The Downward Spiral Continues at "Mormon Interpreter"

[_Morley]

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."

[_MrStakhanovite]

WTF @ the abstract. If I submitted a abstract like that as an undergrad they'd give it right back to fix.

[_Doctor Scratch]

WTF @ the abstract. If I submitted a abstract like that as an undergrad they'd give it right back to fix.

I know, right? And DCP is trumpeting this material on his blog. He's got a readership at least in the hundreds, which means that those of them that click on the link are going to be taken to this utter trainwreck. So was Dan completely clueless about the state of this? Or does he just not care?

And what does this sentence mean?:

Neither Dalton nor Dehlin sort any such questions.

"Sort"?

[_MrStakhanovite]

So was Dan completely clueless about the state of this? Or does he just not care?

I’m pretty confident that Dan doesn't cares a whit. Scholarship gets in the way when it comes to furthering your own ideological agenda. It is why he does such a terrible job in his political analysis, he just rehashes what he reads with no insight added.

[_MrStakhanovite]

Just for fun I ran Woody’s entire essay (sans footnotes) through a Readability index calculatorand got this:

Method used: Flesch-Kincaid (English).
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 12.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 40.

The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score indicates how easy a text is to read. A high score implies an easy text. In comparison comics typically score around 90 while legalese can get a score below 10.

The Flesch-Kincaid Grade level indicates the grade a person will have to have reached to be able to understand the text. E.g. a grade level of 7 means that a seventh grader will be able to understand the text.

Then I ran a Chris Smith postthrough it and got this:

Result

Method used: Flesch-Kincaid (English).

Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 18.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 10.

Way to write in legalese Chris!

[_bcspace]

It would just try to reconsitute FARMS. Name it the same.

[_Darth J]

One reason for not wanting to be known as a religion is that, in the United States, if secular humanism is seen as a religion, then it could face big trouble in the courts because of the First Amendment.

This post is made in memoriam to all of the brain cells that died from being exposed to the above statement. Lest we forget, lest we forget.......

[_Darth J]

On and on it goes. In his discussion of the Alcock piece, Midgley feels compelled to mention that Alcock is "an amateur magician." I still can't figure out why this is relevant, though I'm sure both Midgley and the MI editorial team had their reasons.

May I suggest that the relevance is in demonstrating how a little knowledge can be dangerous. An amateur magician, who may have limited experience in being paid to practice magic, may not fully understand all of the nuances of Mormonism. A professional magician---such as Joseph Smith, Jr.---would have a richer background to draw upon when contemplating the Restored Gospel.

But otherwise, efforts to shed the religion label seem to me to be a bit callow, given the fact that secular humanists have not abandoned the idea that there is an atheist community and in this sense even a kind of church or assemblage of peoples.

And none of us would want to be callow, so we better acknowledge that any grouping of people, either by common traits or by their association with each other, is equivalent to a church.

The NRA, the National Geographic Society, your local community theater, that book club you're in, the Federalist Society, the Rotary Club, the AAA, and fantasy football leagues are all churches, too.

[_malkie]

It would just try to reconsitute FARMS. Name it the same.

They really missed an opportunity there by naming their endeavour "Mormon Interpreter" - going for the "MI" - instead of recapturing FARMS with "Foundation for Anger and Ramblings, Mopologetic Style".

[_Drifting]

Instead of 'Mormon Interpreter' shouldn't they just be called 'Urim & Thummim', or perhaps, more accurately 'Rock'?