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
Travel and Religion
“To boldly go where no man has gone before”

“To boldly go where no man has gone before”

Last updated on: April 9, 2026 at 4:18 pm by Dan Peterson

0 Comments

“To boldly go where no man has gone before” 2026-04-09T16:18:41-06:00 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.

I think that it’s time to celebrate what the Artemis II mission has already accomplished and to pray for the crew’s safe return to Earth. So my photographic theme for (most of) this blog entry is images of Earth and the Moon taken from the Orion spacecraft.

This photograph was taken by Commander Reid Wiseman shortly after the four astronauts of Artemis II essentially exited Earth’s gravitational pull. (NASA public domain photo)

This chapter “reprint” — the concept of republishing a chapter is apparently a difficult one that, several years ago, sent a reader into a period of almost hysterical confusion, so please try to stay calm! — appeared today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “‘I, Abraham’: The Father of the Faithful in Light of the Book of Abraham,” Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition, written by David M. Calabro:

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, John S. Thompson, Matthew L. Bowen, and David R. Seely. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/abraham-and-his-family.

“This paper addresses what I have long felt to be a gap in studies on the Book of Abraham. Scholarship on the book has tended to focus on the issue of its historicity—or, more precisely, on whether it is best understood in an ancient context as an example of Joseph Smith’s divine gift of translating ancient records, as many scholars within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintain, or in a modern context as an example of a bungled attempt at translating ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, as the critics maintain. To be sure, this issue is of great importance, both for those attempting to historically contextualize the book’s message and for Latter-day Saints who struggle with the question of historicity as a test of Joseph Smith’s seership. However, in the widespread scholarly preoccupation with this issue, there has not emerged, to my knowledge, a focused treatment of what I see as an equally important issue—namely, the book’s narrative art: how the narrative itself is crafted in a way designed to powerfully inspire readers. In this study, I examine how the Book of Abraham’s narrative interacts with the biblical account of Abraham (Genesis 12–22). I attempt to show that the Book of Abraham is in dialogue with the biblical narrative, dynamically complementing it.”

Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon. A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater’s formation. (Image Credit: NASA)

I’ve heard all of my life about “Flat Earthers,” but I hadn’t really encountered any of them until the Artemis II mission began to get news coverage. Now, though, I’ve seen several of them popping up online, and I’m still recovering from the shock of learning for myself that such people do actually exist — although one that I noticed was perspicacious enough to acknowledge that the evidence on the subject is, as he put it, “mixed” and indecisive. He apparently also believes — of course! — that the Apollo moon landings were faked on a soundstage somewhere, that the seven astronauts aboard the Challenger space shuttle survived the “explosion” that “destroyed” it in 1986 and are living under assumed names in a kind of NASA witness-protection program; that Lee Harvey Oswald was framed by the CIA; that the COVID pandemic was really a “plandemic,” and that the anti-COVID vaccines were part of a plot to . . . do something or other. (I begin to zone out, sometimes.) I’m not sure, but I think that the fact that President Nelson and other leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints received the COVID vaccine is what took him out of the Church; he probably realized at that point that the Church is just one more part of the vast global conspiracy. And, oh yes, he’s an anti-Semite.

I find myself wondering what it would be like to live in his world. I can easily imagine that it might be very terrifying. But it’s also, I suspect, deeply gratifying for him to know that he’s one of the elite few who know what’s really going on.

Captured by the Artemis II crew during their lunar flyby on April 6, 2026, this image shows the Moon fully eclipsing the Sun. From the crew’s perspective, the Moon appears large enough to completely block the Sun, creating nearly 54 minutes of totality and extending the view far beyond what is possible from Earth. The corona forms a glowing halo around the dark lunar disk, revealing details of the Sun’s outer atmosphere typically hidden by its brightness. Also visible are stars, typically too faint to see when imaging the Moon, but with the Moon in darkness stars are readily imaged. This unique vantage point provides both a striking visual and a valuable opportunity for astronauts to document and describe the corona during humanity’s return to deep space. The faint glow of the nearside of the Moon is visible in this image, having been illuminated by light reflected off the Earth. (Image Credit: NASA)

Some of those who were outraged at my disapproval of Mr. Donald J. Trump’s threat to destroy “a whole civilization” in Iran pointed to his threat as evidence of his alleged brilliance in negotiation. (They seem to believe that he himself has read The Art of the Deal.) He demands eleven and gets five, one told me, whereas conventional (i.e., lesser) statesmen demand two and get one. Naturally, when news of the claimed two-week ceasefire broke, they triumphantly described it as vindication for them and as proof of his unprecedented genius.

Well, we shall see. At this point, the ceasefire appears to be rather shaky — though I must say that, if we’ve really weakened Iranian command and control as much as we appear to have done, and if, as has long been suggested, units of the Iranian military system (including not only the regular military but the roughly parallel Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) have been designed to function, in the event of such an attack as the Americans and the Israelis have just carried out, without central command — it may simply be the case that outlying units haven’t yet received the memo. (The Iranian internet has been down since the beginning of the conflict.)

But it’s also not yet clear to me that the ten-point peace plan that Mr. Trump and his acolytes are celebrating really represents much of a success. In case some of you are able to access it, I recommend this important article in National Review: “Iran Prepares to Dupe the West Again.”

I like tacos, but I don’t quite know why I thought of a taco just now. Maybe because the ceasefire was announced on Tuesday? (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)

Travel and Religion

History and Religion

Previous Post

April 7, 2026

“A whole civilization will die tonight”

Next Post

April 9, 2026 Historical notes about England and Hawaii

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"DP: “But Mr. Sutherland worries about the fact that our time, when we can communicate ..."

Theodore Brandley

Learning more about a region of ..."

"Another class of memories are of individuals who previously lived. Some of these remembered individuals ..."

PlasmaMiasma

Accounts of Premortality?

"Sutherland's lecture sounds interesting. He seems to restate the Washington consensus that trade brings peace ..."

B. Wilson

Learning more about a region of ..."

"In a meeting today, I learned another important reason why accurate (or at least as ..."

the PROBLEM

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

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

What Christian group believes in the doctrine of transubstantiation?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Catholics Pentecostals Baptists Protestants