FAIR's 2011 Symposium

[Green Monstah]

Just a little hair-splitting here: This is a FAIR Conference, not a symposium, and they're pretty transparent about their goals:



http://www.fairlds.org/conf11a.html

I've never been to one of these things so I can't comment on the tone or ambience or content.

I'm sure you'll find a lot of the content interesting and helpful. It sounds like Mormon dialogue is your cup of tea, so I have no doubt you'll be glad you attended.

[Green Monstah]

It's quackery to hold a "symposium" when many of the conclusions have been pre-determined.

It's also par for the course to cherry-pick topics from the ancient world to try to establish ancient roots for LDS beliefs: (e.g. Mesopotamia & Egypt topics), while conveniently discarding any that don't jive with LDS beliefs.

Nobody's saying these guys aren't smart. They have interesting and creative ideas, and are free to pursue them. But their endeavors aren't "scholarship," strictly speaking, despite Peterson's article that trumpets the academic credentials of all the contributors.

That's the quackish part.

I don't think they're trying to be objective, though, right? Aren't the fairly explicit that they're goal is to defend and justify LDS faith? Quackish? maybe. Probably just putting forth their explicit agenda, just as the folks at the exMormon conference aren't going to invite apologist points of view at their annual meeting.

[jay santos]

Amen.

He's an excellent spokesperson for people who are using apologetics to reinforce their belief that the Church is absolutely true, but is a real stumbling block to people who are earnestly inquiring into the veracity of the Church's claims and would like a pro-Church point of view to balance the anti material they've encountered.

When you go to investigate LDS historical and doctrinal issues, it's easy to determine material from irrational, completely biased, and unprofessional anti-Mormons. You easily dismiss all this stuff. You can also easily determine the same crap on the opposite side of things: mean spirited, unprofessional, propoganda-like crap. It's usually comes from Dan Peterson.

[scottie]

John Dehlin has a Mormon Stories podcast with Daniel Peterson coming out soon. Might be interesting.

[jay santos]

If anyone likes Mormon Apologetics or even just a good Nancy Drew mystery, you really need to take a look at what's unfolding from the talk at the FAIR Symposium on the Kinderhooks plates. Quite fascinating.

[scottie]

If anyone likes Mormon Apologetics or even just a good Nancy Drew mystery, you really need to take a look at what's unfolding from the talk at the FAIR Symposium on the Kinderhooks plates. Quite fascinating.

When you say unfolding, are you talking about the Desnews article only?

[jay santos]

When you say unfolding, are you talking about the Desnews article only?

I'm reading some of the threads at http://www.mormondialogue.org