In Pursuit of the Elusive Joseph Smith - Dan Vogel

[_The Dude]

It's weird to get up and just read a paper. Is this the normal procedure at such conferences?

[Guest]

It's weird to get up and just read a paper. Is this the normal procedure at such conferences?

Hey, Dude. Haven’t you been to a conference? My personal preference is to read a well-prepared paper. Most, I think, do it that way. Those few who try to wing it usually bore the hell out of me. You get 10, 15, or 30 minutes. So you have to make every minute count. Very few can work from an outline. I saw Matthew Bowman do it quite well. But not many can do that without getting off topic. I have only seen a few do PowerPoint well. Most never get to the last point, which drives me crazy. When you read the paper, you know exactly how long it will take and since every word has been thought out, the audience gets your best performance.

I forgot to mention that there is usually a respondent who has also prepared a response, so the person giving the paper needs to stick to the script.

[_Tobin]

The best way to understand Joseph Smith is to follow in his footsteps. And this seems to be a common failing in his followers and leaders of the Church today. The proposition of Joseph Smith (or any prophet of the scriptures) is that mankind can really speak with and experience a divine presence. Either that is true and something we can do ourselves today, or it is all non-sense and a hoax and there is nothing more we need to further understand about it (and Joseph Smith).