SMPT in Claremont in Less Than Two Weeks

[_LifeOnaPlate]

I should say I'm *cheerfully* done responding to your nonsense. :)

[_Yoda]

OK--

Gad---When you read this....would you mind clarifying....for those of us who seem to be a bit naïve...


Did you actually present at the SMPT Claremont Conference, or was this some type of running gag?

[_CaliforniaKid]

Unless Gad is a Mormon who teaches at BYU and claims to have a testimony, I'm fairly certain he did not present at SMTP. I attended both DCP's and LoaP's sessions and can say in all sincerity that they were quite good. So were a number of the other papers (though I'm sick to death of process theology).

[_Trevor]

Did you actually present at the SMPT Claremont Conference, or was this some type of running gag?

Are you really asking Gad to step out of character and level with you? The 'running gag' is his persona, and the claim to be presenting at SMPT was simply one small part of it.

I'm not saying the person behind Gad doesn't believe that there is a serious purpose to what he is doing, but it is clearly carried out in the guise of a 'running gag.'

[_Gadianton]

What a way to spend a holiday weekend huh? I'm not sure if I'll be up for this next year. I've discussed the prospect a little bit, but while I was extended a tentative time slot, I couldn't accept. It's a lot of travel effort for what is currently a limited payoff. I did in fact deliver my presentation. Why wouldn't I have? I think I really pulled the rug out from under the enterprise of apologetics. Those who understood what I was talking about I think were very shocked by some of my revelations.

I'm glad I chose to couch my metaphysical discussion of the deep structure of apologetics within what would seem, superficially, to be unrelated subject matter. What else could I do? I actually wanted to make my case a little more obvious, but not all of us want to advertise ourselves all over the internet. I realized by the way LoaP and DCP had set out to embarrass and humiliate me publically while I am yet anonymous, that if I were to let out enough information that my in real life could be discovered, I might be in for something much, much worse.

That brings me full circle to next year. To really make this worth my time, I need to come up with something more than two or three people can understand. But given the hightened information pumping antics of LoaP in PMs and calling me out on the forum to try and make me look like a fool and blacken my character, I just can't risk some of these guys figuring out who I am in real life. So that's why I can't accept the offer right now for next year.

Oh well, it was an interesting experience at least. Some of the presentations were pretty good, many were not.

[_Daniel Peterson]

What a crock.

[_aussieguy55]

I am interested in how Chris's paper went, being associated somewhat with Pentecostals off and on.

[_CaliforniaKid]

I am interested in how Chris's paper went, being associated somewhat with Pentecostals off and on.

I suppose I'm biased, so you'll probably have to ask LoaP or DCP for a more neutral assessment. But I thought it went quite well, and the feedback I heard was all positive. I basically argued that Pentecostals and Mormons have a lot in common despite not liking each other very much. I explored some of the reasons for their mutual discomfort with one another and expressed doubt as to whether they can be reconciled with one another while remaining true to their religious identities.

[_Danna]

... my forthcoming SMPT presentation, entitled "Reflections on My Experience with Interfaith Dialogue," ...

Do you include non-theists in your interfaith dialogue? I ask this in light of your previous comments on secular 'critics', which misrepresent non-theist logic and argument somewhat.

Please post a link to your notes if possible. The conference sounds very interesting.

[_Daniel Peterson]

Chris's paper was extremely well done.

I might quibble here or there, but he did a fine job, and I enjoyed it.

... my forthcoming SMPT presentation, entitled "Reflections on My Experience with Interfaith Dialogue," ...

Do you include non-theists in your interfaith dialogue?

Thus far, no -- though not for any reason of principle. The opportunity simply hasn't presented itself.

As a matter of fact, though, the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy, on whose small board I sit, is establishing a Marxist chapter in China and will send a group over to China for the first Mormon-Marxist dialogue somewhat later this year. (I don't believe that I'll be participating directly in that, however, largely because my travel plate is already full to overflowing for the remainder of 2009.)

I ask this in light of your previous comments on secular 'critics', which misrepresent non-theist logic and argument somewhat.

That could be debated, though I won't debate it here. (I will not be drawn back to this place. Though I reserve the right to post whatever and whenever I choose, my extensive participation here is finished.)

Authors, directors, and composers whose works are reviewed negatively typically claim that the critic didn't understand the book, must have seen a different movie, or misunderstood the symphony. Once in a while, they've got a point.

Please post a link to your notes if possible. The conference sounds very interesting.

It was very interesting, though Gadianton's paper, delivered mostly in ungrammatical Albanian and in a droning monotone to an audience much more interested in washing their hands and escaping from the men's room than in listening to him, represented a real low point.

There is, though, no link to my notes.