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Difference between revisions of "Criticism of Mormonism/Online documents/Letter to a CES Director/Citation abuse"
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| − | | | + | |L=Criticism of Mormonism/Online documents/Letter to a CES Director/Citation abuse |
| − | | | + | |H=Citation abuse in the original ''Letter to a CES Director'' |
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| − | + | |T=[[../|Letter to a CES Director]] | |
| − | + | |A=Jeremy Runnells | |
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|subject=Response to section "Book of Mormon Translation Concerns & Questions" | |subject=Response to section "Book of Mormon Translation Concerns & Questions" | ||
|summary=The author of the letter asks, "Why is the Church not being honest and transparent to its members about how Joseph Smith really translated the Book of Mormon? How am I supposed to be okay with this deception?" | |summary=The author of the letter asks, "Why is the Church not being honest and transparent to its members about how Joseph Smith really translated the Book of Mormon? How am I supposed to be okay with this deception?" | ||
| − | | | + | |L1="Joseph Smith used a rock in a hat for translating the Book of Mormon" |
}} | }} | ||
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|subject=Response to section "Book of Abraham Concerns & Questions" | |subject=Response to section "Book of Abraham Concerns & Questions" | ||
|summary=The author notes that, "Egyptologists have found the source material for the Book of Abraham to be nothing more than a common pagan Egyptian funerary text for a deceased man named “Hor” in 1st century AD. In other words, it was a common Breathing Permit that the Egyptians buried with their dead. It has absolutely nothing to do with Abraham or anything Joseph claimed in his translation for the Book of Abraham." | |summary=The author notes that, "Egyptologists have found the source material for the Book of Abraham to be nothing more than a common pagan Egyptian funerary text for a deceased man named “Hor” in 1st century AD. In other words, it was a common Breathing Permit that the Egyptians buried with their dead. It has absolutely nothing to do with Abraham or anything Joseph claimed in his translation for the Book of Abraham." | ||
| − | | | + | |L1=Citation abuse in Jeremy Runnells' Response and Rebuttal to Brian M. Hauglid's Rational Faiths Essay: B.H. Roberts comment on the Book of Abraham |
}} | }} | ||
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|subject=Response to section "Polygamy/Polyandry Concerns & Questions" | |subject=Response to section "Polygamy/Polyandry Concerns & Questions" | ||
|summary=Regarding Joseph's practice of polygamy, the author states that "Joseph Smith’s pattern of behavior or modus operandi for a period of at least 10 years of his adult life was to keep secrets, be deceptive, and be dishonest – both privately and publicly." | |summary=Regarding Joseph's practice of polygamy, the author states that "Joseph Smith’s pattern of behavior or modus operandi for a period of at least 10 years of his adult life was to keep secrets, be deceptive, and be dishonest – both privately and publicly." | ||
| − | | | + | |L1="Latter-day 'prophet, seer, and revelator' Lorenzo Snow strongly disagrees with FairMormon" |
}} | }} | ||
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|subject=Response to section "Prophets Concerns & Questions" | |subject=Response to section "Prophets Concerns & Questions" | ||
|summary=The author expresses concern about changes in doctrine. For example, "As a believing member, I had no idea that Joseph Smith gave the priesthood to black men. I’m supposed to go to the drawing board now and believe in a god who is not only a schizophrenic racist but who is inconsistent as well? Again, yesterday’s doctrine is today’s false doctrine. Yesterday’s 10 prophets are today’s heretics." | |summary=The author expresses concern about changes in doctrine. For example, "As a believing member, I had no idea that Joseph Smith gave the priesthood to black men. I’m supposed to go to the drawing board now and believe in a god who is not only a schizophrenic racist but who is inconsistent as well? Again, yesterday’s doctrine is today’s false doctrine. Yesterday’s 10 prophets are today’s heretics." | ||
| − | | | + | |L1="Brigham Young taught what is now known as 'Adam-God theory'. He taught that Adam is 'our Father and our God'" |
| − | | | + | |L2="Yesterday's doctrine is today's false doctrine. Yesterday’s prophet is today’s heretic." |
| − | | | + | |L3="Brigham Young said, 'The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy.'" |
| − | | | + | |L4="As a believing member, I had no idea that Joseph Smith gave the priesthood to black men" |
| − | | | + | |L5=Mark Hofmann |
| − | | | + | |L6="Why would I want them following the prophet when a prophet is just a man of his time?" |
}} | }} | ||
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|subject=Response to section "Kinderhook Plates and Translator/Seer Claims Concerns & Questions" | |subject=Response to section "Kinderhook Plates and Translator/Seer Claims Concerns & Questions" | ||
|summary=The author claims that, "Joseph Smith made a scientific claim that he could translate ancient documents. This is a testable claim. Joseph failed the test with the Book of Abraham. He failed the test with the Kinderhook Plates." | |summary=The author claims that, "Joseph Smith made a scientific claim that he could translate ancient documents. This is a testable claim. Joseph failed the test with the Book of Abraham. He failed the test with the Kinderhook Plates." | ||
| − | | | + | |L1="Joseph Smith was parading around and showing others the Egyptian hieroglyphics he copied off the gold plates around the same time as the discovery of the Kinderhook Plates." |
}} | }} | ||
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|subject=Response to section "Testimony/Spiritual Witness Concerns & Questions" | |subject=Response to section "Testimony/Spiritual Witness Concerns & Questions" | ||
|summary=The author asks the question, "Why is this Spirit so unreliable and inconsistent? How can I trust such an inconsistent and contradictory Source for knowing that Mormonism is worth betting my life, time, money, heart, mind, and obedience to?" | |summary=The author asks the question, "Why is this Spirit so unreliable and inconsistent? How can I trust such an inconsistent and contradictory Source for knowing that Mormonism is worth betting my life, time, money, heart, mind, and obedience to?" | ||
| − | | | + | |L1="Every major religion has members who claim the same thing: God or God’s spirit bore witness to them" |
| − | | | + | |L2="it would likewise be arrogant of a Latter-day Saint to deny their spiritual experiences and testimonies of the truthfulness of their own religion" |
| − | | | + | |L3="If God’s method to revealing truth is through feelings, it’s a pretty ineffective method" |
| − | | | + | |L4="Joseph Smith received a revelation, through the peep stone in his hat, to send Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery to Toronto, Canada for the sole purpose of selling the copyright of the Book of Mormon" |
| − | | | + | |L5="I saw a testimony as more than just spiritual experiences and feelings. I saw that we had evidence and logic on our side based on the correlated narrative I was fed by the Church about its origins." |
| − | | | + | |L6=Paul H. Dunn |
| − | | | + | |L7="a testimony is to be found in the bearing of it" |
| − | | | + | |L8="how can they be sure of the reliability of this same exact process in telling them that Mormonism is true?" |
| − | | | + | |L9="I felt the Spirit watching 'Saving Private Ryan' and the 'Schindler’s List'. Both R-rated and horribly violent movies. I also felt the Spirit watching 'Forrest Gump' and the 'Lion King'." |
| − | | | + | |L10="Why did I feel the Spirit as I listened to the stories of apostates sharing how they discovered for themselves that Mormonism is not true?" |
}} | }} | ||
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|subject=Response to section "Priesthood Restoration Concerns & Questions" | |subject=Response to section "Priesthood Restoration Concerns & Questions" | ||
|summary=The author states, "Like the First Vision story, none of the members of the Church or Joseph Smith’s family had ever heard prior to 1834 about a priesthood restoration from John the Baptist or Peter, James, and John. Although the priesthood is now taught to have been restored in 1829, Joseph and Oliver made no such claim until 1834. Why did it take five years for Joseph or Oliver to tell members of the Church about the priesthood?" | |summary=The author states, "Like the First Vision story, none of the members of the Church or Joseph Smith’s family had ever heard prior to 1834 about a priesthood restoration from John the Baptist or Peter, James, and John. Although the priesthood is now taught to have been restored in 1829, Joseph and Oliver made no such claim until 1834. Why did it take five years for Joseph or Oliver to tell members of the Church about the priesthood?" | ||
| − | | | + | |L1="Although the priesthood is now taught to have been restored in 1829, Joseph and Oliver made no such claim until 1834." |
| − | | | + | |L2="Why did it take five years for Joseph or Oliver to tell members of the Church about the priesthood?" |
| − | | | + | |L3="Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery changed the wording of earlier revelations when they compiled the 1835 Doctrine & Covenants" |
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|subject=Response to section "Witnesses Concerns & Questions" | |subject=Response to section "Witnesses Concerns & Questions" | ||
|summary=The author claims that, "If David Whitmer is a credible witness, why are we only using his testimony of the Book of Mormon while ignoring his other testimony claiming that God Himself spoke to Whitmer “by his own voice from the heavens” in June 1838 commanding Whitmer to apostatize from the Lord’s one and only true Church? FAIR must admit that Whitmer was less than credible on this occasion. Why couldn’t he have been less than credible when he testified of the Book of Mormon?" | |summary=The author claims that, "If David Whitmer is a credible witness, why are we only using his testimony of the Book of Mormon while ignoring his other testimony claiming that God Himself spoke to Whitmer “by his own voice from the heavens” in June 1838 commanding Whitmer to apostatize from the Lord’s one and only true Church? FAIR must admit that Whitmer was less than credible on this occasion. Why couldn’t he have been less than credible when he testified of the Book of Mormon?" | ||
| − | | | + | |L1=Citation abuse in the original Letter to a CES Director: Anthony Metcalf's Ten Years Before the Mast |
| − | | | + | |L2=Citation abuse in the original Letter to a CES Director: Stephen Burnett to Br. Johnson |
| − | | | + | |L3=Citation abuse in the original Letter to a CES Director: John Whitmer states that he saw the plates by a supernatural power |
}} | }} | ||
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|subject=Response to section "Temples & Freemasonry Concerns & Questions" | |subject=Response to section "Temples & Freemasonry Concerns & Questions" | ||
|summary=The author of the letter asks, "Does the eternal salvation, eternal happiness, and eternal sealings of families really depend on medieval originated Masonic rituals in multi-million dollar castles? Is God really going to separate good couples and their children who love one other and who want to be together in the next life because they object to uncomfortable and strange Masonic temple rituals and a polygamous heaven?" We respond to these questions in this article. | |summary=The author of the letter asks, "Does the eternal salvation, eternal happiness, and eternal sealings of families really depend on medieval originated Masonic rituals in multi-million dollar castles? Is God really going to separate good couples and their children who love one other and who want to be together in the next life because they object to uncomfortable and strange Masonic temple rituals and a polygamous heaven?" We respond to these questions in this article. | ||
| − | | | + | |L1="Just seven weeks after Joseph’s Masonic initiation, Joseph introduced the LDS endowment" |
| − | | | + | |L2="We have the true Masonry" |
| − | | | + | |L3="why doesn’t the LDS ceremony more closely resemble an earlier form of Masonry?" |
| − | | | + | |L4="Freemasonry has zero links to the Solomon’s temple" |
| − | | | + | |L5="What does it say about the Church if it removed something that Joseph Smith said he restored?" |
}} | }} | ||
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|subject=Response to section "Science Concerns & Questions" | |subject=Response to section "Science Concerns & Questions" | ||
|summary=The author concludes that "The problem Mormonism encounters is that so many of its claims are well within the realm of scientific study, and as such, can be proven or disproven. To cling to faith in these areas, where the overwhelming evidence is against it, is willful ignorance, not spiritual dedication." | |summary=The author concludes that "The problem Mormonism encounters is that so many of its claims are well within the realm of scientific study, and as such, can be proven or disproven. To cling to faith in these areas, where the overwhelming evidence is against it, is willful ignorance, not spiritual dedication." | ||
| − | | | + | |L1="no death of any kind (humans, all animals, birds, fish, dinosaurs, etc.) on this earth until the 'Fall of Adam'" |
| − | | | + | |L2="Science has proven that there was no worldwide flood 4,500 years ago" |
| − | | | + | |L3="Other events/claims that science has discredited" |
| − | | | + | |L4="the sun gets its light from Kolob" |
| − | | | + | |L5="They carried honey bees across the ocean? Swarms of them?" |
}} | }} | ||
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|subject=Response to section "Scriptures Concerns & Questions" | |subject=Response to section "Scriptures Concerns & Questions" | ||
|summary=The author states that "To believe in the scriptures, I have to believe in a god who endorsed murder, genocide, infanticide, rape, slavery, selling daughters into sex slavery, polygamy, child abuse, stoning disobedient children, pillage, plunder, sexism, racism, human sacrifice, animal sacrifice, killing people who work on the Sabbath, death penalty for those who mix cotton with polyester, and so on." | |summary=The author states that "To believe in the scriptures, I have to believe in a god who endorsed murder, genocide, infanticide, rape, slavery, selling daughters into sex slavery, polygamy, child abuse, stoning disobedient children, pillage, plunder, sexism, racism, human sacrifice, animal sacrifice, killing people who work on the Sabbath, death penalty for those who mix cotton with polyester, and so on." | ||
| − | | | + | |L1="that Laban would send his servants after Nephi and his brothers is ridiculous considering that the same God who had no problem lighting stones and taming swarms of bees" |
| − | | | + | |L2="God kills all the firstborn children in Egypt except for those who put blood on their doors?" |
| − | | | + | |L3="Got a rebellious kid who doesn’t listen? Take him to the elders and to the end of the gates and stone him to death!" |
| − | | | + | |L4="I’m asked to believe in not only a part-time racist god and a part-time polygamous god but a part-time psychopathic schizophrenic one as well" |
}} | }} | ||
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|subject=Response to section "Other Concerns & Questions" | |subject=Response to section "Other Concerns & Questions" | ||
|summary=The author notes that, "Under [Quentin L.] Cook’s counsel, FAIR and unofficial LDS apologetic websites are anti-Mormon sources that should be avoided. Not only do they introduce to Mormons 'internet materials that magnify, exaggerate, and in some cases invent shortcomings of early Church leaders' but they provide many ridiculous answers with logical fallacies and omissions while leaving members confused and hanging with a bizarre version of Mormonism." | |summary=The author notes that, "Under [Quentin L.] Cook’s counsel, FAIR and unofficial LDS apologetic websites are anti-Mormon sources that should be avoided. Not only do they introduce to Mormons 'internet materials that magnify, exaggerate, and in some cases invent shortcomings of early Church leaders' but they provide many ridiculous answers with logical fallacies and omissions while leaving members confused and hanging with a bizarre version of Mormonism." | ||
| − | | | + | |L1=2013 Official Declaration 2 Header Update Dishonesty |
| − | | | + | |L2="Zina Diantha Huntington Young" |
| − | | | + | |L3="Brigham Young Sunday School Manual" |
| − | | | + | |L4="The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy" |
| − | | | + | |L5="Church Finances" |
| − | | | + | |L6="Tithing" |
| − | | | + | |L7="Names of the Church" |
| − | | | + | |L8="Some things that are true are not very useful" |
| − | | | + | |L9="Criticizing leaders" |
| − | | | + | |L10="the scary internet" |
| − | | | + | |L11="Going after members who publish or share their questions, concerns, and doubts" |
| − | | | + | |L12=Strengthening the Church Members Committee |
| − | | | + | |L13="When the prophet speaks the debate is over" |
}} | }} | ||
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|subject=Response to section "Conclusion" | |subject=Response to section "Conclusion" | ||
|summary=The author concludes, "FAIR and these unofficial apologists have done more to destroy my testimony than any anti-Mormon source ever could. I found their version of Mormonism to be alien and foreign to the Chapel Mormonism that I grew up in attending Church, seminary, reading scriptures, General Conferences, EFY, mission, and BYU. Their answers are not only contradictory to the scriptures and teachings I learned through correlated Mormonism…they’re truly bizarre." | |summary=The author concludes, "FAIR and these unofficial apologists have done more to destroy my testimony than any anti-Mormon source ever could. I found their version of Mormonism to be alien and foreign to the Chapel Mormonism that I grew up in attending Church, seminary, reading scriptures, General Conferences, EFY, mission, and BYU. Their answers are not only contradictory to the scriptures and teachings I learned through correlated Mormonism…they’re truly bizarre." | ||
| − | | | + | |L1="Among the first sources I looked to for answers were official Church sources such as Mormon.org and LDS.org. I couldn’t find them." |
| − | | | + | |L2="FAIR and these unofficial apologists have done more to destroy my testimony than any anti-Mormon source ever could" |
}} --> | }} --> | ||
Latest revision as of 14:19, 13 April 2024
Citation abuse in the original Letter to a CES Director
| A FAIR Analysis of: Letter to a CES Director, a work by author: Jeremy Runnells
|
Overview
The following articles demonstrate citation abuse in the Letter to a CES Director. In some cases, the author has taken a single citation, extracted different portions of it, and then assigned different references in order to make it appear that the data comes from multiple sources, thus producing two different "citations" instead of a single one. In other cases, only the portions of the citation that support the author's position are extracted and displayed (this is known as "quote mining"), while other data in the same citation which does not support the author's position is ignored. These articles provide detail on how the citations were manipulated.
Detailed responses by section are found in linked subarticles below
Response to section "Book of Abraham Concerns & Questions"
Summary: The author notes that, "Egyptologists have found the source material for the Book of Abraham to be nothing more than a common pagan Egyptian funerary text for a deceased man named “Hor” in 1st century AD. In other words, it was a common Breathing Permit that the Egyptians buried with their dead. It has absolutely nothing to do with Abraham or anything Joseph claimed in his translation for the Book of Abraham."Jump to Subtopic:
Response to section "Witnesses Concerns & Questions"
Summary: The author claims that, "If David Whitmer is a credible witness, why are we only using his testimony of the Book of Mormon while ignoring his other testimony claiming that God Himself spoke to Whitmer “by his own voice from the heavens” in June 1838 commanding Whitmer to apostatize from the Lord’s one and only true Church? FAIR must admit that Whitmer was less than credible on this occasion. Why couldn’t he have been less than credible when he testified of the Book of Mormon?"Jump to Subtopic:
- Citation abuse in the original Letter to a CES Director: Anthony Metcalf's Ten Years Before the Mast
- Citation abuse in the original Letter to a CES Director: Stephen Burnett to Br. Johnson
- Citation abuse in the original Letter to a CES Director: John Whitmer states that he saw the plates by a supernatural power