LDS "world famous scholar" publishes book

[_Ray A]

Another brilliant, point by point refutation. Thanks Ray. You're doing the cult proud.

You're not doing to bad yourself with the Exmo cult

[_guy sajer]

About that "praiseworthy and of good report" masturbation comment, I have to wonder what it really means that broken men like Ray A can't imagine any other possible motivation than homosexual attraction in the exposure of ridiculous frauds like Mormon propagandists. And I suppose for me to try to articulate what those other motivations might be would come across as "insensitive to alternative lifestyles". So, you can keep your mind on the gay stuff, Ray, no problem by me.

And I can't imagine why you - Tali-Bachman - are so obsessed with your former religion. Why don't you go make some more music - you might have hit number two.

And I at times wonder why so many Mormons appear to be so absolutely obsessed with their current religion. When my family or my wife's family get together, it's non-stop Mo-babble. On top of that, my family has read just about every single Mo-fiction and Mo-movie every produced. They appear to have absolutely no self identity outside of their membership in the cult.

One might also wonder why those at MADB (and hundreds of denizens of other Mormon-themed boards) can't ever seem to get enough talking about the cult or defending it from those who Ray accuse of being obsessed with attacking it.

I mean, geez, how much is enough? Isn't there ANY Mormon satiation point for these people?

One might finally wonder why you, who abhors such unhealthy obsessions in others, just can't seem to get enough of Mo-discussion boards either. What's the cause of your dysfunction? Couldn't YOU also be doing something a tad bit more productive?

Perhaps you could answer these questions before you go posing them to others.

[_Polygamy Porter]

And I at times wonder why so many Mormons appear to be so absolutely obsessed with their current religion. When my family or my wife's family get together, it's non-stop Mo-babble. On top of that, my family has read just about every single Mo-fiction and Mo-movie every produced. They appear to have absolutely no self identity outside of their membership in the cult.

ain't that the awful truth. That is all Mormon can talk about, 24/7/365. When around non Mormons, they go into fishing mode constantly looking for a place to inject a subtle hint about Mormonism in hopes of setting a hook and reeling in their prized sucker.

[_Ray A]

And I at times wonder why so many Mormons appear to be so absolutely obsessed with their current religion. When my family or my wife's family get together, it's non-stop Mo-babble. On top of that, my family has read just about every single Mo-fiction and Mo-movie every produced. They appear to have absolutely no self identity outside of their membership in the cult.

And you appear to have no identity outside this board - complaining about your "mo family".

One might also wonder why those at MADB (and hundreds of denizens of other Mormon-themed boards) can't ever seem to get enough talking about the cult or defending it from those who Ray accuse of being obsessed with attacking it.

And you can't get enough attacking it.

I mean, geez, how much is enough? Isn't there ANY [anti]Mormon satiation point for these people?

Edited to fit better.

One might finally wonder why you, who abhors such unhealthy obsessions in others, just can't seem to get enough of Mo-discussion boards either. What's the cause of your dysfunction?

Same as yours.

Couldn't YOU also be doing something a tad bit more productive?

I could.

[_guy sajer]

And I at times wonder why so many Mormons appear to be so absolutely obsessed with their current religion. When my family or my wife's family get together, it's non-stop Mo-babble. On top of that, my family has read just about every single Mo-fiction and Mo-movie every produced. They appear to have absolutely no self identity outside of their membership in the cult.

And you appear to have no identity outside this board - complaining about your "mo family".

One might also wonder why those at MADB (and hundreds of denizens of other Mormon-themed boards) can't ever seem to get enough talking about the cult or defending it from those who Ray accuse of being obsessed with attacking it.

And you can't get enough attacking it.

I mean, geez, how much is enough? Isn't there ANY [anti]Mormon satiation point for these people?

Edited to fit better.

One might finally wonder why you, who abhors such unhealthy obsessions in others, just can't seem to get enough of Mo-discussion boards either. What's the cause of your dysfunction?

Same as yours.

Couldn't YOU also be doing something a tad bit more productive?

I could.

I spend, maybe at maximum, 30 minutes on any given day day in total reading and posting here, and I go weeks without hardly any activity. I'd say that this is far from "obsession" status. It is also the sole remaining board having anything to do with Mormonism I even frequent anymore (I travel over to the Foyer only very rarely anymore and haven't been to RfM for years now.) I HAVE pretty much reached my satiation point.

As for "anti-Mormon" activity; the LDS Church invests literally millions of dollars and person hours a year promoting its warped, superstitious yet sanitized message to the world. Time spent by those of us here and elsewhere counteracting this massive effort is necessary counterbalance; yet in total (and adding in the efforts of unofficial LDS Church shills, such as apologists of all stripes) probably comes nowhere near that expended by LDS Inc. in terms of dollars spent or person hours.

On the whole, time, money, and effort spent to counterbalance the media and persuasive power of a multi-billion dollar authoritarian cult is probably money and effort well spent.

[_harmony]

Sometimes I'm reminded of the fight against Big Tobacco. There are altogether too many similiarities (although as far as I know, there's no "internet" tobacco).

[_Ray A]

One last strange thing: though it was published four months ago, with review copies no doubt sent out some months earlier than that, several google searches failed to find any evidence of any reviews of "Muhammad, Prophet of God".

Once again - hmmmmm....

Your search was not very thorough. There was one positive review. Only one? The book was published only recently. Karen Armstrong's book Muhammad: Prophet of Our Time got two reviews, though it was published a year ago. So there is nothing "strange" about this. Maybe you should check back with Amazon a year after "Peterson's" publication. You jump to conclusions that suit your anti-Mormon bias, and your rabid anti-Peterson bias. Are you jealous?

Edited correction: I just checked back and realised that Armstrong's book got one review!

[_Tal Bachman]

Well, let's see Raymond.

I post something which attempts to clarify that

1.) Despite all-too-many Mormons thinking that the church's most prominent (no fat jokes here) propagandist is some "world famous scholar", none of the heads of America's top NES programs has ever so much as heard from him;

2.) The behaviour of Joseph Smith, to almost everyone but devoted Mormons, would appear similarly unconscionable to that of other cult founders like Jim Jones (the prophetic claims of whom Mormons themselves reject for partly that reason!);

3.) That Peterson's judgment about matters of religion and critical thinking seems awfully faulty, as evidenced by his (somehow inadvertent) public equation of belief in Mormonism with belief in invisible elves (not to mention the other examples I cited);

4.) It seems awfully strange that a career propagandist for Mormonism should consent to have his book published by an outfit also publishing "Satanic" anti-Mormon material, his book sold in effect right next to it;

5.) When a "world famous scholar" in Near Eastern Studies publishes a book on Islam - especially now, right during a war against Islamonutters and their facilitators - and its founding prophet, and (from what I can tell) not one reputable NES scholar or journal publishes a review of it, there is something dramatically wrong either with the book itself - or with our conception of that person as a "world famous scholar";

and then you respond with comments on homosexually-motivated masturbation and how many hits I've had, and THEN draw equivalence between our posts...

Well - all I can say to that is:

AWESOME!

Thanks again for making me look a lot better than I'm sure I deserve to look.

I await your next post.

[_Tal Bachman]

Not on AMAZON, ya goof - I mean a real review, like in "The Journal of Near Eastern Studies", or "First Things", or "The New Republic", or "Commentary", or anything close to an organ with pretensions to intellectual discussion. Any fool can post something on Amazon, for God's sake. I mean a real review - in a reputable journal.

Karen Armstrong's books, for example, have been reviewed LOADS of times in organs like those. Yet, nothing but being ignored for Mormonism's chief propagandist, writing on a topic he spent his grad career studying.

No clue there for you, huh?

Ah well. At least now "you've had your chance in mortality"...

[_beastie]

Ah, so Tal is also an email bomber!

Perhaps it shouldn't surprise me that Coggins7 as a difficult time with reading comprehension; if he does not, perhaps he would enjoy explaining how the chief propagandist amongst Mormonism's propagandists can qualiy as "well known among his peers", while not one of the heads of America's top five departments in his small field has ever even heard of him. Would you like me to dig up the results of my email queries and post them here? Ah, but surely what is, could never make a dent in what some of us would like so desperately to believe. I'm sure it would be as much a waste of my time as even typing this post.

No wonder MADdites decry the act of actually emailing authorities for input or information regarding LDS apologia or apologists. It never seems to bode well for them. :O