Online Apologetics and "Collateral Damage"

[_beastie]

Whoooosh!

I hate to tell you, but I suspect even Jesus is laughing at you right now.

[_moksha]

Second, Brent, I suppose it depends on what you mean by published. A small handful of copies containing the acrostic -- literally five or six or so -- were printed and bound. They were not distributed.

One should definitely be kept in the vault. The rest could make some bucks for a Mitt for Senate fundraiser.

[_Brent Metcalfe]

Hi beastie,

Good to hear from you. I trust that life is treating you well.

You ask:

by the way, Brent, is this the first time you've corrected DCP's rendition of this event? Just curious.

No, I've corrected Dan on both points on multiple occasions.

Kind regards,

</brent>


http://mormonscripturestudies.com
(© 2008 Brent Lee Metcalfe. All rights reserved.)
——————————
The thesis of inspiration may not be invoked to guarantee historicity, for a divinely inspired story is not necessarily history.
—Raymond E. Brown

[_Brent Metcalfe]

Hi Dan,

Your sources—assuming that you recall correctly—haven't served you well. You say about my claim:

Yes. I'm contradicting it.

My understanding and my memory have it that perhaps slightly more than five were printed and bound (and released), but fewer than ten. If I'm wrong, I'm not wrong by very much. There were very few printed and distributed, and virtually all were successfully recalled. So I was told, and I've never had any reason to doubt it.

Then let me give you a reason to doubt it: the Review of Books on the Book of Mormon received via snail-mail by a Californian FARMS subscriber.







































To suggest that a subscription-based publication like RBBM would be mailed to subscribers after only "fewer than ten" "were printed and bound" is, well, perhaps the "joke" that you've been referring to all along.

Regards,

</brent>


http://mormonscripturestudies.com
(© 2008 Brent Lee Metcalfe. All rights reserved.)
——————————
The thesis of inspiration may not be invoked to guarantee historicity, for a divinely inspired story is not necessarily history.
—Raymond E. Brown

[_LifeOnaPlate]

Hi Dan,

Your sources—assuming that you recall correctly—haven't served you well. You say about my claim:

Yes. I'm contradicting it.

My understanding and my memory have it that perhaps slightly more than five were printed and bound (and released), but fewer than ten. If I'm wrong, I'm not wrong by very much. There were very few printed and distributed, and virtually all were successfully recalled. So I was told, and I've never had any reason to doubt it.

Then let me give you a reason to doubt it: the Review of Books on the Book of Mormon received via snail-mail by a Californian FARMS subscriber.







































To suggest that a subscription-based publication like RBBM would be mailed to subscribers after only "fewer than ten" "were printed and bound" is, well, perhaps the "joke" that you've been referring to all along.

Regards,

</brent>


http://mormonscripturestudies.com
(© 2008 Brent Lee Metcalfe. All rights reserved.)
——————————
The thesis of inspiration may not be invoked to guarantee historicity, for a divinely inspired story is not necessarily history.
—Raymond E. Brown

Brent: Maybe such a phenomenon was accidental as some elements in the Book of Mormon are argued to be? ;)

[_Ray A]

Brent: Maybe such a phenomenon was accidental as some elements in the Book of Mormon are argued to be? ;)

That's a gem. LOL.

[_Brent Metcalfe]

Hi Blair,

My goodness—how original. *yawn!*

Cheers,

</brent>

(P.S. Ray, Blair's comment isn't so much a "gem" as it is the actual reason that Bill Hamblin claimed motivated him to embed the acrostic.)


http://mormonscripturestudies.com
(© 2008 Brent Lee Metcalfe. All rights reserved.)
——————————
The thesis of inspiration may not be invoked to guarantee historicity, for a divinely inspired story is not necessarily history.
—Raymond E. Brown

[_LifeOnaPlate]

Hi Blair,

My goodness—how original. *yawn!*

Cheers,

</brent>

(P.S. Ray, Blair's comment isn't so much a "gem" as it is the actual reason that Bill Hamblin claimed motivated him to embed the acrostic.)


http://mormonscripturestudies.com
(© 2008 Brent Lee Metcalfe. All rights reserved.)
——————————
The thesis of inspiration may not be invoked to guarantee historicity, for a divinely inspired story is not necessarily history.
—Raymond E. Brown

And yet it is a point that makes good sense. I have been developing a naturalistic theory for the acrostic, and I'm hoping signature will consider publishing it. ;)

(© 2008 Major League Baseball. All rights reserved.)

[_Ray A]

(P.S. Ray, Blair's comment isn't so much a gem as it is the actual reason that Bill Hamblin claimed motivated him to embed the acrostic.)

Now that you mention it, I think I do vaguely recall that. Is that The Hamblin Letter Chiasm? He obviously learned nothing from Hyrum Page :)

[_Brent Metcalfe]

Hi Blair,

You strike me as an intellectual Twinkie—no, I mean that sincerely. Unfortunately, I'm pre-diabetic, so...

Ciao,

</brent>



http://mormonscripturestudies.com
(© 2008 Brent Lee Metcalfe. All rights reserved.)
——————————
The thesis of inspiration may not be invoked to guarantee historicity, for a divinely inspired story is not necessarily history.
—Raymond E. Brown