Here is the next Post from Daniel C. Peterson, from that Discussion thread:
QUOTE(LifeOnaPlate @ Mar 17 2008, 12:57 PM) At first I believed this type of comment was hyperbole. Then I spent a little time in the "acres" and was really surprised at how often DCP is brought up.
The obsession strikes me as pretty weird, too.
I've given up trying to have a rational conversation with that gang, especially the obsessively malevolent ones. It's not worth attempting. Too much trouble, too exasperating.
This Post from Daniel C. P., kind of makes me sad. DCP doesn't want to come back and Post Messages, with us anymore. Instead, Daniel C. P. will rather want to. keep on Posting Messages with the MADites, rather than him coming here, wanting to Post Messages with the Brackite.
"And I've said it before, you want to know what Joseph Smith looked like in Nauvoo, just look at Trump." - Fence Sitter
Wait a sec... Are you sure about this? Many of the naysayers on this thread have been saying that none of the "they get paid" arguments have been "substantiated".... Do you have real evidence, Gad, that Gee receives payment/salary for Mopologetics?
My comments were directed at people like DCP, Hamblin and others. Gee and John Tvetdness are or were employees of FARMS. This point I will concede though I believe Peterson was referring to himself on the no pay issue. Verdict is still out on that.
It's not "still out" if you acknowledge the very, very strong likelihood that he gets payment for his books.
antishock8 wrote:Well, that was a tacit admition of guilt by Mr. Peterson. He gets paid to do apologetics for the Church in addition to other endeavors, whatever they may be...
Yup. His last tactic, apparently, is to try and shirk off the whole issue by making "silly" little jokes about how he's having trouble deciding whether to install gold or platinum fixtures in his bathroom. Ho, ho, ho! Hilarious, Prof. P.! Almost as hilarious as the claim that you receive "nothing" for Mopologetics! Ha ha ha, ho ho ho!
DCP wrote:The obsession strikes me as pretty weird, too.
I've given up trying to have a rational conversation with that gang, especially the obsessively malevolent ones. It's not worth attempting. Too much trouble, too exasperating.
And yet...he continues to read over here!
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
DCP wrote:The obsession strikes me as pretty weird, too.
I've given up trying to have a rational conversation with that gang, especially the obsessively malevolent ones. It's not worth attempting. Too much trouble, too exasperating.
And yet...he continues to read over here!
Yeah, his complaints truly are laughable. I mean, has he forgotten about how and why he and Bill Hamblin were banned from RfM? And, speaking of "obsession," it's perfectly within reason to state the one of the primary reasons FARMS exists is so that DCP can continue to "study" RfM. He has, of course, been embarrassed on multiple occasions concerning his "RfM Archive." Why he doesn't just fess up about it is beyond me. (And, while he's at it, he can finally admit to receiving payment for his apologetics.)
Mister Scratch wrote:I would argue that DCP is the principal apologist for the entire LDS Church. No one has as powerful a presence, both online and in real life. No one writes more prolifically, no one seems to be in as "deeply" (I.e., with his SCMC "agenthood", acquaintance w/ GAs and so forth). No one so frankly engages with Church critics in the form of online discussion, in-print rebuttals, and live debates. Prior to him, it would have been Nibley, though I think that Prof. P. has eclipsed his forerunner.
I'm curious, Harmony, who do you think deserves the mantle of "Chief Apologist" more than DCP?
I'm not saying he is, and I'm not saying he isn't. He's an apologist; that doesn't make him the biggest, the brightest, or the best. He doesn't engage critics; whenever it looks like he's going to have to engage them because they've backed him into a corner, he either exits stage left, or he complains and gets the thread shut down. I think of him as a medium sized frog in a very small pond; his croak may be loud, but his actual importance in the grand scheme of things is very small. And his contribution to Mormon apologetics looks pretty minimal to me. He's not a voice of reason. That task is left to other less well-known apologists. He's simply a voice with a podium and a microphone... neither of which make him right or respectable.
I didn't think much of Nibley either, but that's not the subject of the thread.
harmony wrote: I'm not saying he is, and I'm not saying he isn't. He's an apologist; that doesn't make him the biggest, the brightest, or the best. He doesn't engage critics; whenever it looks like he's going to have to engage them because they've backed him into a corner, he either exits stage left, or he complains and gets the thread shut down. I think of him as a medium sized frog in a very small pond; his croak may be loud, but his actual importance in the grand scheme of things is very small. And his contribution to Mormon apologetics looks pretty minimal to me. He's not a voice of reason. That task is left to other less well-known apologists. He's simply a voice with a podium and a microphone... neither of which make him right or respectable.
I didn't think much of Nibley either, but that's not the subject of the thread.
All that said, if you were forced to assign the title of "Chief Apologist" to someone..... Who would it be? It would pretty much have to be DCP by default, don't you think?
Mister Scratch wrote:All that said, if you were forced to assign the title of "Chief Apologist" to someone..... Who would it be? It would pretty much have to be DCP by default, don't you think?
I would hate to have the "Chief Apologist" for the church be a malicious blowhard who uses words to cut rather than teach (trying to capture Daniel in as few words as possible). I'd hope the Chief Apologist for the church would be someone like Brant Gardner, who even when he dissects an argument, is a gentleman and seeks to teach as well as correct. And that he takes correction from any source, and knows that he can still learn... that he doesn't think he knows it all. Witness Brant's interactions with Trixie for an example of his demeanor (I know. Trixie gets frustrated with him, but all in all, he's head and shoulders above Daniel).
I'm afraid that if Daniel is the best candidate for Chief Apologist that the LDS world can find, we're all destined to be embarrassed.
An Egyptologist at BYU is pointless. It's just common sense that he's hired as an apologist, unlike Dr. Peterson who has moved into the position.
There is no direct "proof", anymore than there is direct proof that a senator hires a prostitute when money just happens to be left out in the open and the "date" really goes well.
Something you need to remember Scratch, Not even FARMS really believes that there is a such thing as apologetics. They think they are all scholars engaged in serious scholarly pursuits.
Mister Scratch wrote:Well, for those who've been waiting for acknowledgment from "His Highness," it seems we've gotten it at last (in a sense):
DCP wrote:Ah, now I understand. (I should have known.)
It appears that, over on another board, it's been revealed that I don't actually teach or do any real academic work, but that, instead, the Church delivers dump truck loads of cash to my doorstep for my work with FARMS and FAIR (!).
The credulous Yme apparently swallowed that revelation hook, line, and sinker. (It's par for the course for him: He tends to trust and to prefer the opinions of the uninformed. The quality of scholarship, for example, is best determined by speculating about hypothetical polling data drawn from surveys of people unfamiliar with it.)
Incidentally, I was named a fellow and a lifetime member of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters last year -- the only person so designated in 2007, as far as I know. Presumably, that honor was for my posts here, since, it seems, I don't really do much of anything else.
So: there you have it. DCP knows that he's been "caught" fibbing about the payment he receives, and so all he can do is offer up jokes and red herrings. Obviously, no one has said, anywhere, so far as I can see, that he doesn't "teach or do any real academic work." Rather, this thread has been about whether or not he gets paid for Mopologetics.
HAHAHA
What a joke... DCP should stay off message boards, he comes across as such a blowhard.
I did say he doesn't teach - officially, this semester, at BYU in Provo, UT - and it doesn't look like he is refuting that.
And this is a priceless gem:
the Church delivers dump truck loads of cash to my doorstep for my work with FARMS and FAIR (!).
Yes, this seems to be the closest thing we'll get to an admission from Professor Dumbledore.