Comments on Life On Gold Plates: John Gee: "The Larger Issue"

haha thanks Ben! There will be a lot of things lik...

2009-08-06T14:31:44.472-06:00

haha thanks Ben! There will be a lot of things like that in these notes so people will want to check transcripts yes.

"Ptolemaic" is the spelling you're looking for ;)

2009-08-06T14:30:02.044-06:00

"Ptolemaic" is the spelling you're looking for ;)

I think the first question in the Q&A is the criti...

2009-08-06T13:58:40.123-06:00

I think the first question in the Q&A is the critical point. It's not that LDS emphasize or hold the BoA as inerrant. It's that it's really the only hope we might ever have to objectively judge Joseph Smith's claims regarding translation ability.

It's not the BoA itself; it's the implications.

IOW: I am rather ignorant of distinctions between ...

2009-08-06T13:18:57.207-06:00

IOW: I am rather ignorant of distinctions between BOA arguments, so consider that when reading my notes.

Chris, be sure to check the actual paper when we h...

2009-08-06T13:18:11.868-06:00

Chris, be sure to check the actual paper when we have it available to see if the distinctions are there, remember these are just quickly typed notes. Also, from what I understand Gee was referring to folks who post on RfM etc. who clearly have no idea what they are talking about. Not all critics generally.

The notion that critics are making Gee's argument ...

2009-08-06T13:00:17.762-06:00

The notion that critics are making Gee's argument for him when we say that the Book of Breathings is not the Book of Abraham is downright absurd. Gee's position is that the Book of Breathings was not JS's source for the Book of Abraham. The critics argue that it was JS's source for the book, but that it is not in fact what JS claimed it was. Gee's failure to understand this distinction suggests that it is not we critics for whom the arguments have become too "complex" to follow.

Seriously: "most critics are not trained or relatively bright?" Thay "don't sign their names to their posts?" Nearly all Gee's major online critics are educated and intelligent, and use their real names as their monikers.