[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Robin

My FARMS brother sent me a .jpg of a MesoAmerican artifact that looked SLIGHTLY elephant-like. It made me smile.

Another thing that makes me smile is that from now on I am going to think of MikeWaters as a 'Mormon Intellectual.'

Apologists play a strange role in religion. On the one hand, they shouldn't even be necessary. You don't need pseudo-science to suggest the possibility that Christ atoned for your sins, or that he died and was resurrected. You accept those events with faith, and faith alone. And if you have faith to believe that a man can be killed, and then come back to life... or that one individuals suffering can alleviate the consequences of your sins, then why couldn't you accept that JS was everything that he claimed to be, and that the BOM is everything JS claimed it was? They are all comparable chasms, and it ultimately requires a bridge of faith to 'just get over it.' In the words of one popular Mormon Intellectual, (MikeWaters), faith and reason are completely different approaches to religious belief, and faith is the ONLY sure foundation for a testimony.

On the other hand, institutions like the church realize that they are more successful in their proselytizing efforts when there is a general air of plausibility about certain events. There enter the apologists -- the plausibility fabricators.

Also a good post. This is the point.