Tevya
44p79 comments posted · 0 followers · following 0
10 years ago @ This Week in Mormons - Episode #169 - Soul Ki... · 0 replies · +1 points
I had a pretty bad experience being homeschooled for a couple years. In spite of that, I think there's some very good arguments that the very best education can be obtained through "hack-schooling" or "unschooling" which are some very cool movements that are trying to get away from the stigma attached to "homeschooling," partially by taking a very different approach than traditional homeschooling.
11 years ago @ This Week in Mormons - Episode #161 - Revised... · 1 reply · +1 points
11 years ago @ Sacred Symbolic - The Fallacy of An Expe... · 0 replies · +1 points
11 years ago @ Sacred Symbolic - The Most Important Cha... · 0 replies · +1 points
I'm sorry to hear the state of things in your area. I've heard of such things before. Your attitude of "we'll do our best to serve and be as righteous as we can" is the right one to have. Just remember that we don't know the whole story, but God does. And as you say, he'll make it all right in the end. Also remember that there's no such thing as "rank" in the Church. A Stake President or Bishop is only as good as their own closeness to Christ. Other's might find themselves much closer, and those given those callings are given them to help them in their personal progression as much as anything.
11 years ago @ This Week in Mormons - Episode #129 - The Gre... · 1 reply · +1 points
Your last paragraph is entirely false. But you don't have to believe me. Scott Gordon said, "here's one I run into a lot: 'there is no peer review at the Maxwell Institute. [It] doesn't exist.' This is not only false, but it's quite ironic. The Maxwell Institute does have a very rigorous peer review, while most Anti-Mormon websites do not." (FAIR Podcast 5/11/2011 - which you should listen to, as he specifically addresses your accusation of the ad hominem attacks. Find it here: http://goo.gl/22RUy )
It would seem JohnE that you're not very familiar with FARMS/Maxwell Institute, but rather wrote it off and have false ideas about how it was setup and run, based on the opinions of other people.
11 years ago @ This Week in Mormons - Episode #129 - The Gre... · 3 replies · +1 points
As for FARMS itself, you mention the same supposed problems with the organization that many people claim. Yet, aside from the occasional misstep (none of us are perfect), nobody seems to be producing hard evidence of these supposed "ad hominem" attacks. The simple fact is, if somebody blatantly lies, makes stuff up, or otherwise commits grievous errors of rhetoric and logic, it's going to sound like you're attacking them when you point those out. The author has to take responsibility. That can appear like an ad hominem attack, when there are serious problems with the work, but it's not. When it's really truly bad scholarship, adding a little humor to drive home just how bad it is, still does not constitute an ad hominem attack.
For me, and many others, FARMS has provided an excellent source of knowledge, information, and insight that have 1. strengthened and increased my understanding and testimony of the doctrines of the restored gospel, and 2. occasionally provided an offsetting view of anti-Mormon attacks. I just don't see how those results can so quickly be labeled as negative, and therefore merit the dissolution of FARMS.
11 years ago @ This Week in Mormons - Episode #129 - The Gre... · 0 replies · +1 points
No, you got apologetic right, that quip was intended for everyone who still things apologetics is about apologizing.
11 years ago @ Sacred Symbolic - Restore FARMS · 0 replies · +1 points
11 years ago @ This Week in Mormons - Episode #129 - The Gre... · 2 replies · +1 points
Daniel Peterson's job at Maxwell Institute was the head-editor for what used to be the FARMS Review. FARMS used to publish this, and several other publications on a fairly regular basis. It also worked with Deseret Book to publish all of Hugh Nibley's writings, as well as CD recordings of his lectures, etc. In short FARMS was an excellent resource for learning about all kinds of great scientific, historic, and anthropological research that's related to the restored gospel. Along with that, or perhaps as a natural side-effect, much of this was also apologetic in nature, or served an apologetic purpose even when that was not the purpose of the author.
Because it published all this, and did so regularly, it was also an excellent place to get your work published if you were an academic, researcher, or just an amateur that had really done his research. It didn't need to be apologetic in nature, just interesting to it's primary audience: Mormons. If it helped or was interesting to outsiders as well, great, but that wasn't the point.
The rate, and to some extent the quality, of published research from FARMS has declined in the past decade (according to Bro. Peterson, because Bro. Bradford often delayed publication without explanation). This seems to be because of decisions on the part of Bro. Bradford, who wants to eliminate not only the apologetic nature of FARMS but also any publishing that's LDS-centric. His goal seems to be (based in part on his own article in the FARMS Review: http://goo.gl/Kk5zO ) to get away from apologetics (which is actually defending against, or responding to, critics--look it up) and actually start apologizing for the Church! He wants to publish stuff that would argue for a softer (or appear to soften the) moral and doctrinal stance of the Church. In short: he wants to appeal to everyone, except people within the Church.
FARMS was originally founded to appeal to, and serve, people within the Church, while adhering to academic and scholarly set by academia. Plain and simple: it's audience was Mormons first, and everyone else second. People within the church are mad, because they feel like he's taken that away from them. And has been doing so, by slowing publication over years. They're also mad because many of them have been helped, when confronted with anti-Mormon attacks, by the apologetic work FARMS has done.
Here's more I wrote on the subject: http://sacredsymbolic.com/restore-farms/
EDIT: On a lighter note: thanks for the shout-out! I was alone in my office and it kinda creeped me out to suddenly hear "hi Tevya." :)
11 years ago @ This Week in Mormons - Episode #125 - Donut D... · 0 replies · +1 points