My site on LDS essays/Mormon problems is growing... 7 essays, Priesthood, Deutero-Isaiah, JST, D&C, more live now (7/9)

[jfro18]

For anyone with a lot of time on their hands, I am still plugging along trying to get a site together that tackles all of the LDS essays inspired by Hagoth, who was generous enough to let me integrate his annotated essays into the site.

There are 1,000,000 formatting things to do, but there are now 7 annotated essays up and a few extra things on blacks/priesthood. The annotated essays now up at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysite/ are:

Book of Mormon translation* at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... ed-essay-3
Book of Mormon DNA issues* at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... y-translat
Polygamy - Kirtland and Nauvoo* at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... nded-essay
Polygamy - Utah Period at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... y-kirtland
Book of Abraham* at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... ed-essay-1
First Vision at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... ed-essay-2
Blacks and Priesthood/Temple Ban at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... -ban-essay

* = Hagoth's brilliant work integrated. The rest I did without, so that explains the dropoff in awesomeness.

I am going to next add sections on the priesthood restoration problems, the JST being lifted from Adam Clarke, and then start doing smaller ones on the more obvious issues like Deutero Isaiah, anachronisms, King James issues, changes to the D&C, and then probably just try to take on apologetic pieces in annotated way.

Anyway - if you read anything let me know what you think. I tried to make the tone more neutral from Hagoth's essays, but then as I got going I noticed I was getting more and more blunt as well, so I do want to try and fix that further.

The website is at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysite/ - you can use the top menu to navigate around. I will keep working on getting formatting done better as we go, but just wanted to get content up.

Let me know if there are corrections/suggestions on what to add/topics to cover next, etc. I realize this will not be some huge site, but if I can help a few people down the road it will be worth it... and I think it takes a slightly different approach than the CES Letter because it gives the apologetic argument before it explains why it doesn't work. Obviously they'd still disagree with my conclusions, but at least both sides are there for a reader to see.

Thanks y'all!

[Hagoth]

Looking forward to reading your expanded essays, jfro!

[Corsair]

These essays have some well written and well explained commentary. Skeptical commentary is so easily added to these essays. I think this is why the
institutional church does not put them in wider circulation

[AllieOop]

These essays have some well written and well explained commentary. Skeptical commentary is so easily added to these essays. I think this is why the
institutional church does not put them in wider circulation

Exactly!!! How many members (and even local leaders) still don't even know these essays exist? I know that when I bring them up to any family member, they look at me like "Huh? Essays? Oh well, if they were important, we'd hear about them at GC or in the Ensign or in church lessons...so I'm not too interested in searching to find them!"

Good job, jfro18! I enjoyed reading through your site and it's very well done.

[græy]

Let me know if there are corrections/suggestions on what to add/topics to cover next, etc. I realize this will not be some huge site, but if I can help a few people down the road it will be worth it... and I think it takes a slightly different approach than the CES Letter because it gives the apologetic argument before it explains why it doesn't work. Obviously they'd still disagree with my conclusions, but at least both sides are there for a reader to see.

Thanks y'all!

This is really good stuff! Well done jfro18! I'll be spending some time re-reading everything on your site this weekend for sure.

One thing, and this might just be me and my crappy monitor, but I have a hard time reading the light blue text. Making it distinguishable from the actual essay text is necessary, but could another color work? The blue is just too light on the white background.

[jfro18]

This is really good stuff! Well done jfro18! I'll be spending some time re-reading everything on your site this weekend for sure.

One thing, and this might just be me and my crappy monitor, but I have a hard time reading the light blue text. Making it distinguishable from the actual essay text is necessary, but could another color work? The blue is just too light on the white background.

I was worried about that - I should've checked that early on!

I just changed one of the essays - can you guys let me know if it is an improvement? If so I'll change the rest to this color as well, or pick a different color if not.

It's the BoM translation one which is at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... ed-essay-3

Thanks for the kind words - will have some priesthood stuff up this weekend...

[Culper Jr.]

I just changed one of the essays - can you guys let me know if it is an improvement?

Looks a lot better to me, dark enough to see better but colorful enough to easily see the difference from the essay text.

Great stuff!! Very well executed!!! I read a couple of them and I look forward to reading it all.

[jfro18]

I just changed one of the essays - can you guys let me know if it is an improvement?

Looks a lot better to me, dark enough to see better but colorful enough to easily see the difference from the essay text.

Great stuff!! Very well executed!!! I read a couple of them and I look forward to reading it all.

Awesome - I'm going to fix the other essays/notes over the next few days to make it easier to read.

Also added in two Priesthood Restoration pages:

the Timeline (https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... f-timeline of priesthood restoration
Counter-arguments to common apologetics about priesthood https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... ial-narrat)

I also added a page on the Joseph Smith Translation (https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... l-narrat-1

edit: Just added a page on the Deutero Isaiah issues in the Book of Mormon at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... slation-pr

Comments welcome and encouraged as always!

[jfro18]

This weekend I added in pages on:

Tight vs Loose translation at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysite/translation

Faith promoting stories and their truthfulness at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysite/faithpromoting

Changes to the D&C https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysit ... evelations

Deutero-Isaiah at https://ldsdiscussion.wixsite.com/mysite/deuteroisaiah

Still need to format the sections and beef them up, but if anyone has any comments/suggestions/corrections just let me know!

I also still need to fix the color changes on the annotated essays - will get that going this week along with a few more pages:
Spiritual Witnesses
Top reasons we know the church isn't true
Maybe a few more... we'll see..

[slavereeno]

This stuff is great!

[deacon blues]

I'm just starting to study this. I'm impressed, it looks great.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

I agree with prior comments. You're providing the info in a novel new way that is easy to consume. Well done.