LDS Writers on Amerindian DNA

[Daniel Peterson]

Does this principle of "homogenous validity" also apply to anti-Mormon writings?  Certainly there are very studied, capabable scholars who publish in reputed and scholarly journals, but when it comes to attacking the Church, their writings bend from the standards held in the academic world.

If both the anti-Mormons and apologetic-Mormons have scholars who publish in respected journals, but also publish "polemic" studies that stem from their faith, then is it really valid to argue that one set of writings is valid becuase of the other?

I don't believe in "homogenous validity" and I've made no such argument.

I don't argue -- pay attention now, because, although I've made this point at least a dozen times, it appears to be hypersubtle -- that, because X is a good scholar, all of his publications are sound and true. I do, however, contend that, if X is a good scholar, it cannot be presumed without evidence, analysis, and demonstration that some distinct portion of his publications is without academic merit. That has to be shown. (And, incidentally, simply calling X a "lobotomopologist" doesn't go very far toward a cogent demonstration.)

[Blink]

Does this principle of "homogenous validity" also apply to anti-Mormon writings?

[Daniel Peterson]

How about homogenous invalidity?

Do you give the same treatment to scholar Y (an avowed anti-Mormon), as you do to scholar X? Let's assume scholar Y is an academian, published in scholarly journals, a researcher and professor. Scholar Y is adamantly and repeatedly disrespectful of the LDS church's claims. Do you dismiss all of scholar Y's anti-Mormon publications as invalid, sans evidence, analysis, and demonstration, simply because they are scholar Y's anti-Mormon publications and you know from previous experience that scholar Y is arrogant and sarcastic in his attacks on the LDS church?

No.

[Daniel Peterson]

Evidence of the international contempt in which FARMS writers are held among real scholars continues to accumulate:

The newest book from the well known (and rather radical) British biblical scholar Margaret Barker, An Extraordinary Gathering of Angels, features a concluding essay by Jack Welch, the founder of FARMS.