Historicity of The Book of Mormon

[LA Ute]

LA, if you're going to make assumptions like that without doing even a cursory internet search, then it appears you're the fool.

Jenkins was raised Catholic and later became Episcopalian (which is like Catholic-lite)
He has a very distinguished academic career spanning decades at Penn State.
He has only been at Baylor for two years as an honorary chair.


Let go of your biases and you'll be better able to see those of others. Jenkins isn't any more biased than the average academic, just brutally honest about facts and the methodology used to interpret those facts. His statement isn't all that outrageous if you leave your own biases at the door and realize that your life has meaning outside of how the BoM is interpreted.

I'll admit to not digging at all into who Jenkins is. My bad. My point, however, is that is silly to say something is incontrovertible when that conclusion is unprovable. We are talking about religious belief in the miraculous here. If he is saying it is incontrovertible that there were no Nephites in the Americas, doesn't that strike you as a pretty surprising statement for an academic to make?

As for my life's meaning, be gentle with me. I am taking baby steps here as you all guide me along into a better understanding of that weighty subject.

[Uncle Ted]

He doesn't have anything against Mormons.

Other than he seems to love to shred LDS apologists to bits for fun in his blog postings.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Other than he seems to love to shred LDS apologists to bits for fun in his blog postings.

The author of the original essay in question is a student. It was never a fair fight to begin with.

[Uncle Ted]

That's all I'm saying about this because as I've said before, Book of Mormon historicity is beneath legitimate topic of debate. Why is Jenkins wasting his time? His very engagement in this subject is what's harming his reputation.

I think Jenkins is a lot like you. He gets easily bored chatting with the intellectually inferior folks at his own college so he hangs out on forums and blogs that are mormon and BYU related.

[Uncle Ted]

The author of the original essay in question is a student. It was never a fair fight to begin with.

He shows no mercy... I like his style.

[wuapinmon]

I think Jenkins is a lot like you. He gets easily bored chatting with the intellectually inferior folks at his own college so he hangs out on forums and blogs that are mormon and BYU related.

[Solon]

I think Jenkins is a lot like you. He gets easily bored chatting with the intellectually inferior folks at his own college so he hangs out on forums and blogs that are mormon and BYU related.

Only because all of the really smart Penn Staters graduated.

[Uncle Ted]

Only because all of the really smart Penn Staters graduated.

Yeah, look what happen to Penn State on Saturday... going down hill fast.

http://6abc.com/sports/penn-state-bu...temple/974908/

[Pelado]

I think what he is saying is that BYU is against this sort of thing and will crush any professor who tries it. Hamblin has this in common with legitimate academics: he is opposed to lack of academic freedom at BYU! merit pay.

fify

[Commando]

realize that your life has meaning outside of how the BoM is interpreted.

What's with the love-fest?

[Solon]

Yeah, look what happen to Penn State on Saturday... going down hill fast.

http://6abc.com/sports/penn-state-bu...temple/974908/

Nah. Rock-bottom was in 2011. It's still hard for me to care much at all about PSU football after that scandal came out.

[Uncle Ted]

Yeah, that Jenkins/Hamblin BoM war has been something else. There has even been some other LDS apologist that have jumped in just and Jenkins just slaps them back into their place as well. For example...

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxious...s-and-oranges/

This seems like a complete list of links for the debate between Hamblin and Jenkins...

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/...1/debating.htm

[pellegrino]

I'll admit to not digging at all into who Jenkins is. My bad. My point, however, is that is silly to say something is incontrovertible when that conclusion is unprovable. We are talking about religious belief in the miraculous here. If he is saying it is incontrovertible that there were no Nephites in the Americas, doesn't that strike you as a pretty surprising statement for an academic to make?

As for my life's meaning, be gentle with me. I am taking baby steps here as you all guide me along into a better understanding of that weighty subject.

No, not in the least bit. It's really quite simple logic, especially when you read the following sentence, where he asks for evidence.

[wuapinmon]

No, not in the least bit. It's really quite simple logic, especially when you read the following sentence, where he asks for evidence.

It's pretty crass, but there's the old atheist example of not having to prove that there isn't a pink elephant god in someone's trunk just because they say so. If the only evidence for the existence of the pink elephant god in someone's trunk is people saying that there's a pink elephant god in someone's trunk, then Occam's Razor allows us to assert with near certainty, that, absent any demonstrable evidence, there is not a pink elephant god in someone's trunk.

[pellegrino]

It's pretty crass, but there's the old atheist example of not having to prove that there isn't a pink elephant god in someone's trunk just because they say so. If the only evidence for the existence of the pink elephant god in someone's trunk is people saying that there's a pink elephant god in someone's trunk, then Occam's Razor allows us to assert with near certainty, that, absent any demonstrable evidence, there is not a pink elephant god in someone's trunk.

Exactly. Furthermore, of you look at how Jenkins phrased it, it's clear that he formulated it as a syllogism, which though they may be out of fashion in some philosophical circles, still work as a means of formulating proofs.