DrW wrote:Given that basic training in the USMC follows a well known and well proven set of procedures, which do not allow for deference to a book of imagined scripture, and given the track record of Church leaders in terms lying for the Lord (or at least embellishing the truth to come up with faith promoting stories), it should be pretty clear that the weight of evidence points to the story being BS.
People, even drill instructors, are not automaton that deterministically follow "well known and well proven" sets of procedures. Are you really saying that it's impossible that the drill instructor Echo Hawk is speaking of didn't have a certain amount of respect for the book of allegedly imagined scripture you mentioned?
DrW wrote:Think of it this way: for those who have been in the Corps., the story would be BS.
Because they extrapolate from their own experience that all drill instructors must behave in exactly the same way that their drill instructors did? I've seen that logical fallacy in this forum before.
DrW wrote:The latter group (less than 2% of the US population) should keep in mind that most of the other 98% would recognize this story as BS, and account that BS to the reputation of the speaker and the LDS Church.
Is this 98% figure the result of a rigorous study, perhaps? Did you take a poll? I would suspect that a more accurate estimate would be less than 2% think it's true, less than 2% think it's fabricated, and the other 95% really don't care about it one way or the other.