http://www.mormonapologetics.org/index. ... opic=42843
Maklelan wrote:I don't know why I waste time on CARM, but I was over there this week and had a discussion with an individual that ended with the following statement:Is the Bible God's word? To you it is not.. It can't be. Just what is your iron rod that you hold to. What helps you along the path of this life.. All I see the Mormons of CARM saying is that their testimony is all they have.. An emotionally reaction to myths. I say that not so much as the such smallest detail has changed in the message God's to for us.. I have a translation of the original language.. NONE of it is the same as it was in the Hebrew.. Sometimes there isn't even an English word to convey the meaning of what a Hebrew word says. I am not sure that this translation you have picked up off an Atheist site isn't just fine when looked at from the Hebrew.. I don't know because I don't speak or read Hebrew.. Since the English is so different from Hebrew all I have to depend on it that God's message to me is intact.. INERRANT.. What He wants me to know is there and is pure.. If you deny that just admit that you hate God and DIE..
The bold is mine, but the capitalization is not. I take this as a rather serious example of harassment. Irrespective of the fact that it's a loose paraphrase of a scripture, the imperative "DIE" is usually not considered appropriate anywhere. CARM, however, appears to have refused to respond. The comment is still there, and the poster is defending the statement, saying there's nothing wrong with it. Am I wrong in thinking this statement is approaching legal harassment?
Now, this is very interesting. I find myself rather absentmindedly massaging the bridge of my nose as I try to piece together what went on here. After all, it is rather hot and stuff here in my Cassius University office. The first question which naturally arises is: What was Maklelan up to? Is this a form of retaliation on behalf of a key apologist, who was also recently threatened with a lawsuit? On the face of things, it seems that Maklelan was trolling over at CARM, throwing bombs and trying to provoke people into making statements such as the one above.
But, is Maklelan really so naïve when it comes to Mopologetic history? Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists have issued death threats, and/or threats of physical violence---and far more direct and gruesome ones than this. Would Mak really want to be setting a dangerous precedent in this instance? If he's not careful, he could set in motion the utter demise of Mopologetics as we know it. Lucky for him, cooler heads seem to be prevailing (sort of):
Bill Hamblin wrote:I don't know why I waste time on CARM, but I was over there this week and had a discussion with an individual that ended with the following statement:
The bold is mine, but the capitalization is not. I take this as a rather serious example of harassment. Irrespective of the fact that it's a loose paraphrase of a scripture, the imperative "DIE" is usually not considered appropriate anywhere. CARM, however, appears to have refused to respond. The comment is still there, and the poster is defending the statement, saying there's nothing wrong with it. Am I wrong in thinking this statement is approaching legal harassment?
Nope. Just merely pathological.
Wait a sec... What is Bill Hamblin saying here, exactly? Surely this admired BYU prof wasn't mincing his words. Right? Is he saying that Mak is *not* wrong, but is pathological? Or, is he saying that the CARM statement itself was *not* harrassment, but was, instead, pathological? In either case, this seems problematic.
Here is Doctor Peterson's rather predictable response as to whether or not it constitutes harassment:
DCP wrote:No, but it's certainly a nice specimen of the climate that exists over there.
Right. Of course not. If it did, the apologists would all be serving lengthy prison sentences, since their verbal assaults, harassing phone calls, and visits to critics' homes and places of business go far, far beyond what this CARM poster did.