honorentheos wrote:Also, 2011 has left me even more impressed with Dr. Shades who seems supernaturally immune to peer-pressure and opinion in his aim to provide a truly free-speech environment.
Wow, THANK YOU for the kind words! And a happy new year to you.
May 2012 be the year of Tarski, Shades, Kish, Blixa, and Gad.
To be grouped in the same sentence with those luminaries is a grand compliment indeed. I appreciate it.
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"
Blixa wrote:..."mopologetics:" a term which designates to me a body of apologia that is disingenuous, intellectually vapid and invested in histrionic ad hominem attack...
When you consider what they are defending--not just the social, historical and cultural aspects of Mormonism, but its truth claims--those three might be the best tools available for mopologists. Defending the indefensible requires diversionary tactics.
Blixa wrote:..."mopologetics:" a term which designates to me a body of apologia that is disingenuous, intellectually vapid and invested in histrionic ad hominem attack...
When you consider what they are defending--not just the social, historical and cultural aspects of Mormonism, but its truth claims--those three might be the best tools available for mopologists. Defending the indefensible requires diversionary tactics.
Well, I don't know about that. For example, LDST provided a cogent defense of the Book of Abraham in Celestial (basic catalyst theory) that didn't descend to personal smears or ascend to hysteric victimist arias. And while I don't "buy" that argument, it does have a perfectly consistent internal logic.
And we could find scholars like Bushman who are more forthcoming in their own writing and apparently open to encouraging the historical work of secular scholars. I think it is possible to provide useful discussions of theology, of history, of doubts, of various "truth claims" without the intellectually belligerent dirty fighting that I associate with those who are labeled "mopologists."
From the Ernest L. Wilkinson Diaries: "ELW dreams he's spattered w/ grease. Hundreds steal his greasy pants."
I'm one of those MDB members that is in debt. I take from here much, much more than I give. I don't think anyone knows the extent of positive therapy this place has provided me. I could easily list a solid 40 people here that have helped me out in some way. Obviously, those listed in the OP are included in that list.
Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given... Zeus (1178 BC)