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I wound up reading an entry of “SeN” today, mainly due to Consig linking to the post where DCP seems to support a practice whereby sex offenders are left alone provided that they confess to their bishop.

Bad as that is, the bulk of Dr. Peterson’s post was a reminiscence about his time as a youth in Scotland, where he spent time amongst a bunch of luminaries, including several Nobel laureates. He wound up scoring such a trip via his essay-writing skills, as he explains:

I immediately decided to seek the prize and, curiously, I was always serenely confident that I would win it. I simply knew that I would. One of the principal approach paths to LAX passed far above my parents’ house in California and, as I sat out in their backyard writing my essay over the 1975 summer break, every plane that passed overhead reminded me of my upcoming trip to Great Britain.

Winning the essay contest — and I did, in fact, win it –allowed me to mingle socially with such figures as Friedrich von Hayek, who had won the first-ever Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974, as well as with Milton Friedman, who would win the 1976 prize just a few months later. I met future laureates like James Buchanan (1986) and Ronald Coase (1991), and spent a long afternoon exploring the superb used bookshops of St. Andrews with George Stigler, who would win the 1982 prize. One afternoon, I walked around the Royal and Ancient with the journalist and business historian John. Chamberlain, whom I greatly admired.

Great! Right? Except that DCP tells stories like this quite a bit: here he is, hobnobbing with some luminary, and yet… something seems “off.” What I realized in reading this is that Mormonism is 100% absent from these anecdotes. He *never* mentions the Church. Remember: this is someone who was tasked in his patriarchal blessing to defend and support the Gospel, and yet whenever he’s around some of the most influential people on planet earth, suddenly the Church seems…I dunno, like a “backwater” embarrassment? Seriously, why didn’t he bear his testimony to Milton Friedman, or give a Book of Mormon to John Chamberlain, who no doubt would have admired the ancient Nephites’ system of currency? What, one wonders, would von Hayek have thought about young Peterson’s literal belief in Jaredite barges? DCP’s story is all about how exciting it was for him to hang out with some of the “best and brightest” in the world and yet I’m struck by how his commitment to the Church seems to completely vanish. I mean, if these Nobel laureates are so smart, why would they wise up to what all the PhDs at MST have realized?

At the end of the day, I think that’s why I find DCP’s name-dropping so obnoxious. It’s not that he seems pathetic because wants to show that he hangs out with “important” people. It’s that he’s all “gaga” over these famous people while simultaneously seeming to know that they would think he was ridiculous if they knew what he was truly all about. If these Econ Nobel laureates are truly so bright, then why haven’t they joined the Church? How/why are they any better than the Brethren? And why, at the end of the day, does DCP never try to convert any of them?

I think we all know the answer.

I think we all know the answer.

It's a great point, surely Milton Friedman was smart enough to understand Mopologetics, wasn't he?

But I think we do know the answer as it exists in a certain apologists head. These greats will accept the gospel in the spirit world, and he was the guy who planted the seed. Remember how he said that he'd played instrumental roles in the conversion of people? He probably views the deceased as good as converted, and largely thanks to him.

I knew only a few of those names, so looked them up in bulk. Turns out the top link was the OP of this self-repost, from 2018.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... -past.html

I think deep down Peterson totally resents that intelligent intellectual women and men simply do not find Mormonism viable, so, since he is a professor who hangs out with the smart uppity ups, this is a small demonstration that yes, the absurd Mormon Gospel does actually house smart people (TA DA! Look at me for instance, Dr. Peterson himself! I'm a Mormon)

I think it galls him to truly no end whatever that the vast... v-a-s-t... V-A-S-T majority of people who join Mormonism are definitely the quite lower strata economically and socially and intelligently for the simply reason that the intelligent and well off in the world see not very much about anything Mormonism is and says. So he feels it a need, a spiritual necessity to put himself out there as a primo example of stellar aspect that an intelligent professor, not some ne-er do well, but a full fledged professor (hint, think intelligent here please) also believes in Mormonism, and therefore so should everyone else do so.

I located a digital copy of the prize-winning essay: https://fee.org/articles/the-future-of- ... -frontier/

meh...he was a teenager. I don't think he got invited to share the gospel and perhaps he wasn't even much of a believer then. Sounds like he had a pretty cool experience which few other teenagers ever got. As a teenager if I had won I probably was shy enough and insecure enough I'd have rather stepped aside and let the second place person go instead. Good for him. That he brags about it is a bit annoying, but nevermind that, good for him.

Tom wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 22, 2022 10:09 am

I located a digital copy of the prize-winning essay: https://fee.org/articles/the-future-of- ... -frontier/

Impressive synthesis of the capitalism dilemma. Today and in 1976.

Capitalism allocates resources more efficiently, over time, than any other system.

Problem is, naked capitalism treats people as a resource.

dastardly stem wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 22, 2022 1:39 pm

meh...he was a teenager. I don't think he got invited to share the gospel and perhaps he wasn't even much of a believer then. Sounds like he had a pretty cool experience which few other teenagers ever got. As a teenager if I had won I probably was shy enough and insecure enough I'd have rather stepped aside and let the second place person go instead. Good for him. That he brags about it is a bit annoying, but nevermind that, good for him.

He was in his early 20s and a returned missionary. But I see your point.

Tom wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 22, 2022 3:41 pm

He was in his early 20s and a returned missionary. But I see your point.

Lol. My mistake. I didn't look that closely thinking he was talking about something that happened in high school.

Tom wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 22, 2022 3:41 pm

dastardly stem wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 22, 2022 1:39 pm

meh...he was a teenager. I don't think he got invited to share the gospel and perhaps he wasn't even much of a believer then. Sounds like he had a pretty cool experience which few other teenagers ever got. As a teenager if I had won I probably was shy enough and insecure enough I'd have rather stepped aside and let the second place person go instead. Good for him. That he brags about it is a bit annoying, but nevermind that, good for him.

He was in his early 20s and a returned missionary. But I see your point.

I cannot imagine any person with elementary social courtesy in Peterson's spot running up to these folks and saying, would you like to know more about the Book of Mormon? (or would you like to know more about the book of Jeremiah? )