Martha Nibley Beck back in the news

[_Droopy]

And I strongly suggest that people ignore Beck for the intellectual hack and self serving media hound she actually is and substitute her book for serious, substantive reading.

Loran,

You are still talking about the author and about the book instead of addressing what is actually in the book. It's clear to me that you haven't read the book any more than I have.

Jersey Girl, Beck is over.

Let's move on...

[_Chap]

Why is it necessary to call us 'self-professed' atheists. I suspect there's a veiled insult in there, but I'm not sure what it is.

I don't think the original author is a master of English prose style, so it is not easy to be sure what he intended to convey. I would guess, however, that he was trying to imply that while some of us may claim to be atheists, we are well aware that the LDS deity does in fact exist, and we are just trying to give ourselves a plausible excuse for sinning by pretending to believe that he isn't there.

[_beastie]

Jersey Girl, Beck is over.

Let's move on...

Are you finally admitting you haven't read the book? I doubt you even read her additional explanation on the link offered above.

And do you think no one notices that you declare "there's nothing here to see, move on" whenever a topic potentially damaging to the LDS church comes up? You ought to add "close your eyes, folks, there's nothing here to see".

[_Jersey Girl]

Jersey Girl, Beck is over.

Apparently not for you given your responses here.

Let's move on...

You go. I'm not much of a follower.

[_Droopy]

I'm well aware of what's in it, and I have no interest in that kind of intellectual porn. Its over, so let's move along, as there's nothing to see here.

[_Daniel Peterson]

There are three reviews of Ms. Beck's book on the FARMS site? Why?

Because Boyd Petersen and Greg Taggart and Kent Jackson volunteered to write reviews, I thought they had important things to say, and, given Hugh Nibley's important role as a mentor to most of us affiliated with FARMS and as a kind of "patron saint" to the organization and its subscribers, and because we were constantly being asked what we thought of Ms. Beck's book, I thought it important to facilitate their saying them.

I've published multiple reviews of the same item on several occasions.

On two occasions, an entire issue of the FARMS Review has been devoted to a single book.

You're entirely free to found a journal and edit it any way you like.

Well, not only do they feel obliged to protect the LDS Church in terms of its faith claims, but they also feel it necessary to criticize people's negative personal experiences of the LDS Church.

I don't think that's altogether true, but you probably know the editor of the FARMS Review better than I do. (Is he really the unprincipled and mean-spirited jerk that all his intimate acquaintances here say he is?)

[_beastie]

I'm well aware of what's in it, and I have no interest in that kind of intellectual porn. Its over, so let's move along, as there's nothing to see here.

No, you are not well aware of what's in it. If you don't have any interest in it, I suggest you move along and stop trying to arrest the conversations of others. No one cares if you think we should all stop talking about it. No one cares if you think "it's over". Or, rather, no one should care, given your own ignorance of the text.

[_moksha]

I don't believe that Dr. Nibley molested his daughter, but I thought she used the image of him dressed as an Egyptian priest or something in her book.

It could be that in his off hours that Professor Nibley liked to dress as an Egyptian. Nothing wrong with that. Perhaps it helped him with his footnotes. Maybe Martha had memories of this garb and she confabulated it into those imagined molestations.

[_Trevor]

Well, not only do they feel obliged to protect the LDS Church in terms of its faith claims, but they also feel it necessary to criticize people's negative personal experiences of the LDS Church.

I don't think that's altogether true, but you probably know the editor of the FARMS Review better than I do. (Is he really the unprincipled and mean-spirited jerk that all his intimate acquaintances here say he is?)

Since I didn't call him an unprincipled, mean-spirited jerk, I really don't know why I should answer that question.

As for what may pass for substantive in your post, however... I have watched time and again as apologists have criticized other people's negative experiences of the LDS Church, as though it were threatening to the faith to have some people not like it. I know it is an irrational behavior to deny the subjective experiences of others, but that doesn't seem to end the pointless criticism of it.

[_rcrocket]

Jersey Girl, Beck is over.

Let's move on...

Are you finally admitting you haven't read the book? I doubt you even read her additional explanation on the link offered above.

And do you think no one notices that you declare "there's nothing here to see, move on" whenever a topic potentially damaging to the LDS church comes up? You ought to add "close your eyes, folks, there's nothing here to see".

I've read it.

I've also represented persons Martha threatened to sue over libel, so I was required to read and understand the book in detail, as well as lots more detail about her personal life (which she thrust into examination by threats of suit).

Let's just say that reasonable minds can easily differ over her book, and that it and what she claims have lots of problems.

rcrocket