Now before we get into the article, I do want to note that on this site we tend not to use or cite "logical fallacies" much at all because they are overused by many apologists as well as frequently misused in order to make a point seem stronger to their readers than it actually is. One who engages in this fallacy is said to be "attacking a straw man."" For those who are interested, there's a great podcast from Radio Free Mormon on Tad Callister's presentation from last August as well.Ī very basic summary from Wikipedia is that "a straw man is a form of argument and an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument, while actually refuting an argument that was not presented by that opponent. When his book was released, many people online noted how Callister used straw man arguments in order make his case in a way that avoided the real issues, and this article is a perfect example of how he does it. Callister: The Book of Mormon - man-made or God-given?" which is written by Tad Callister.įor those who don't know, Elder Callister recently wrote a book that attempts to defend the Book of Mormon as a true historical work called A Case For the Book of Mormon. Callister is an emeritus General Authority Seventy and former Sunday School general president.On January 19, 2020, the church posted an article on their official site titled " Elder Tad R. And what a blessing it will be to feast upon and treasure up its inspired words during the coming year. Not only do history and reason confirm the truth of the Book of Mormon, but much more importantly, the power of the Spirit does. This witness of all witnesses bears powerful testimony to the honest in heart that this book is not man-made but God-given. I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired.” ![]() No wonder Emma Smith wrote: “My belief is that the Book of Mormon is of divine authenticity - I have not the slightest doubt of it. It reminds me of the observation of Hank Smith: “Someone with an experience is never at the mercy of someone with an opinion.” Accordingly, no one can ever convince me that Joseph Smith at age 23, trying to eke out a living on the edge of the frontier, with only primitive writing skills and no notes in front of him, wrote this historical and doctrinal masterpiece in a single draft in approximately 65 days, let alone in any time frame. It took me two concentrated years of writing, and many previous years of thinking and collecting ideas, with multitudinous notes constantly in front of me, to write a book less than half the length of the Book of Mormon and far less meaningful, and 72 drafts to do so.” When I recently finished writing a book about the Book of Mormon, my secretary unexpectedly asked me, “Do you know how many drafts you had?” I replied, “No.” To which she responded, “72.” I thought, “Wow. Why the flip-flop? Because all the previous explanations for a man-made book had failed.Ĭredit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints So, the current argument being made is that Joseph Smith was a creative genius who read numerous books, such as “View of the Hebrews” and “The Late War Between the United States and Great Britain” and then copied ideas and stories from them. This, of course, is a total flip-flop, a 180-degree reversal from the original argument that Joseph was incapable, too ignorant to write such a book. Now, all of a sudden Joseph is a skilled, creative writer with genius intellect. ![]() These arguments, however, have been so thoroughly discredited that they are seldom mentioned anymore. The initial argument by the critics that the Book of Mormon was man-made was based on the premise that Joseph Smith was too unlearned and “ignorant” to write such a comprehensive work and therefore someone allegedly much more intelligent than he, such as Sidney Rigdon or Oliver Cowdery, must have authored it. Later, arguments arose that Joseph copied it from the Solomon Spaulding Manuscript or that he suffered from a mental disorder that somehow endowed him, an untrained writer, with superior writing skills. ![]() A natural question that arises at some point is whether or not this book is man-made or God-given. This year we will be studying the Book of Mormon as part of the “ Come, Follow Me” curriculum.
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