DiscussMormonism.com

On this:

http://farms.BYU.edu/sumsem.html

Where was the announcement of the selected candidates? It all starts soon, It would be cool if someone on this board could keep us current on the makeup of the group and their findings as they happen.

I'd like to know a little of the background of these individuals before their work gets underway.

Participants will receive a $3000 stipend.

WTF?? Paid apologetics? Paid by LDS Inc?

Interesting stuff. I love this part:

The emphasis will be less on providing answers to every question than on putting the adverse evidence in a new light. Our aim is to persuade readers that the facts do not compel them to discard Joseph Smith.

Priceless.

I think I found one!

J. Spencer Fluhman. Anyone heard of him? Does he post on FAIR/MAD?

http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:fe ... cd=2&gl=us

“The Joseph Smith Revelations and the Crisis of Early American Spirituality,” in Latter-day Revelations: Text and Context (2008, forthcoming)

Research Fellow, Summer Seminar, Neal A. Maxwell Institute, Brigham YoungUniversity, 2008

That's it, right?

Who Knows wrote:Interesting stuff. I love this part:

The emphasis will be less on providing answers to every question than on putting the adverse evidence in a new light. Our aim is to persuade readers that the facts do not compel them to discard Joseph Smith.

Priceless.

Questioner: Did Joseph Smith really have sex with teenaged girls?

Panel: Yes he did

Questioner: Did he enjoy it?

Panel: Apparently so...

Yes, B&L, paid apologetics. This one has been under discussion a while. A friend of mine knew someone who was going to attend but that apparently didn't work out, so I've been out of the loop. I'll admit, I filled out their application and applied, but no one ever contacted me one way or another.

Gadianton wrote:Yes, B&L, paid apologetics. This one has been under discussion a while. A friend of mine knew someone who was going to attend but that apparently didn't work out, so I've been out of the loop. I'll admit, I filled out their application and applied, but no one ever contacted me one way or another.

Did you state you are an atheist who thinks Mormons are sheep?

No, but I did state I had a bachelor's degree from BYU. And that I have never published anything.

Gadianton wrote:No, but I did state I had a bachelor's degree from BYU. And that I have never published anything.

Perhaps the whole process is front-loaded. Maybe they already know who is going to be chosen, and opening the application process to anyone is just smoke and mirrors.

There are several web sites that have great books, here is a few of them: http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm this site has the most sacred texts of all religions that I have ever found on a single site yet! The great thing about this site is it is free. The next thing is that it has e-books on the Bible, Book of Mormon, D&C, Pearl of Great Price, The Koran, and books on Buddhism and Hinduism, and many other Faiths.
http://www.religion-online.org/ This site lets you see hundreds of articles and books on most every subject you can think of in Christianity.
http://gospelink.com/ http://search.ldslibrary.com/ these two sites you will need to pay for to use. The information on them are awesome. They have pretty much the same content so beware of double paying for the same thing.
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/ although this is not scripture based or even religious based many people put Shakespeare on the same podium. Many people think that he had a hand in writing the English King James Bible.