, Fire, Gold, and Death

1 month ago
  Two non-new articles have newly appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation.  I hope that you will enjoy them: Conference Talks:  Adam, Eve, the Book of Moses, and the Temple: The Story of Receiving Christ’s Atonement, was delivered at the Interpreter Foundation’s 2020 “Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses Conference” by […]
Dan Peterson

Links between heaven and earth

1 month 1 week ago
  A friend picked us up at our hotel early this evening and took us out to the grounds of the Sydney Australia Temple in Carlingford.  I presented a fireside there on the witnesses to the Book of Mormon.  It was good to friends here again.  We’ve just returned. I share some notes from my […]
Dan Peterson

“Parting is such sweet sorrow”

1 month 1 week ago
  Well, our cruise ended this morning where it first began.  We disembarked from our ship, the Ovation of the Seas, and made our way to our hotel in Sydney.  Our group had said their goodbyes last night.  Most of them are over the Pacific Ocean by now.  The Australians who were among us are […]
Dan Peterson

Memories Connected with Sydney (and Rome)

1 month 1 week ago
  If all goes according to plan and if my understanding is not mistaken, I will be speaking at Buckland House on the grounds of the Sydney Australia Temple this Thursday night, 22 February 2024.  I don’t know the time yet, but it will be in the evening.  I’m guessing that it will begin at […]
Dan Peterson

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

1 month 1 week ago
  For my own undoubtedly dishonorable purposes, I’m extracting here some more of the passages that I marked during my recent re-reading of Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer’s posthumously-published 2008 book Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind.  And, to reorient those who may be reading, I once again cite the brief […]
Dan Peterson
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9 hours 27 minutes ago
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