Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
This Friday in Logan

This Friday in Logan

Last updated on: March 23, 2022 at 8:31 pm by Dan Peterson

This Friday in Logan 2022-03-23T20:31:52-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A 2008 view of Logan, Utah, by Michael Gordon, looking over the Logan Utah Temple toward the campus of Utah State University in the distance (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

***

It seems that I’m scheduled to speak this coming Friday up at the Latter-day Saint Institute of Religion in Logan, Utah:

Fri. 11:30am: Religion in Life – Daniel C. Peterson (Producer of Witnesses movie). Refreshments after.
Fri. 7pm Movie Witnesses – Treats, games, prizes, popcorn. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NEiXWtijQw

And, in case you still crave more of Me (and in case you missed it on my blog), here’s a little piece of mine that was picked up by Meridian Magazine:

“On the Divine Name in Exodus 6:2-3”

***

From the account of Dr. George G. Ritchie’s near-death experience given in his book Return from Tomorrow:

“What did you do with your life?
It seemed to be a question about values, not facts: What did you accomplish with the precious time you were allotted?
How much have you loved with your life? Have you loved others as I am loving you? Totally? Unconditionally?
I have shown you by the life I lived. I showed you by the death I died. And if you keep your eyes on Me, you will see more. . . . “

“Death is nothing more than a doorway,” Dr. Ritchie insisted, “something you walk through.”

George G. Ritchie, M.D. (1923-2007), was born in Richmond, Virginia. He eventually served as president of Richmond’s Academy of General Practice; chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Towers Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia; and founder and president of the Universal Youth Corps, Inc., for almost twenty years. In 1967, he entered private psychiatric practice in Charlottesville, Virginia. Then, in 1983, he moved to Anniston, Alabama, in order to serve as head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center. He returned to Richmond in 1986 to continue in private practice, retiring in 1992.

***

I won’t pretend that we’re close friends, but I’ve known (and respected) Thomas Griffith for a long time. Along with the various credentials listed in the article to which I link below, he is also a former stake president. Some here will care about that fact:

“A man for this season: Retired Judge Thomas B. Griffith, BYU’s former general counsel, introduced Ketanji Brown Jackson before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday. He’s trying to introduce America to a different kind of Washington, D.C.”

I have personally only caught a few minutes of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Perhaps a total of half an hour. In what I have seen, she has come across as reasonable and articulate — even, quite surprisingly, as something of an “originalist,” which is very much to my personal taste. I can’t really speak to what I haven’t watched, but I’ll admit that these articles do concern me:

“Judge Jackson Refuses to Define ‘Woman’ during Confirmation Hearing: ‘I’m Not a Biologist’”

“Judge Jackson’s Curious Agnosticism on Who Is a Woman”

“How to Answer the Question ‘What Is a Woman?’”

“It’s Okay, I’m Not a Biologist Either”

“Schrödinger’s Woman”

On the general question of Judge Jackson’s nomination, my opinion is this: She wouldn’t have been my choice. I’m a federalist, free-market, pro-life, strict-constructionist (or originalist) conservative. (I was for Amy Coney Barrett when being for Amy Coney Barrett wasn’t cool.) But Joe Biden is the president, and the right to nominate justices to the Supreme Court of the United States is a constitutional prerogative of the presidency. The Senate has the obligation to advise and consent. Not necessarily to roll over and play dead, but, historically, the Senate has (until recent times) generally approved SCOTUS nominations by pretty bi-partisan majorities — even, in not a few cases. by voice votes. Sandra Day O’Connor was confirmed 99-0, Anthony Kennedy 97-0, Antonin Scalia 98-0, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg 96-3. Unless a nominee is morally or intellectually defective, or a Communist, or a Nazi, or a fan of reality television, the president’s should be granted considerable (though not unlimited) deference. Elections have consequences. Mr. Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election — and, for the record, he did win it — entails certain things. And the utterly preventable and completely stupid Republican loss of those two Senate seats in the January 2021 Georgia special election has had consequences, too. Had the Senate been 52-48 Republican, Judge Jackson might well not have been President Biden’s choice for the Court.

***

Two related thoughts, totally unrelated to the political ruminations above:

I’m reminded of the [Richard] Dawkins-sponsored ads that appeared on the sides of London buses, declaring in bright colors, ‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.’ Interesting logic. You are a meaningless by-product of the circulating ooze in some ancient pond, soon to return to the dead chemicals that burped your ancestors out, sooo . . . go enjoy your life. . . . Life is meaningless. Isn’t it beautiful? [Douglas Axe, Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed (New York: HarperOne, 2016), 263, 264.]

If there is no God, then all that exists is time and chance acting on matter. If this is true then the difference between your thoughts and mine correspond to the difference between shaking up a bottle of Mountain Dew and a bottle of Dr. Pepper. You simply fizz atheistically and I fizz theistically. This means that you do not hold to atheism because it is true , but rather because of a series of chemical reactions. . . . Morality, tragedy, and sorrow are equally evanescent. They are all empty sensations created by the chemical reactions of the brain, in turn created by too much pizza the night before. If there is no God, then all abstractions are chemical epiphenomena, like swamp gas over fetid water. This means that we have no reason for assigning truth and falsity to the chemical fizz we call reasoning or right and wrong to the irrational reaction we call morality. If no God, mankind is a set of bi-pedal carbon units of mostly water. And nothing else. (Douglas Wilson)

***

Obviously, this article isn’t directly relevant to the Book of Mormon. But it’s interesting nonetheless:

First people in America didn’t arrive by land bridge but by SEA due to Game-of-Thrones-esque wall of ice that new research suggests may have covered the area that is now Alaska

A land bridge running down from Siberia to the Great Plains of America is long thought to be how the first migrants arrived from Asia into America
Researchers examined the exact age of the opening of the ice-sheet corridor on this land bridge
They determined that a giant wall of ice would have prevented the first migrants
New work instead suggests the first wave of humans arrived in America on small boats

Thanks to (I believe) Cody Quirk for calling it to my notice.

***

Parts, at least, of this extremely interesting article plainly belong in the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File©:

“The state of faith: Yes, organized religion is on the decline. But new research shows faith still plays a powerful, unifying role in American life”

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 23, 2022

A full decade gone, and still I grieve

Next Post

March 24, 2022 "Immense theological profundity"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

To where did Jesus' family flee from Bethlehem?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Nazareth Greece Samaria Egypt