Wow. So you didn't actually read what I wrote, and decided to form an opinion on what I wrote that has nothing to do with what I actually wrote?MG 2.0 wrote:When you say Faith Matters is “fluff” you are doing so in such a way, at least in my opinion, as to set yourself apart as someone who has greater knowledge and insight than ‘the masses’ of folks that “stay in the boat”.
If you go back and read what I actually wrote, You'll see that I was contrasting what Faith Matters produces to what FARMS and Hugh Nibley produced. I said that though FARMS may be wrong, their materials still offered the best evidential case they could muster for the Church. It wasn't "fluff". Many of those who you cited, the "giants" such as Brandt Gardner are a dying breed, according to you (and you're right in this case) with the Church and its PR departments focusing on just-so Reader's Digest feel-good Harvey Milquetoast nonsense. I said that your grandchildren won't have a Brandt Gardner or Tyrell Givens to look up to in their time.
On the assumption that Xenu was the ruler of the galaxy and brought billions of citizens of the Galactic Confederacy to the prison planet called earth, trapping them and blowing them up in volcanoes so their souls float about and attach to humans as "body thetans", how could anyone reasonably come to know such a thing unless they spend significant time with an auditor to run the tracks the thetans are stuck in?MG 2.0 wrote:On the assumption that Christ’s Gospel, and all that this entails (including Mormonism) is True, with a capital T, one might reasonably expect that this gospel would be accessible to ANYONE
If you have another way to detect a body thetan outside an intense auditing session I'm listing.
All religions have a similar belief to hedge their bets against people leaving. Even Heaven's Gate had prophecies and warnings that people of earth would reject their message.MG 2.0 wrote: It was, if you choose to believe it, foretold that the ‘very elect’ would be deceived.
Here's something to think about:
All of these intellectual giants in the Church, whether Nibley, Gardner, Givens, or whoever -- how many of them became Phds first and then discovered the gospel? And how many were active Mormons before going to school to study?
Sorry, I'm talking to MG 1.9 right now, who had been arguing about the existence of great intellectuals who haven't left, and now the hairpin turn to elect being deceived and everything must be really simple and we don't need to complicate it.