Backyard Science

[_dartagnan]

Has anyone taken the time to download some of these ridiculous podcasts from Kerry's website?

Fortigurn, you gotta check out his rant about how archaeology "proves God has a body."

I was shaking my head throughout the whole thing as Kerry's said he was proving via archaeology that God has a penis.

http://www.backyardprofessor.com/the_ba ... _for_.html

And what the hell is he doing trying to be all witty with these annoying sentences with a dozen adjectives and adverbs beginning with the same letter? He sounds like a blathering idiot. He sounds exactly like I would imagine William Schryver speaking.

[_Runtu]

Has anyone taken the time to download some of these ridiculous podcasts from Kerry's website?

Fortigurn, you gotta check out his rant about how archaeology "proves God has a body."

I was shaking my head throughout the whole thing as Kerry's said he was proving via archaeology that God has a penis.

http://www.backyardprofessor.com/the_ba ... _for_.html

And what the hell is he doing trying to be all witty with these annoying sentences with a dozen adjectives and adverbs beginning with the same letter? He sounds like a blathering idiot. He sounds exactly like I would imagine William Schryver speaking.

Holy crap: "vitriolic vociferation," "his voracious vapid vanity vouched for his verbal vacuity," "his voluntary vilifying left his vulnerable vaunting vulgarity wide open for all of us to see," "his verbose voracity" ... ad infinitum. Even Neal Maxwell would be appalled.

Between the lip-smacking and the self-satisfied chuckling, I can't listen to this.

I like Kerry, but this is too much.

[_dartagnan]

Yes, the rollercoaster tone in his voice reminded me of the creepy narrarator of Tales from the Crypt.

Made me wonder if he was at all trying to be serious.

[_Blixa]

Heh. Thanks for that. "Hugh Nibley Reading Club" says it all, I'm afraid. That, and the list of "inspiring" quotes from that profoundly pontificating pundit of philosophy, the great and almight Anon. I'm sure the ghost of Bertrand Russell is enjoying a chuckle as well.

By the way, that's one of the most crap, sub-wikipedia, babel-fishy Latin translations I've ever run across (Nicolas of Cusa's amor Dei Intellectualis reduced to "the divine is to be reached through thinkliness." Nicky was a mystic no doubt, but his elevation of intellectual rigor, specifically mathmatics, to itself a pathway to god is rather out of tune with a religion that finds "so-called intellectuals" its enemy. Somehow Nicolas escaped having his works censured by the vatican Packards of his day, but his contemporary Mormon counterparts have not been so lucky.

[_Runtu]

Yes, the rollercoaster tone in his voice reminded me of the creepy narrarator of Tales from the Crypt.

Made me wonder if he was at all trying to be serious.

I had never seen or heard Kerry before. Not exactly what I expected. I had the same question about his seriousness, but I think he really was being serious. I was trying to think of who the person was who asked in the first place about God's penis. I seem to recall someone saying that either on FAIR or way back when on a.r.m.

[_Mercury]

Has anyone taken the time to download some of these ridiculous podcasts from Kerry's website?

Fortigurn, you gotta check out his rant about how archaeology "proves God has a body."

I was shaking my head throughout the whole thing as Kerry's said he was proving via archaeology that God has a penis.

http://www.backyardprofessor.com/the_ba ... _for_.html

And what the hell is he doing trying to be all witty with these annoying sentences with a dozen adjectives and adverbs beginning with the same letter? He sounds like a blathering idiot. He sounds exactly like I would imagine William Schryver speaking.

When it comes down to it the ignorance and blatant gnat straining are evidence on just how desperate mopologists are.

[_Dr. Shades]

Holy cow, that thing was unlistenable.

[_CaliforniaKid]

I like Kerry, but I haven't been particularly impressed with his site. He obviously reads a lot of books, which is commendable, but he doesn't seem to critically interact with them. If he ever writes a really well-documented article that pays attention to detail, has a consistent methodology, and avoids vacuous appeals to authority, I will gladly read it and recommend it to my friends. Until then, he's just a blogger.

In any case, his audience doesn't seem to be the scholarly community. The fact that he spends so much time simplifying Nibley, Barker, et al suggests that he's targeting the uneducated layman (i.e. people who don't know any better).

[Anonymous]

Has anyone taken the time to download some of these ridiculous podcasts from Kerry's website?

Fortigurn, you gotta check out his rant about how archaeology "proves God has a body."

Goodness.

I was shaking my head throughout the whole thing as Kerry's said he was proving via archaeology that God has a penis.

Well apparently it's sitting right there in one of the Book of Abraham papyri, so I suppose he feels the need to go and look for it:

The Mormon writer Ian Barber responded to our work with regard to the god Min. He tried to defend the Book of Abraham but had to admit that Fac. 2, Fig. 7, shows an "ithyphallic" god:

"The seated god Min in Figure 7... is an ithyphallic deity. The Tanners call this 'a pornographic representation,' and remark that it is 'hard to believe that Abraham would draw an obscene picture of God.'... For the Egyptians, the ritual portrayal of the phallus was not understood to be obscene, but rather symbolic of the divine, regenerative powers, and it was even respectfully mummified on occasion. The Tanners are correct in implying that such an emphasis would be inappropriate in our contemporary Western culture, and that the explicit portrayal offended Mormon sensibilities is evidenced by the fact that the phallus has been removed from several printings of the Pearl of Great Price..." (What Mormonism Isn't, page F-5)

[...]

That Joseph Smith would identify this promiscuous god who engaged in incest with his own mother as "God sitting upon his throne" shows a complete lack of inspiration.

Source (emphasis mine). It's a bizarre fixation, all the same. You'd think he would have more important archaeological studies to carry out, such as proving that the Book of Mormon is situated in Meso-America.

http://www.backyardprofessor.com/the_backyard_professor/2006/11/the_proofs_for_.html

And what the hell is he doing trying to be all witty with these annoying sentences with a dozen adjectives and adverbs beginning with the same letter? He sounds like a blathering idiot. He sounds exactly like I would imagine William Schryver speaking.

Some people haven't read Strunk and White yet.

[_Fortigurn]

Holy crap: "vitriolic vociferation," "his voracious vapid vanity vouched for his verbal vacuity," "his voluntary vilifying left his vulnerable vaunting vulgarity wide open for all of us to see," "his verbose voracity" ... ad infinitum. Even Neal Maxwell would be appalled.

Between the lip-smacking and the self-satisfied chuckling, I can't listen to this.

I like Kerry, but this is too much.

Cogs, I hope you're taking notes. Between Kerry's podcasts and my suggestions, we'll have you back up to scratch in no time.