On this topic you should rank me below Chris Smith, Brent Metcalfe, George Miller, Kevin Graham, et al.
I know my place. ;)
If only BrianH knew his.
So what IS my "place", Mike? Should I not be ...here, for example?
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Reminds me of an old challenge - something along the lines of cut off an arm and restore it for proof.
BrianH, are you an Egyptology rocket scientist? Have you invested the needed man years of scholarly study focused on this tiny, but all important aspect of life here on this earth? Have you passed the Gee test as to proof of your worthiness to participate?
BrianH wrote:I am a Christian though I am not sure that I will confine myself to the title "Evangelical" until I know more of what that word means to you.
-BH
Good call.
Given the clown car show of Evangelical Christian presidential candidates that have been embarrassing the country (and in some cases even the Republican Party) for the last several months, I would say that your reservations are well founded.
I see Evangelical Christians as mainly right wing, Bible thumping, homophobic, creationists who, as typified by Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum, have no standing whatsoever to label Mormon beliefs as weird, unfounded, or arising from willful ignorance.
Would you not agree?
David Hume: "---Mistakes in philosophy are merely ridiculous, those in religion are dangerous."
DrW: "Mistakes in science are learning opportunities and are eventually corrected."
I'm obviously not caught up with the board of late, nor what appears to be the purpose of this thread (i.e. all Mormons are idiots). But seeing how I jumped to your defense, and I'm a Mormon seems to provide some validity to your claim.
BrianH wrote: So far Mr. Reed is the one who has not shown any interest in debating me. I long ago posted an open challenge and directed him to it. There I simply asked that Mormons support the proposition that Joe Smith translated the Book of Breathings correctly to somehow contain the so-called "Book of Abraham". In particular, as a case in point, I challenged Mormons to simply show that Smith correctly identified the canopic jar idols in his Facsimile #1 correctly.
So far all I have seen as an answer is this counter-challenge to answer questions about the books I have read. The number and names of books I have read hardly amounts to any kind of answer to my challenge. It is Mormons who are on the run here. And the question I asked was so darn SIMPLE, too.
I have been around long enough to easily recognize the common LDS tactic of creating tangents to use as rabbit trails that lead away from the central proposition being debated. Its usually used to obscure the fact that Mormons usually have no answers for even the simplest most obvious questions. I simply refuse to be deceived by the lame rhetorical tactics that LDS "scholars" and leadership have used to keep their followers so obviously flumoxed for so long.
Its amazing to see Mormons panic and flee like this from what should have been such a simple challenge ...IF their organization had them believing the truth, that is.
-BH
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Why take so much time to show how little you know? In the time it took you to post this response and edit it 5 times you could have answered Mike's questions.
Awaiting your next dodge.
"Any over-ritualized religion since the dawn of time can make its priests say yes, we know, it is rotten, and hard luck, but just do as we say, keep at the ritual, stick it out, give us your money and you'll end up with the angels in heaven for evermore."
I long ago posted an open challenge and directed [Mike] to it. There I simply asked that Mormons support the proposition that Joe Smith translated the Book of Breathings correctly to somehow contain the so-called "Book of Abraham".
Which is a completely asinine thing to do, since (again) I am not a believing Mormon, and I already believe that Smith's papyrus wasn't "translated" correctly--that is, I believe it wasn't translated in any traditional way that would be consistent with how credible dispassionate Egyptologists would translate it. But again... your criticisms are unoriginal and old news. The debate over the Book of Abraham has progressed far far beyond what you realize. With all your pretentious blustering about, your ignorance is quite pathetic, really. Considering your self-declared 30 years of experience, we should expect more than a few cherry picked criticisms; and we should expect you to be half-informed with what current scholarship (for and against the Book of Abraham) is saying.
Now back to my opening post. Are you ready to debate now? Or will you dodge again?