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
History and Religion
Houston, you have a problem.

Houston, you have a problem.

Last updated on: August 19, 2023 at 6:35 pm by Dan Peterson

0 Comments

Houston, you have a problem. 2023-08-19T18:35:12-06:00 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.

Friendswood is located in the lower right corner of this map. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

The following note has now gone out to members of the Friendswood Texas Stake — Friendswood is in the greater Houston area, and is situated in the northwest corner of Galveston County — and I’ve been given permission to share it here. All are welcome and invited to attend:

Dear Sisters and Brothers,
All members of the Friendswood Stake are cordially invited to a special Stake Fireside on Saturday, September 9, 2023, at 6 PM at the Stake Center. The Fireside will feature Brother Daniel C. Peterson, a distinguished professor emeritus of Islamic Studies and Arabic at Brigham Young University. Brother Peterson’s talk will deal with six climactic days in August 1844, during which one of the most charged events in the history of the young church took place and how the hand of the Lord was manifested in power to make His will known as to whom would guide His church. The title of Brother Peterson’s talk is “6 Days in August: The Twelve’s Rise to Leadership.”
Dr. Peterson and his wife Deborah were the Producers of the acclaimed Latter-day Saint film “Witnesses” which tells the story of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon and to the follow up film, “Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon.”
He is also the founder and president of the Interpreter Foundation, which provides resources and scholarship for Latter-day Saints seeking answers to questions about the Church and its doctrine.
This will be a great opportunity to invite friends, family, and others to learn more about the beliefs and history of the Church. Below is additional biographical information about Brother Peterson.
We hope to see you there!
Sincerely,
Presidents Peterson [no relation], Rasband, and Owens, The Friendswood Stake Presidency

If you’re in the greater Houston area, please drop in!

An artist’s impression of the Hadean period of Earth’s history, by Tim Bertelink
(Wikimedia Commons publid domain image) Candidly, it looks just a tad uninviting.

I want to share with you now a couple of passages from John Cottingham, How can I believe? (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2018), which I picked up during our recent visit to the United Kingdom. The author is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Roehampton, and an Honorary Fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford:

It would be absurd to say that an atheist’s life life cannot contain many worthwhile and meaningful activities. But for the religious believer, human life is typically seen as having an additional significance that is the key to its ultimate meaning — what might be called a cosmic significance.

The best way to see what this involves is to set it against the opposite view. If the modern scientific materialist conception of the cosmos represents the final truth, then human life, together with love, consciousness and all that we value and treasure, is the result of inexorable physical laws operating blindly, without plan or purpose. It is of no more ultimate significance than an evanescent vapour that coalesces on a planetary rock for a while, as long as certain chemical configurations happen to arise, but is destined sooner or later to vanish, just as the rock itself will vanish, engulfed by the dying embers of the star around which it revolves.

Perhaps, by resolutely pursuing our own chosen activities and projects, we can salvage what meaning we can from this terrifyingly blank and indifferent cosmic backdrop. But however we construe it, our human existence will still be no more than a strange cosmic excrescence appearing and then disappearing without any more ultimate point or purpose than any of the other relentlessly unfolding events — shifting of tectonic plates, collisions of meteors, explosions of supernovas, spinning of galaxies — that mark the slow and inevitable running down of the universe towards the final stasis of total entropy. . . . (6-7)

Professor Cottingham contrasts this bleak picture with that offered by what he calls, speaking very generally, “a religious outlook”:

It is this kind of vision, this sense of ultimate ‘groundedness’, that led the great twentieth-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein to speak of a religious outlook as involving the feeling of being ‘absolutely safe — I mean the state of mind in which one is inclined to say “I am safe, nothing can injure me whatever happens.”‘ Wittgenstein certainly did not have in mind the naive or superstitious belief that God will protect us from the ordinary dangers of accident, aggression, weakness and failure that are inseparable from human life. What he may have meant was something closer to what has been called a sense of ‘ontological rootedness’ — a sense that, for all its difficulties and dangers, the world we inhabit is one in which we can feel ultimately at home. (8)

An evening view in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in a photograph taken a few months ago by James Jordan, one of the Interpreter Foundation’s principal filmmakers

But enough of such blather. Are you an angry atheist? Do you take obsessive satisfaction in mocking and attacking the faithful? Are you hungry for fresh examples of the evils wrought by religion and religious believers? Do you crave more fuel to feed your continuous anti-theistic indignation? Let the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™ help you! Here are four gratifyingly horrific links from the Hitchens File™ that will enable you to stoke your righteous rage:

“How the Church of Jesus Christ and UNICEF Are Keeping Mothers and Children Healthy and Safe: The US$10 million contribution from the Church aims to decrease maternal and newborn mortality in the Central African Republic (CAR), Haiti, Mali and Mozambique”

“Computer Donation Brightens Lives of Students in ‘Liberia Camp’ in Buduburam, Ghana: Church donates to Matthew Cares Foundation School”

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Donates a New Bridge in Kinshasa, DR Congo”

“Lahaina Latter-day Saints gather to draw strength after Maui wildfires: Church members in Hawaii mourn losses from devastating wildfires and look to the future with hope in the Savior”

History and Religion

Religion News

Previous Post

August 18, 2023

“Upon the Wings of His Spirit”

Next Post

August 20, 2023 Into the Storm

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Becoming Brigham: Episode 40Thank you Dan and Company for bringing us closer to understanding the ..."

Theodore Brandley

Notes toward planning my funeral

"The offending post is still there on my feed. You're referring to the "Celebration" etc ..."

Phil Leaning

Notes toward planning my funeral

""It’s not as hard as you think, you know.” If nothing else, Phillips nailed the ..."

mike

Two experiences with C. S. Lewis ..."

"Here is the section on the Word of Wisdom in the Church's General Handbook of ..."

mike

Two experiences with C. S. Lewis ..."

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

Which country has the most Protestant Christians by number?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Germany Brazil United Kingdom United States