Logic takes care of itself; all we have to do is to look and see how it does it. – Ludwig Wittgenstein An argument is a reason or set of reasons given in support of a conclusion. It need not be contentious and is distinct from an argument in the sense of an aggressive exchange. […]
Category: Apologetics
Stylometrics
Introduction In 1980 three statisticians at Brigham Young University “examined the frequencies of noncontextual words in a precedent-setting analysis” of the Book of Mormon. Among the findings, it was concluded that: “Text clusters of major Book of Mormon authors and Joseph Smith. Linear discriminant analysis indicates that the writing styles of the major Book of […]
Chiasmus
Chiasmus is a literary technique in which two or more ideas are presented in a “criss cross” structure in order to make a larger point or produce an effect. It is a technique employed to lay emphasis on what the speaker wants to communicate. Chiasmus was popular in ancient literature, including Hebrew, Greek, and Latin […]
The Scholarly Problem
Introduction Deseret News noted: David Campbell, a University of Notre Dame associate professor and another adviser on the survey, noted that the more educated (Mormon) respondents were, the higher their levels of religious commitment. “I was a little surprised by that,” said Campbell, who is LDS and who has extensively studied on the role of […]
Messianic myths
Introduction The argument from messianic myths is not so much an argument but rather a couple of related assertions: The messianic story of Jesus is remarkably similar to older messianic myths The messianic story of Jesus was copied from these older messianic myths This reasoning has largely been abandoned and all claims have been found […]
Belief is neither necessary nor sufficient for faith
Introduction Belief can be defined as follows. William Alston said: 1. If S believes that p, then if someone asks S whether p, S will tend to respond affirmatively. 2. If S believes that p, then, if S considers whether it is the case that p, S will tend to feel it to be the […]
Messianic Prophecies
Introduction The New Testament reports what Jesus said on the road to Emmaus with two disciples (Luke 24:27): And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. John 20:9 also records that: For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise […]
Only Two Options In Pre Earth Life?
Introduction According to Latter-day Saint theology, were we forced to pick between outer darkness or earth life? We don’t have too much to go on when it comes to understanding pre-earth life but what we are able to do is look at the logic of the choices on the table. In summary, it doesn’t seem […]
Are Mormons (Latter-day Saints) Christians?
In Stephen E. Robinson’s book “Are Mormons Christians?” the author gives a standard dictionary definition of the word “Christian”: According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary the term Christian may be defined in a number of ways, but the most common is “one who believes or professes or is assumed to believe in Jesus Christ […]
The Problem of Petitionary Prayer
Introduction Something that is very clear in the scriptures is the instruction to pray Kevin W. Pearson said: The divine invitation to pray unto the Father in the name of Jesus Christ is the single most mentioned commandment in all recorded scripture 1 Joseph Smith was commanded to pray always: D&C 10:5 Pray always, that […]