by Mike Parker on August 27th, 2009
We’re pleased to announce FAIR’s Front Page, a daily news digest of Mormon-related stories delivered by email to your inbox.
The news stories include anything said about Mormons and the Church — positive, negative, or neutral. It’s designed to be an unbiased source, delivering whatever is being said about us in the online news media.
To sign up for FAIR’s Front Page, go to the home page of the main FAIR web site and enter your email address in the Front Page box on the right:
Posted in News from FAIR | 3 Comments »
by Scott Gordon on June 5th, 2009
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THE FAIR JOURNAL May 2009
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The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research
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Apologetics: The branch of theology that is concerned with
defending or proving the truth of Christian doctrines. (The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition, 2000.)
INSIDE THE JOURNAL
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* MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT. The FAIR Conference is fast
approaching! It is time to register.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in News from FAIR | Comments Off
by Steven Danderson on March 31st, 2009
Recently, an old friend had given me a copy of Rod Meldrum’s DVD, DNA Evidence for Book of Mormon Geography. This newer edition is, in some ways, radically different from the one perused by FAIR members when the original came out, roughly one year ago. While I haven’t seen the new version in its entirety, I thought the changes were significant enough to put in front of the people.
First, though, I want to make some things clear:
While most FAIR members accept a Mesoamerican setting for the Book of Mormon, there is NO official FAIR position on Book of Mormon geography. Greg Smith’s blog entry should make that abundantly clear. Moreover, I know of no FAIR member who is closed-minded to a Anglo-North American setting of the Book of Mormon. Indeed, FAIR member Larry Poulsen, who is an advocate of the Mesoamerican theory, posts Theodore Brandley’s thesis on his web site (and he has eloquently–if unconvincingly–advocated his position in comments on my earlier blog entry!), and I have speculated about a Florida setting for the Land Southward in those same comments.
Here are some of the parts of the revised DVD that I thought noteworthy:
1. There is an explicit statement by Emeritus General Authority Elder Hartman Rector at the beginning of the DVD, that there is no official Church position on Book of Mormon Geography.
2. Meldrum inserts a similar statement into his presentation–early on.
I hope that those who have read the reviews by FAIR personnel–including Robert White’s blog entry–would realise that the greatest issue that FAIR took with Meldrum’s presentation was the implied Church endorsement of his position–with the accompanying implication of the apostasy of those who didn’t agree. I don’t know if Elder Rector wisely advised him to make the insertions, whether the Brethren put pressure to insert those disclaimers, or if Meldrum himself “saw the light” and made the insertions on his own initiative, the fact is, those changes were made–quietly, and without fanfare. [A more cynical person might argue that the quiet with which Meldrum made those changes was an attempt to give a false impression that FAIR lied about his presentation.]
Whatever the motivation, those changes are quite welcome, and I, for one am quite happy that those who are unpersuaded of Meldrum’s position (not just FAIR and FARMS members–whom Meldrum refers to as “the scholars”!) are now free from any taint of being charged with apostasy. For that, Brother Meldrum deserves credit.
Still, there are problems with Meldrum’s presentation:
Firstly, he claims that a thorough search of what “the scholars” had on the DNA issue revealed nothing. I really don’t know how Rod Meldrum could possibly have missed this list of FAIR articles, including those by David Stewart, D. Jeffrey Meldrum, and Scott Woodward–all of them trained in genetics, and all of them written before his DVD. Moreover, how could he have missed this list of DVDs–one of which, The Book of Mormon and New World DNA, was copyrighted in 2007 (I own a copy!)?
Another problem is with the “scientific method” that Meldrum employs. I am trained as what the business world calls a “quant jock.” Thus, even though I CLEPed out on the sciences as an undergrad–and got some training on counteracting nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons, it would be presumptuous to claim that I am a scientist–and my looking for better counteragents would NOT be “scientific research.” It would be equally presumptuous for Meldrum, who, as I understand, was a technical writer, to claim that HE engaged in “scientific research.”
Though I am incompetent to comment on genetics, others, such as Ugo Perego, are quite competent in the field–and they take issue not only with Simon Southerton, but with Rod Meldrum and their (at best) naive assumtions and faulty conclusions.
However, I AM competent to comment on geographic issues on his claim, because of my undergraduate and graduate training in the social sciences. To be fair to Meldrum and others who accept a Great Lakes setting for the Book of Mormon, I was wrong when I said that I failed to find a “Land Southward” that was “nearly surrounded by water” [See Alma 22:29-30] in the Great Lakes. Honesty compels me to admit that Southwestern Ontario certainly qualifies as a peninsular “Land Southward,” and the land stretching from the southern tip of the Georgian Bay to the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario is undoubtedly narrow enough to be traversed in a day and a half [See Alma 22:32]. However, even considering that the Nephite first month is the same time of year as the crucifixion [III Nephi 8:5], Ontario–even that part, is much too cold for Lamanites to get away with wearing only skins about their loins [Alma 43:4, 19] about that time. As I write, a perusal of the weather forecast for Toronto at this time of year shows that there will be SNOW on the seventh of April[http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/CAXX0504?from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_business].
While Brother Meldrum may have graduated from the FAIR hot-seat, he will have to produce far better evidence for him to get some POSITIVE attention.
Posted in Book of Mormon, General, News from FAIR, News stories | 70 Comments »
by Scott Gordon on November 19th, 2008
The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) launched a new webpage about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) and California Proposition 8. The passage of California Proposition 8 during the November 2008 election has generated a number of criticisms of the LDS Church regarding a variety of issues including the separation of church and state, accusations of bigotry, and the rights of a non-profit organization to participate in the democratic process. This page documents the events leading up to and resulting from the effort to pass California Proposition 8 as they relate to Latter-day Saints. Your comments on the webpage are welcome.
Posted in News from FAIR, Politics | 68 Comments »
by Scott Gordon on November 3rd, 2008
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THE FAIR JOURNAL October 2008
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The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research
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Apologetics: The branch of theology that is concerned with
defending or proving the truth of Christian doctrines. (The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition, 2000.)
INSIDE THE JOURNAL
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT. Scott Gordon comments on Califonia's
Proposition 8, which deals with the issue of same sex marriage.
* FAIR FUNDRAISING. If you would like to help FAIR in its work to
provide "well-documented answers to criticisms of LDS (Mormon)
doctrine, belief and practice," we encourage you to contribute
through the FAIR web site.
* NEW ON THE WEBSITE: FAIR has added responses to additional
sections of the "DNA Evidence for Book of Mormon Geography" DVD.
* NEW ON THE WEBSITE: "Mormon's Editorial Method and Meta-Message."
Brant Gardner's 2008 FAIR Conference presentation is now available
on the FAIR website.
* RESOURCES ON THE WEB: "A letter to a friend: Joseph Smith
polygamy." J. Stapley blogged on helping people understand
difficult historical issues.
* ASK THE APOLOGIST. Got a question you are dying to ask? Here's
how.
* FAIR TOPICAL GUIDE. The Topical Guide on the FAIR Web site is one
of the most popular resources offered. Learn what is available and
help us expand our references.
* FAIR WIKI. The FAIR Wiki is an excellent resource for someone
looking for a summary of an issue and for pointers to more
detailed information. Links to many new and changed articles are
included in this issue.
* FAIR YOUTUBE VIDEOS. FAIR has had a presence on youtube.com for
several months and new video clips are added frequently.
* FAIR LDS BOOKSTORE. Check out the FAIR Bookstore's monthly
specials.
* ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS. Interested in writing for FAIR? Learn how you
can have your apologetics work published.
* PUBLISHING NOTES. Learn how you can become more involved in FAIR
and how you can reuse the material we publish.
* FAIR JOURNAL ARCHIVES. All of the FAIR Journal issues since
October 2001 are on the FAIR web site.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in News from FAIR | Comments Off
by Mike Parker on October 20th, 2008
In the last week FAIR has received an increasing number of queries about the supposed transcript of a talk given by President Boyd K. Packer in the Forest Bend Ward on 12 October 2008.
We have been in touch with Church Public Affairs about this matter. Here are the facts:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in News from FAIR | 32 Comments »
by Steven Danderson on October 5th, 2008
Recently, much has been made of FAIR taking issue with a DVD and fireside presentation of a theory which claims that the Book of Mormon events were based in the upper Great Lakes region. While that theory may be right, the proponents of the Great Lakes theory bear the burden of showing that it is so.
While I shan’t go deeply into the that theory, let me briefly state why I am unconvinced by the evidence thus far presented, in spite of the fact that an emeritus General Authority is convinced: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book of Mormon, Doctrine, General, LDS History, LDS Scriptures, News from FAIR | 38 Comments »
by Mike Parker on August 8th, 2008
This is an open thread for participants and streaming listeners to comment on FAIR conference presentations on Friday, 8 August 2008.
Today’s speaker lineup:
- Ron Esplin (“The Joseph Smith Papers”)
- Matthew Brown (“The Israelite Temple and the Early Christians”)
- Newell Bringhurst and Craig Foster (“The White Horse Prophecy: Myth vs. Reality”)
- Scott Gordon (“Online Apologetics”)
- Brian Hauglid (“The Book of Abraham”)
- Brant Gardner (“Second Witness: The Book of Mormon”)
- Daniel Peterson (“Humble Apologetics”)
We look forward to your comments!
Posted in News from FAIR | 9 Comments »
by Mike Parker on August 7th, 2008
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:
- Mike Ash (“Shaken Faith Syndrome”)
- Mark Wright (“The Book of Mormon and Mesoamerica”)
- Margaret Young and Darius Gray (“Nobody Knows, the Untold Story of Black Mormons”)
- Brian Birch, Blake Ostler, and James Faulconer (“Philosophy and Mormonism”)
- Jeffrey Bradshaw (“The Message of the Joseph Smith Translation: A Walk in the Garden”)
- Larry Poulsen (“Book of Mormon Geography”)
- Ugo Perego (“Joseph Smith’s DNA Revealed: New Clues from the Prophet’s Genes”)
We look forward to your comments!
Posted in News from FAIR | 16 Comments »
by Mike Parker on August 2nd, 2008
Saturday’s article by Lynn Arave in the Deseret News highlights some of the presentations at this week’s FAIR Conference and Sunstone Symposium.
Some people have noticed that this year FAIR and Sunstone are running conferences on overlapping dates. We’ve received a few queries about that, asking if we did it on purpose. (Cue maniacally evil laugh: Buu-WAH-hah-hah-hah-hah!)
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in News from FAIR | 3 Comments »
