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FAIR conference day 1 – open thread

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This is an open thread for participants and streaming listeners to comment on FAIR conference presentations on Thursday, 7 August 2008.

Today’s speaker lineup:

  1. Mike Ash (“Shaken Faith Syndrome”)
  2. Mark Wright (“The Book of Mormon and Mesoamerica”)
  3. Margaret Young and Darius Gray (“Nobody Knows, the Untold Story of Black Mormons”)
  4. Brian Birch, Blake Ostler, and James Faulconer (“Philosophy and Mormonism”)
  5. Jeffrey Bradshaw (“The Message of the Joseph Smith Translation: A Walk in the Garden”)
  6. Larry Poulsen (“Book of Mormon Geography”)
  7. Ugo Perego (“Joseph Smith’s DNA Revealed: New Clues from the Prophet’s Genes”)

We look forward to your comments!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. JT says

    I was signed up for the live feed, but it says I’m failing to connect to the server. Anyone else having problems/success?

  3. Mike Parker says

    If you’re having trouble streaming or need to sign in, please email streaming (AT) fairlds (DOT) org. Trevor will help you out.

  4. Mike Parker says

    I like Mike Ash’s observation that the issue around shaken or lost faith is often the individual believes too rigidly — s/he is a fundamentalist in the sense of evangelical fundamentalism, which demands an infallible Bible, etc. When scholarly or scientific evidence runs up against their rigid beliefs, they struggle to adapt their views.

    This reminds me of Wendy Ulrich’s observation at the 2005 conference: “I have noticed that many of the people I have known who have left the Church did not do so because they believed too little, but because they believed too much.”

  5. Russell Anderson says

    A great introduction to the book. Also great graphics and images. Great job Mike.

  6. Keryn says

    I was struck by Brother Ash’s analogy of “inoculation” from shaken faith syndrome–how we need to reach level C in our understanding of Church doctrine and history. (Level C meaning realizing that Church history is good and wonderful, but definitely has warts.) We need to choose our timing and type of inoculation carefully, though, just as a doctor will give small doses of vaccine that the patient’s body can handle. You don’t want to overwhelm a new or young member with too many warts all at once!

  8. Mike Parker says

    Todd,

    Ash was clarifying that he was referring to Mormon “fundamentalists” in a similar sense to evangelical fundamentalists — belief in an inerrant scripture and an interpretation that rejects scientific evidences (insistence on a young earth, a global Flood, etc.)

    He did that to make sure that conference participants didn’t misunderstand his use of “fundamentalist” to mean something like Islamic fundamentalist/extremists, or the common use of “Mormon fundamentalists” referring to polygamous groups.

  10. Mike Parker says

    Darius Gray and Margaret Young just showed portions of their film Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons. It’s still being edited, but it’s well worth owning once it’s out on DVD.

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