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A Blog Entry from “Mars”

A Blog Entry from “Mars”

Last updated on: September 10, 2024 at 8:59 pm by Dan Peterson

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A Blog Entry from “Mars” 2024-09-10T20:59:39-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Castle Rock, near Moab, Utah (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)

Yet another new item has been posted on the moribund website of the Interpreter Foundation: Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 38: “Lift Up Your Head and Be of Good Cheer”: 3 Nephi 1-7.

This week for Come, Follow Me lesson 38 covering 3 Nephi 1-7, we have lectures 80, 81, and 82 from Hugh Nibley’s Book of Mormon classes at Brigham Young University, covering Helaman 13–3 Nephi 7.

During 1988, 1989, and 1990, Hugh Nibley taught Honors Book of Mormon classes for four semesters at Brigham Young University. The lectures were video-taped and audio cassettes and printed transcripts were made of the lectures. We believe these recordings will be interesting to listen to and valuable to your Come, Follow Me study program this year. Each week, we will include the lectures covering the Book of Mormon chapters being studied that week.

And please mark your calendar for the 2024 Temple on Mount Zion Conference:

The seventh Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Temple on Mount Zion Conference will be held on Saturday, September 28, 2024 in room 251 of the Tanner Building, Brigham Young University. The conference will be held live with no streaming. Recordings of the presentations will be available at a later date. Expanded, fully footnoted versions of the presentations will be published in a book of proceedings, anticipated sometime in 2025.

For more information, including the program schedule, abstracts, and presenter biographies, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2024-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/.

“Gunfire,” a photo taken by John Fowler near Moab, Utah on 22 August 2010
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

From the notorious right-wing fundamentalist rag The Economist: “Portrait of a detransitioner as a young woman: Carol has been a woman, a man and is a woman again. Her story has lessons for trans medicine”

Deseret News: “The real lives of Latter-day Saint wives: What Latter-day Saint women are saying about a new Hulu show” There is apparently a large audience out there for this kind of dreck, so it’s necessary to respond to it.

And you might find this interesting: “Garrett Batty – Mormon Film Maker”

The town of Moab lies in the southeastern portion of Utah.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)

May I remind you again of an upcoming event that will be held on the evening of Wednesday, 25 September, in Orem, Utah? “Unveiling History: Six Days in August Fireside: Join film director and cast members as they delve into the history of Six Days in August.”

You can reserve a space at the event by clicking on the link above.

The Colorado River, near Moab, Utah (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

We’re down in Moab for a few days with three other couples. Still working, though. I had to spend this morning on various bits of business while the rest of our number went over to Delicate Arch. However, I’m grateful for a laptop and the internet.

Nevertheless, I’m able to get out a little bit here and look around. This is an astounding landscape. Europe has wonderful mountains and fjords and meadows and, of course, fascinating history and historical monuments. There are probably very few Americans who are more passionate about the Alps than I am. There very few, I’m confident, who are more enthusiastic Anglophiles than I am. Whenever we spend much time in the United Kingdom, we join both English Heritage and the National Trust — and we get our money’s worth out of them. But Europe has nothing even remotely like the scenery in southern Utah.

Fisher Towers and the La Sal Mountains (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

We drove out along the Colorado River to Fisher Towers this afternoon. We were in the middle of nowhere and saw almost no other cars either there at the Towers or along the road, but I still noticed a small guest register there at the trailhead. In the past two days, people from Canada, Germany, and New Zealand had signed the guest register, as well as visitors from California, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and Kentucky. It seems that several movies have been filmed around Fisher Towers, including — no big surprise here — John Carter (which was set on Mars).

In the neighborhood of Moab, Utah
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo by Steven Damron)

From some of the online screeds that I’ve read over the years, “Utard” (the home of the “Mor[m]ons” or “Morgbots”) seems to be a kind of Hell on earth, rendered so by the oppressive religious cult that dominates it. The truth, though, may differ just a bit: “Utah ranked 4th among happiest states in America: Why Utah among the top states in the country on the happiness scale”

Finally, here’s an especially appalling report from the Christopher Hitchens “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™: “Finding Light and Love in a Dark Place | Michael’s Story.” Why can’t theists just leave people alone to enjoy their lives? The late great H. L. Mencken’s definition of puritanism as “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy” certainly applies to Latter-day Saints, as well, as is vividly illustrated in Michael’s story.

But the Hitchens File is inexhaustible! For example, are you nostalgic for the Europe of the 1930s and 1940s? If so, please don’t overlook the threat that a flourishing religiosity might have posed to the electoral rise of the Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD, “Alternative for Germany”): “Reviving Germany’s dark spirits? Some see the rise of the far-right AfD party as a threat to democracy.”

“The spiritual void eased the rise of the AfD, which like other far-right European parties, champions the [sic] cultural Christendom against Islam while disdaining actual Christian faith.”

Do you believe that breathing unhealthy and polluted air is the birthright of every human born on this planet, and that silly, meddling theists have no business trying to interfere with that right? Then you’re not going to be at all happy with this brief video: “Go Forth to Serve in Nepal: BYU Students Research Human Impact of Air Pollution”

And consider this abomination, too: “Harmony in Atlanta: Tabernacle Choir Reunites with Morehouse and Spelman Glee Clubs: The groups perform together in the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel.”

Posted from Moab, Utah

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