Excerpts worth noting:
Dan Peterson, borrowing the title of a book by John Gordon Stackhouse, spoke on "Humble Apologetics." "And basically I am offering myself as the model of that," Peterson said, eliciting laughter from the crowd of about 300 people.
Some are critical of apologetics because they do not like the tone and method of the arguments. "And, hard as it is for me to say, I think we need to listen to them," Peterson said.
Peterson says apologetics are necessary, even quoting Neal A. Maxwell that critics should not be allowed any "uncontested slam dunks."
The audience of apologetic efforts isn't the anti-Mormon or the embittered ex-Mormon. "We have to understand the principal audience for our apologetic efforts is the people on the edge," Peterson said. "The people who are on the edge of leaving the church, the people who are on the edge of coming into the church."
These are the people who may rarely contribute to an online discussion, but watch it closely.
Peterson said that apologetics clears the ground so that the seed of faith can grow. He told of how his own father was baptized after reading some of Hugh Nibley's apologetic work. The Nibley books did not give him a testimony, but it did provide some of the "preparation of the ground."
But still, Peterson worries about the tone of discussions on Internet message boards. They are like boxing rings and are dominated too much by men. "There's a lot of, dare I say, a lot of testosterone involved with this kind of apologetics," he said.
He referred to an earlier FAIR conference presentation by Ronald Esplin in which Esplin said that apologists like to attack their enemies and historians like to take their enemies to lunch. "But, of course, what I really like to do is HAVE the enemy for lunch," he joked in an aside.
"We are winning souls, we hope -- not so much arguments," he said. "Winning an argument can lose you a soul."
Finally:
The Lord will not force people to believe what they do not want to be true.
Not always. Sometimes people
want it to be true, but no matter how hard you try much of it just doesn't add up.
"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Alice in Wonderland"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."
Through the Looking Glass