Who is this "Malevolent Stalker" haunts DCP?

[_Mister Scratch]

ROLF, what difference does it make if the LDS church pays DCP or not? IMHO this just goes to show the extent that ant-mormons will go to try and criticize the LDS church.

Here's another interesting fact about "ant-mormons": They can lift 10 times their own weight!

[_RockHeaded]

The funny thing is I doubt if 90% of the anti Mormons on the internet could hold a good debate with DCP and I think that is why he is attacked on this message board so frequently.

90%? Kinda low don't you think?

it's probably more like 99% but since I know how modest DCP is I figured I'd lower it to 90% ;)

[_Trevor]

it's probably more like 99% but since I know how modest DCP is I figured I'd lower it to 90% ;)

Oh, yes. Never a more modest man have I run into.

[_harmony]

it's probably more like 99% but since I know how modest DCP is I figured I'd lower it to 90% ;)

Oh, yes. Never a more modest man have I run into.

Well, if you run into the arrogant self-righteous pricks, your car insurance goes up.

[_Trevor]

Well, if you run into the arrogant self-righteous pricks, your car insurance goes up.

Well, thank goodness I only tussle with the humble likes of Dr. P!

[_solomarineris]

ROLF, what difference does it make if the LDS church pays DCP or not? IMHO this just goes to show the extent that ant-mormons will go to try and criticize the LDS church. IT'S DUMB! Does anyone realize that these evidences, for which Daniel Peterson is part of discovering, are used by the LDS Church as a teaching tool for their current members? Does it really matter that DCP enjoys debating on the internet? The funny thing is I doubt if 90% of the anti Mormons on the internet could hold a good debate with DCP and I think that is why he is attacked on this message board so frequently.
RockHeaded

If you were tithe paying TBM, I'd be most interested how much money this guy makes, how many trips he takes at the xpense of church coffers.
Antishock courageously disclosed his salary, a modest 80K, I don't think DCP makes that much, perhaps close. But how many trips he makes during the year
at the expense of church? I know for a fact those trips are not cheap, I bet one third/or more of his salary is jacked up by these perks, which I venture to say
jacks up his brutto income close to 90/100K. I myself take such trips, none lavish or first class but each trip costs (domestic) at least 2500$. You make dozen
domestic trips, you've got 30K in perks, add your measly salary of 60-70K, I say it is still a pretty good living, even though you pay full tithing.

[_RockHeaded]

ROLF, what difference does it make if the LDS church pays DCP or not? IMHO this just goes to show the extent that ant-mormons will go to try and criticize the LDS church. IT'S DUMB! Does anyone realize that these evidences, for which Daniel Peterson is part of discovering, are used by the LDS Church as a teaching tool for their current members? Does it really matter that DCP enjoys debating on the internet? The funny thing is I doubt if 90% of the anti Mormons on the internet could hold a good debate with DCP and I think that is why he is attacked on this message board so frequently.
RockHeaded

If you were tithe paying TBM, I'd be most interested how much money this guy makes, how many trips he takes at the xpense of church coffers.
Antishock courageously disclosed his salary, a modest 80K, I don't think DCP makes that much, perhaps close. But how many trips he makes during the year
at the expense of church? I know for a fact those trips are not cheap, I bet one third/or more of his salary is jacked up by these perks, which I venture to say
jacks up his brutto income close to 90/100K. I myself take such trips, none lavish or first class but each trip costs (domestic) at least 2500$. You make dozen
domestic trips, you've got 30K in perks, add your measly salary of 60-70K, I say it is still a pretty good living, even though you pay full tithing.

He is a professor at BYU? I imagine that these trips are payed for by the school. I know a professor that works at UCLA and UCLA pays for his trips to archeological sites. There is no difference here.

[_Chap]

The funny thing is I doubt if 90% of the anti Mormons on the internet could hold a good debate with DCP and I think that is why he is attacked on this message board so frequently.

90%? Kinda low don't you think?

it's probably more like 99% but since I know how modest DCP is I figured I'd lower it to 90% ;)

The fact that DCP manages to look more intelligent and better informed than the majority of his interlocutors is hardly a surprise. He is a professional academic, a person who from high school has followed a career path that at each stage selects strongly for articulacy in speech and writing, and the ability to marshal information to support an argument. Moreover, for years now he has been studying the art of making the best possible case for the claims of the CoCJoLDS.

If a man like that cannot put up a good fight against critics who in quite a few cases seem not to have completed a college education, and whose knowledge of LDS issues is limited to what they learned in church, supplemented by some not very extensive internet research, I should be surprised. And on top of that, he generally only debates apologetic issues in the protective environment of MAD, where he is quite selective about the debates he takes on and the kind of people he argues with.

The real test for DCP would be to put him up against (say) a well informed top-rank scholar in Patristics on the subject of the Great Apostasy, or against a leading Mesoamerican archeologist on the Limited Geography Theory. And one would have to set it up so that they had the same motivation that he has to give it their best shot and pull no punches.

This is very unlikely to happen, since:

(a) Most mainstream scholars do not want to waste their time arguing about what are even in the USA minority beliefs with no influence on mainstream thought;

(b) Most mainstream scholars are (how shall we say?) too kind and polite to wish to be involved in publicly slamming the beliefs that underpin someone's religion. It looks rude and arrogant. So they are simply very reluctant to press home their attack.

Hence, DCP will no doubt continue to crow long and loud in the little barnyard of LDS apologetics.

[_antishock8]

ROLF, what difference does it make if the LDS church pays DCP or not? IMHO this just goes to show the extent that ant-mormons will go to try and criticize the LDS church. IT'S DUMB! Does anyone realize that these evidences, for which Daniel Peterson is part of discovering, are used by the LDS Church as a teaching tool for their current members? Does it really matter that DCP enjoys debating on the internet? The funny thing is I doubt if 90% of the anti Mormons on the internet could hold a good debate with DCP and I think that is why he is attacked on this message board so frequently.
RockHeaded

If you were tithe paying TBM, I'd be most interested how much money this guy makes, how many trips he takes at the xpense of church coffers.
Antishock courageously disclosed his salary, a modest 80K, I don't think DCP makes that much, perhaps close. But how many trips he makes during the year
at the expense of church? I know for a fact those trips are not cheap, I bet one third/or more of his salary is jacked up by these perks, which I venture to say
jacks up his brutto income close to 90/100K. I myself take such trips, none lavish or first class but each trip costs (domestic) at least 2500$. You make dozen
domestic trips, you've got 30K in perks, add your measly salary of 60-70K, I say it is still a pretty good living, even though you pay full tithing.

He is a professor at BYU? I imagine that these trips are payed for by the school. I know a professor that works at UCLA and UCLA pays for his trips to archeological sites. There is no difference here.

Well, that's just it, isn't it? You have to imagine how much is being spent on apologetics rather than know because your church won't tell you how it spends your money.

[_RockHeaded]

The funny thing is I doubt if 90% of the anti Mormons on the internet could hold a good debate with DCP and I think that is why he is attacked on this message board so frequently.

90%? Kinda low don't you think?

it's probably more like 99% but since I know how modest DCP is I figured I'd lower it to 90% ;)

The fact that DCP manages to look more intelligent and better informed than the majority of his interlocutors is hardly a surprise. He is a professional academic, a person who from high school has followed a career path that at each stage selects strongly for articulacy in speech and writing, and the ability to marshal information to support an argument. Moreover, for years now he has been studying the art of making the best possible case for the claims of the CoCJoLDS.

If a man like that cannot put up a good fight against critics who in quite a few cases seem not to have completed a college education, and whose knowledge of LDS issues is limited to what they learned in church, supplemented by some not very extensive internet research, I should be surprised. And on top of that, he generally only debates apologetic issues in the protective environment of MAD, where he is quite selective about the debates he takes on and the kind of people he argues with.

The real test for DCP would be to put him up against (say) a well informed top-rank scholar in Patristics on the subject of the Great Apostasy, or against a leading Mesoamerican archeologist on the Limited Geography Theory. And one would have to set it up so that they had the same motivation that he has to give it their best shot and pull no punches.

This is very unlikely to happen, since:

(a) Most mainstream scholars do not want to waste their time arguing about what are even in the USA minority beliefs with no influence on mainstream thought;

(b) Most mainstream scholars are (how shall we say?) too kind and polite to wish to be involved in publicly slamming the beliefs that underpin someone's religion. It looks rude and arrogant. So they are simply very reluctant to press home their attack.

Hence, DCP will no doubt continue to crow long and loud in the little barnyard of LDS apologetics.

You make it sound like DCP does this work just to get paid. What you fail to realize is that he really does believe in what he is defending. I am sure that he could hold his own against other scholars with a different point of view. I do know of one such archeologist, who coincidentally is the one I mentioned whom is a professor at UCLA, that has questioned if the Book of Mormon is true. He digs in Central and South America. Now, he hasn't come out and said he believes the Book of Mormon is true, but yes through his research he has questioned the possibility which is a lot more than what most would do. He of course fears for his job if he were to do research into it because he isn't supposed to believe it to be true. The point I am getting at is this, you can't be so sure as to what these other possible debaters believe in private as to what they let on to believe. The belief in the Book of Mormon in these fields such as science and archeology could be a death sentence to a career.