My Column in "Mormon Times"

[Kenngo1969]

I think that I've failed to note one or two weeks of Peterson's habitually toxic nonsense.  Anyway . . .

 

In his most recent column, Peterson admits that the Book of Mormon is riddled with anachronisms, but contemptuously says "It doesn't matter, morons!":

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865602130/2-Book-of-Mormon-errors.html

Compared to you, I probably am a moron, Dan!

[Daniel Peterson]

Peterson throws the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon under the bus in order, somehow, to justify his racism.  Or something like that.  Whatever.

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865603660/The-Book-of-Mormon-witnesses-and-the-problems-of-eyewitness-testimony.html

[thesometimesaint]

Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1.

 

POLONIUS
 43   Ophelia, walk you here. —Gracious, so please you,
 44   We will bestow ourselves. [To Ophelia.] Read on this book;
 45   That show of such an exercise may color
 46   Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this—
 47   'Tis too much proved—that with devotion's visage
 48   And pious action we do sugar o'er
 49   The devil himself.

[Daniel Peterson]

Dripping with scorn, Peterson attacks the New Testament, arrogantly mocking the faith of hundreds of millions of Christians over the past two thousand years:

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865604050/A-40-day-gap-in-the-New-Testament.html

[Daniel Peterson]

Peterson has pretended to be John Sorenson's "friend" for at least twenty-five years now, but that doesn't protect Sorenson from being thrown under the bus and smeared when it suits Peterson's vindictive purposes to do so:

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865604505/John-Sorensons-Mormons-Codex-shares-lifetime-of-research-reflection.html

[Daniel Peterson]

Perhaps not even my Malevolent Stalker will attack me for this column:

 

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2014/06/through-cloud-and-sunshine-lord.html

[Tacenda]

Perhaps not even my Malevolent Stalker will attack me for this column:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2014/06/through-cloud-and-sunshine-lord.html

I really like what you say in this article, but sorry about your loss Dan.

[Daniel Peterson]

Back to his old ways, Peterson slanders Carl Sagan and assaults the use of reason in science as "godless" and "wicked":

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865605789/Diverging-lessons-from-a-Pale-Blue-Dot.html?pg=all

[Daniel Peterson]

Attempting to revise the Bible in order to create a wrathful and vengeful god after his own angry image, Peterson denounces all the passages that portray God as loving, claiming that they're later insertions by immoral, drug-crazed hippies and liberals:

 

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2014/07/two-opposing-errors-about-the-love-of-god.html

[Stargazer]

Dr. P, one of my favorite playlists on YouTube is you discussing Christopher Hitchens.  Can you tell me if the book you discuss that answers Hitchens will ever be published?

 

The reason I ask this is because I have a grandson who is currently in a post-graduate math program at Purdue, and he is has become a fan of Hitchens and Hitchens-like atheist writers.  "God and Mr. Hitchens" would make a wonderful gift for him!

[Zeta-Flux]

Attempting to revise the Bible in order to create a wrathful and vengeful god after his own angry image, Peterson denounces all the passages that portray God as loving, claiming that they're later insertions by immoral, drug-crazed hippies and liberals:

 

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2014/07/two-opposing-errors-about-the-love-of-god.html

 

 

It is funny but even after you pointed out the errors, lots of people in the comments made them again.  One that I noticed was the following:

 

 

 

The real God is better represented by his actual appearances to man in the four gospels and in the Book of Mormon's 3rd Nephi. Even the whip he braided was not used on people; it was used to drive animals from the temple courts. And let's remember, the real God did not go about seeking to kill people but was killed by them.

 

This ignores what Christ said to the Nephites right before his appearance--how he burned/destroyed entire cities because of their wickedness, etc...

[Daniel Peterson]

Star Gazer:

 

No, the book never appeared.  And that was exceedingly frustrating.  We got on it right away, and had it about 70-80% finished.  And we had a significant non-LDS publisher who expressed strong interest.  But the publisher then dawdled and hemmed and hawed, and published another (in my opinion, much weaker) book on the topic by a different author.  By that time, the golden moment had passed, and we couldn't find any substitute publisher outside of the LDS community -- for which my co-author, Bill Hamblin, had no interest.

 

We've still got the materials, and I think they're excellent.  But, at this point, they would have to be refocused a bit so as not to concentrate solely on Hitchens, and neither of us has the time at the moment.

 

Alas.

[Daniel Peterson]

Zeta-Flux:

 

I noticed exactly what you point out.  And, although I've rarely if ever used a subsequent column to respond to comments on a previous one, I'm thinking of making an exception in a couple of weeks, because the line of reasoning you point out is so blatantly wrong.

[Daniel Peterson]

In his latest eruption of hatred and bile in the so-called "newspaper" where his vengeance-driven screeds appear, Peterson betrays his fellow smear-artists at the organization they ironically call "FairMormon":

 

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2014/07/fairmormon-conference-seeks-to-give-reasons-for-the-hope-within-us.html

[Stargazer]

Star Gazer:

 

No, the book never appeared.  And that was exceedingly frustrating.  We got on it right away, and had it about 70-80% finished.  And we had a significant non-LDS publisher who expressed strong interest.  But the publisher then dawdled and hemmed and hawed, and published another (in my opinion, much weaker) book on the topic by a different author.  By that time, the golden moment had passed, and we couldn't find any substitute publisher outside of the LDS community -- for which my co-author, Bill Hamblin, had no interest.

 

We've still got the materials, and I think they're excellent.  But, at this point, they would have to be refocused a bit so as not to concentrate solely on Hitchens, and neither of us has the time at the moment.

 

Alas.

 

Very disheartening.

 

I'd offer to publish it under my own imprint, but ...  I'm only a print-on-demand shop, and this book would seem to need a more prestigious label with some marketing clout.

 

Oh, well.

 

Just out of curiosity, how many words are in the book?

[Daniel Peterson]

Unabashedly creating a cruel and vengeful god in his own implacably humorless image, Peterson denounces the idea of divine love:

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865607016/On-hanging-out-with-a-comfortable-god.html

[Daniel Peterson]

Very disheartening.

 

I'd offer to publish it under my own imprint, but ...  I'm only a print-on-demand shop, and this book would seem to need a more prestigious label with some marketing clout.

 

Oh, well.

 

Just out of curiosity, how many words are in the book?

 

 

I would need to go back and look.  It was more than 80,000, I recall.

[Daniel Peterson]

Peterson, who travels by car and by jet, ridicules the Mormon pioneers and minimizes their accomplishments, while, at the same time, denouncing blacks, Jews, women, gays, dissenters, and all non-Mormons:

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865607432/Remembering-the-Exodus-2-both-ancient-and-modern.html

[Daniel Peterson]

We're sometimes told not to "speak ill of the dead."  But that doesn't stop Peterson.  His perpetual anger reaches even beyond the grave:

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865607807/But-what-of-those-who-never-heard.html

[Daniel Peterson]

In which Peterson comes out of the closet, yet again, as a hateful anti-Semite who denies the Holocaust:

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865608238/Salvation-comes-through-Jesus-Christ-without-exception.html

[Daniel Peterson]

Evidence be damned! says Peterson, declaring reason a tool of Satan that cannot be trusted:

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865609690/Paul-and-his-list-of-eyewitnesses.html

[Daniel Peterson]

Snarling at those who dare to disagree, Peterson announces that Joseph Smith was a sinless god who may not be criticized:

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865610152/Joseph-Smith-wasnt-arrogant-or-boastful.html

[Tiki]

Snarling at those who dare to disagree, Peterson announces that Joseph Smith was a sinless god who may not be criticized:

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865610152/Joseph-Smith-wasnt-arrogant-or-boastful.html

And thus your justification for believing this:

"What may startle some about this situation is that most of what Joseph Smith said or implied about geography indicates that he did not understand or was ambiguous about the fact, as it turns out, that Mesoamerica was the particular setting for Nephite history."

http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1099&index=19&keyword=Said%20or%20implied

Congratulations in your criticisms of the Prophet Joseph Smith!

[Daniel Peterson]

Another "column" crammed to overflowing with nastiness and lies and arrogant demands for money:

 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865610650/The-restoration-of-the-ancient-temple.html

[Daniel Peterson]

Shockingly, Peterson expresses his indifference to genocide or ethnic cleansing, and his willingness to celebrate a mass murderer:

 

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2014/09/columbus-among-the-nephites.html