Understanding Mormon Apologetics

[moksha]

In order to understand the concept and practice of Mormon apologetics, I offer the following example:

If the prevailing legend of the day stated that the Book of Mormon is red, any claims that the book is actually blue would of necessity be denied and ad hominem attacks would be made against the claimant. If definitive proof was offered that the book cover was indeed blue, apologists would argue that the wavelengths of light have varied over the course of time and place.

Any other examples you can provide would be appreciated.

[RubinHighlander]

How is it that only The Dude abides?
Well, you'll just have to take His word for it. After all, he's The Dude!
BTW - He would never lie to you, it just now how abiding it works.

[RubinHighlander]

I like these non-denominational responses against many Cristian apologetic arguments, could be applied to any religion or pseudo science.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/crossexami ... -argument/

They’re not defeated by reason because they weren’t created by reason.

[Hagoth]

When I was a kid I checked a book out of the school library. My dog chewed it up. I was terrified of what would happen if I returned a destroyed book to the library. I could not imagine any option that would be acceptable, other than somehow patching up the book to make it look like everything was just fine. I stayed up most of the night gluing the thing back together. I smoothed the rough edges of the bite marks with fine sandpaper and colored over them with a marker. I had to replace the end papers entirely, which I did by cutting squares of cheap construction paper and gluing them carefully over the old end sheets. The bulk of the pages were a pulpy mess. I ended up slathering glue all over them and reshaping them into a passably book-shaped form.

In the morning, when the glue had dried I realized that I had produced something that was a pretty good approximation of what people expect a book to look like and I felt like I had averted disaster. I could shove the book into the return bin at the library without too much concern. I realized that most of the pages of the book were useless and, even though I didn't want to admit it to myself, I knew that someone else down the line might have to take the blame for my kludge, but what was important right now was that I had dodged a bullet, I had rescued the book and, In my mind, I had done a good thing.

[Rob4Hope]

As soon as I start reading apologetic work, my stomach churns and I have to either force myself to persist, or just close it down immediately.

Its all the same--an attempt to smear the lines to make a square peg fit in a round hole.

[Corsair]

I like these non-denominational responses against many Cristian apologetic arguments, could be applied to any religion or pseudo science.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/crossexami ... -argument/

They’re not defeated by reason because they weren’t created by reason.

One time I was at an apostate gathering and chatting with a woman who seemed to have left orthodox LDS belief for some variant of New Age spiritualism. She expressed some interest in science but seemed to enjoy the idea of a spiritual connectedness of all things to account for phenomena like gravity and electromagnetism. Unseen and unverifiable spiritual connectedness was a perfectly good explanation for her and was as useful (if not superior) to scientific naturalism.

I responded that I could equally propose that invisible faeries were actually responsible for all natural phenomena and it would just as supported as her theory. There was a moment of realization where the cognitive dissonance was noticeable on her face, but it passed quickly. She changed the subject. I felt amused, but not vindicated, but also I began to better understand the appeal of alcohol.

This is a common feeling when I read LDS apologetics. A faithful explanation fits in a narrow realm of possibility, without worrying about probability. Apologetics normally shies away from falsifiability, of course.

[Hagoth]

One time I was at an apostate gathering and chatting with a woman who seemed to have left orthodox LDS belief for some variant of New Age spiritualism. She expressed some interest in science but seemed to enjoy the idea of a spiritual connectedness of all things to account for phenomena like gravity and electromagnetism. Unseen and unverifiable spiritual connectedness was a perfectly good explanation for her and was as useful (if not superior) to scientific naturalism

But from this we can also derive an example of the power of apologetics from the point of view of the apologist, due to it's flexibility. We might choose to define a few terms to make it all work. Gravity and electromagnetism ARE spirit. We lack the instruments to detect the yet-undefined spiritual force that governs them but they in themselves are manifestations of spirit. What we can't see is that everything is united by spiritual mind, which someday we will be able to detect just as easily as we can now detect gravity and electromagnetism. Then we would go on to point out some scriptures where words like spirit are used as proxies for the forces of nature. Follow it up by rubbing a crystal or eating little pieces of bread shredded and enchanted by 16-year olds and off we go.

[blazerb]

When I was a kid I checked a book out of the school library. My dog chewed it up. I was terrified of what would happen if I returned a destroyed book to the library. I could not imagine any option that would be acceptable, other than somehow patching up the book to make it look like everything was just fine. I stayed up most of the night gluing the thing back together. I smoothed the rough edges of the bite marks with fine sandpaper and colored over them with a marker. I had to replace the end papers entirely, which I did by cutting squares of cheap construction paper and gluing them carefully over the old end sheets. The bulk of the pages were a pulpy mess. I ended up slathering glue all over them and reshaping them into a passably book-shaped form.

In the morning, when the glue had dried I realized that I had produced something that was a pretty good approximation of what people expect a book to look like and I felt like I had averted disaster. I could shove the book into the return bin at the library without too much concern. I realized that most of the pages of the book were useless and, even though I didn't want to admit it to myself, I knew that someone else down the line might have to take the blame for my kludge, but what was important right now was that I had dodged a bullet, I had rescued the book and, In my mind, I had done a good thing.

The parable of the dog-chewed library book has been added to my list of stories.