Simon Belmont: This is what "quote mining" means

[_Darth J]

Oh, by the way----

In case anyone wants to suggest that I am equivocating between "celestial marriage" and "polygamy" here:

Doctrine and Covenants Institute Student Manual

Smith and Sjodahl pointed out that the revelation has two major sections: “The first, comprising vv. 3–33 , deals mainly with the principle of celestial marriage, or marriage for time and all eternity; the second , comprising the remaining verses, deals with plural marriage. The doctrine of celestial marriage remains in force; the practice of plural marriage was abandoned by the acceptance by the Church, in Conference assembled October 6th, 1890, of the Manifesto of President Woodruff.” (Commentary, p. 821; also see Historical Background on Official Declaration 1 .)

How many women is Dallin H. Oaks sealed to?

[_Simon Belmont]

I see Bob Ross is at it again, painting whatever picture fits his argument at the time by datamining from Bookcraft books, some past LDS sources, and requiring that an elderly man be consistently sharp, concise, and perfect on a live television interview.

I, and most members without a grudge against the church, know how to find out what the church teaches. We know how to discover the truths in the church materials and conference talks. Other members, probably in the millions to venture a guess, have access to these same sources, but they rarely paint the untrue picture that DJ likes to paint. Even at 30% activity (being very conservative) we have four million true believers. If even half have access to all of these materials (though I suspect many, many more do), we're still talking about two million true believing members who have access to all of these materials Darth J quotes. Why do they come to different conclusions? Perhaps Darth J. believes these two million people are simply not as intelligent as he is; that they are unable to read, or to think.

[_schreech]

I see Bob Ross is at it again, painting whatever picture fits his argument at the time by datamining from Bookcraft books, some past LDS sources, and requiring that an elderly man be consistently sharp, concise, and perfect on a live television interview.

I, and most members without a grudge against the church, know how to find out what the church teaches. We know how to discover the truths in the church materials and conference talks. Other members, probably in the millions to venture a guess, have access to these same sources, but they rarely paint the untrue picture that DJ likes to paint. Even at 30% activity (being very conservative) we have four million true believers. If even half have access to all of these materials (though I suspect many, many more do), we're still talking about two million true believing members who have access to all of these materials Darth J quotes. Why do they come to different conclusions? Perhaps Darth J. believes these two million people are simply not as intelligent as he is; that they are unable to read, or to think.

How many members does Scientology have? White supremacists/neo-nazis (I hear they are growing pretty rapidly)? Al-queda? JW's? etc.? Are you more intelligent than they are? Thank you for continuing to keep this thread/monument of your complete failure as a defender of belmontism at the top of the board. It has been insanely entertaining to see Darth make a complete fool of you, again....

[_Simon Belmont]

How many members does Scientology have? White supremacists/neo-nazis (I hear they are growing pretty rapidly)? Al-queda? JW's? etc.? Are you more intelligent than they are? Thank you for continuing to keep this thread/monument of your complete failure as a defender of belmontism at the top of the board. It has been insanely entertaining to see Darth make a complete fool of you, again....

My statement was not an appeal to popularity.

Go away now.

[_Darth J]

I see Bob Ross is at it again, painting whatever picture fits his argument at the time by datamining from Bookcraft books, some past LDS sources, and requiring that an elderly man be consistently sharp, concise, and perfect on a live television interview.

I, and most members without a grudge against the church, know how to find out what the church teaches. We know how to discover the truths in the church materials and conference talks.

And I am sure that you or Maklelan are going to explain how any day now!

Other members, probably in the millions to venture a guess, have access to these same sources, but they rarely paint the untrue picture that DJ likes to paint. Even at 30% activity (being very conservative) we have four million true believers. If even half have access to all of these materials (though I suspect many, many more do), we're still talking about two million true believing members who have access to all of these materials Darth J quotes. Why do they come to different conclusions? Perhaps Darth J. believes these two million people are simply not as intelligent as he is; that they are unable to read, or to think.

This is what it looks like when argument from ignorance and appeal to numbers have a baby together.

The issue is what the Church teaches, not whether you believe it.

[_schreech]

My statement was not an appeal to popularity.

Go away now.

I didn't say it was. Are the people that follow those organizations (instead of belmontism) less intelligent that you? I am sorry that your belief system crumbles under minor scrutiny but I am, truly, interested in your thoughts about people that "come to different conclusions" than you do...

[_Darth J]

My statement was not an appeal to popularity.

Go away now.

The statement below is explicitly an appeal to numbers to evaluate the truth value of a proposition:

Other members, probably in the millions to venture a guess, have access to these same sources, but they rarely paint the untrue picture that DJ likes to paint. Even at 30% activity (being very conservative) we have four million true believers. If even half have access to all of these materials (though I suspect many, many more do), we're still talking about two million true believing members who have access to all of these materials Darth J quotes. Why do they come to different conclusions? Perhaps Darth J. believes these two million people are simply not as intelligent as he is; that they are unable to read, or to think.

And it is also argument from ignorance, as previously noted.

[_sock puppet]

I see Bob Ross is at it again, ... requiring that an elderly man be consistently sharp, concise, and perfect on a live television interview.

Expecting a prophet of god to be truthful about what he claims to be God's laws is too much, isn't it, Simon?

DJ, shame on you for expecting truth from God's prophet.

[_Darth J]

I see Bob Ross is at it again, ... requiring that an elderly man who was a fourth-generation Mormon, who claimed to be a living prophet of God, who had been a General Authority for decades, had been a missionary, wrote a history of the Church, and was employed in communications for the Church, give honest answers about the church he leads on a live television interview.

[_Simon Belmont]

I see Bob Ross is at it again, ... requiring that an elderly man who was a fourth-generation Mormon, who claimed to be a living prophet of God, who had been a General Authority for decades, had been a missionary, wrote a history of the Church, and was employed in communications for the Church, give honest answers about the church he leads on a live television interview.

Who was also well into his 80s. I don't care who you are, when you get that old it's easy to miss a beat. Give the guy a break.