harmony wrote:How many of these "idiots" at USC and Yale support or even know about Gee's Book of Abraham apologetics? How many of these articles and presentations that were praised by non-LDS " idiots" were about his Book of Abraham apologetics? Is it fair to say that these "idiots" at Berkley and Yale were praising Gee's Egyptology, not his apologetics?
See above.
harmony wrote:So are you saying that the only idiots in academia are the ones who gave Murphy his PhD?
Good grief. Are you calling the anthropology faculty at the University of Washington "idiots"? What have they ever done to you? Why are you dragging them into your quarrels and resentments and gripes?
The University of Washington is an excellent school. Like BYU, though, I'll bet they don't realize that the only really valid kind of scholarly review is performed anonymously on this board.
That would not be me, no. That would be the apologists who tried to discredit Murphy a few years ago. You know the red herring: don't bother to attack the argument; instead try to discredit the institution that gave the guy his doctorate. And please don't play innocent. Your Lamb Chops was right in the middle of it all.
I am still interested in how lost places named in ancient Egyptian inscriptions relate to Book of Mormon geography. How does Gee's comparison qualify as pertinent, when the Egyptian inscriptions are ancient and the Book of Mormon's antiquity has yet to be established?
I take Michael Heiser seriously because he's qualified. His critique of my work centered on the topic for which he earned his doctorate at a highly-ranked secular university. His comments were substantive and important. And he delivered them in a professional way, and in a genuine spirit of seeking to understand rather than to score points, to express a grudge, or to pursue a personal vendetta -- worlds apart, in other words, from the environment that prevails here.
Well, then, you'll only engage if someone possesses a certain university degree? Certainly your only criteria is not substantive and important comments, because I've seen quite a few threads where substantive and important comments were made, and you had no interest in engaging.
So no matter how well educated an individual may be upon a topic of interest, if they don't have the right degree hanging on their wall, are they beneath you?
It's almost as if you participate simply to state that you have no interest in participating.
We hate to seem like we don’t trust every nut with a story, but there’s evidence we can point to, and dance while shouting taunting phrases.
Well, he used to. He was in correspondence with me when I was a TBM debating Brent Metcalfe on ZLMB a few years ago. He didn't have the courage to do it himself but he thought he would walk me through the discussion and feed me information, so I would be the one who looked like an idiot instead of him.
Regretably, it worked.
But you and I are not the only people who have been rejected via email. Which makes me wonder why Dan would ever tell people to email him to begin with. Why is his publication record such a touchy issue?
“All knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it...Propositions arrived at by purely logical means are completely empty as regards reality." - Albert Einstein
Wow. It seems that I've managed to stir up the hive.
Why don't you guys simply subscribe to Göttinger Miszellen and a few such Egyptological journals, and read what Dr. Gee writes? Or attend some Egyptological conferences?
Professor Gee is giving a paper in San Diego this November at the annual joint meeting of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, concerning, if I recall correctly, the possibility of there being an Egyptian version of Atramhasis. Perhaps you should go. Get there early, though. Whenever Professor Gee speaks, surging crowds of scholars arrive in party mode, dressed in clown costumes, with kazoos, confetti, and spitwads. He's quite simply the most ludicrous show in academia, and seats are at a premium.
So no matter how well educated an individual may be upon a topic of interest, if they don't have the right degree hanging on their wall, are they beneath you?
Welcome to Ivory Tower apologetics.
I am beginning to think that this is precisely why Gee and Bokovoy chose their particular fields of expertise. They started their apologetic career before they got out of the gates. Bokovoy's first publication is going to try to prove the "biblical God" has sex for crying out loud. What's worse, they seem to think they can dismiss the world of valid criticism because they are elite. They rigged teh game from the start. They don't have to produce valid or compelling apologetics, because they think they are above reproach. Only other PhD carrying experts can criticize. Where their arguments fail - which is often - they fall back on the glory of being a bonafide scholar.
“All knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it...Propositions arrived at by purely logical means are completely empty as regards reality." - Albert Einstein
I'm sorry, Beastie, that my relationship with message boards fails to meet with your approval.
I simply can't tell you how that depresses and upsets me.
Perhaps you should simply give up on me as hopeless, and move on to more important subjects.
This is where you misunderstand. I find your method of participation delightful, and hence can't resist commenting on it now and then.
I just enjoy the thought of the premier apologist (at least in the perception of many in the Mormon internet world) participating simply to cull extreme statements from critics, and to announce that he has no interest in actually debating the topic being discussed, along with the predictable one liners. You couldn't possibly be more satisfying than as you currently are.
We hate to seem like we don’t trust every nut with a story, but there’s evidence we can point to, and dance while shouting taunting phrases.
It seems that we can add the relevant faculty of Brandeis University to the list of people (already including the relevant faculty of BYU, Berkeley, and Yale) who need to consult with some of the anonymous posters here in order to find out who's competent and intellectually honest and who's not.