NOM

Wow, I thought this was only a Texas thing. :lol: In Texas I get at least one mailed advertisement a week for the newest super cool church in my area. I always figured the billboards were an extension of that. Yeah, Texas is really bizarre. Last time I drove through it seemed like a Jesus themepark...

I can't be certain, but one of those looks a little bit too much like one of H.P. Lovecraft's Elder Race. Gulp.

Apologists set up a straw man where plagiarism only has this more narrow definition, which is easy to knock down. I agree, Joseph didn't do this second thing, but he almost certainly did the first thing. The likelihood of a historical Book of Mormon having these two elements and Ethan Smith's specu...

Wait, so now we're supposed to worship Russell Nelson, right? I mean, he just claimed that he is a superior being to Elohim.

Why can a modern corporation produce a bright enough screen and God cannot? Especially considering that the other famous magic rocks in the BoM were empowered by God specifically to produce illumination so those poor Jaredites wouldn't be stuck in floating septic tanks for a year in total darkness....

When other people were talking about it, were they quoting long passages of Isaiah? I'm inclined to think that Joseph was aware of View of the Hebrews, unless quoting long passages of Isaiah was just a thing that everyone did back then. That would take away from my idea that this is a pretty big st...

But how could those Mormon-centric travel agencies even consider giving tours of Book of Mormon sites if those sites don't actually exist? I'm kind of fascinated by how many Mormons just assume there is abundant archaeological evidence for the BoM. This is probably the real value of apologetics, reg...

I noticed they used the iPhone comparison. :roll: Today I was listening to RFM's Elder Snow podcast and he also brought up the iPhone as an analog to the seer stone. :roll: Maybe they should put that thing in an MRI machine and let us see what kind of circuitry is inside. Otherwise a better analogy ...

View of the Hebrews is often employed as a staw man by apologists. Critics say Joseph used it to write the BoM. Apologists say he didn't copy and paste anything from it. I think the best way to look at is that both Smiths were writing their version of the same story that everyone around them was tal...

I have been asking myself whether I will read Givens' book when it comes out. He hasn't yet made any claims that he has access to new information, so his book will really just be more fancy tap dancing around the same old problems. If any of you are aware of any breakthroughs the Givens is about to ...

What does it matter (they ask) if JS got some details of the story wrong? The revealed truths of the BofA, and the divine origin of those truths, are far more important. In such a case it would be useful for someone to give a list of the specific truths revealed in the BoA, and eliminate any that J...

The poor priest who stumbles a bit while saying the sacrament prayer must repeat it over and over until the words are perfect. That my friends is not a prayer, it's a spell. If the tip of your toe doesn't get completely submerged at baptism Jesus can't accept you. Definitely magic. Beyond the words...

I'm not sure if this video has been discussed here before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKiJOAWNyAk Is it just me or can you see this guy internally trying to convince himself that all of this makes perfect sense? I love the conclusion: "God can speak to Joseph Smith however he wants to, damnit!"...

Questions=good :) Doubts=bad :evil: As we have seen demonstrated many times before, they will be happy to give you a list of exactly which questions are good. For example, "why did God inspire Joseph Smith to write the JST?" is a good question, while "why did Joseph Smith plagiarize so much of the ...

The poor priest who stumbles a bit while saying the sacrament prayer must repeat it over and over until the words are perfect. That my friends is not a prayer, it's a spell.

If the tip of your toe doesn't get completely submerged at baptism Jesus can't accept you. Definitely magic.

I agree. Doubts are dangerous to an institution that needs to suppress critical thinking to keep people in their box. Dangerous to the individual? Not so much.

People despise that which threatens their beliefs. -Carl Totten

Why is God always such a bully to people like Abraham, Job, and Jesus, just to name a few examples? -- Wndr. The obvious answer is the one you already gave. People make God in their own image. Those who are bullies and who want to coerce people into certain behaviors are bound to have a God that do...

The War on Drugs has done so much harm to the potential of plant medicines that could have helped so many people. I'm glad society is starting to grow up a little bit in this area. I have many friends whose illnesses and mental health have been greatly improved by natural substances. I'm really glad...

This is also analogous to what apologists try to do with the Masonic rituals they claim have come down since the time of Solomon's temple. There is nothing....zero....nada concrete to support anything of the sort. A few stupid Masonic legends and we're supposed to hang our entire belief system on t...