Part One

Here the first part of my reply to the fictional George. I worry that because the original author isn't here, and thus cannot explain or defend himself, I may be caught in the straw man fallacy. But, I am morphing the current author with my former self and I will allow my righteous self to step in in George's defense where needed. Like I said, it wasn't that long ago that I could have been the author.



If I were to pull out all the claims made in this response and lay them all out side by side, it might look like this:

1-Sin is a valid concept. (ie...we will all eventually be held accountable to some higher authority for all our actions)

2-Jesus Christ (God) is alive and he has a church (which is the Mormon church)

3-Being selfish is a bad thing, not obeying authority is a bad thing, lust (which I'm going to interpret as desire)...is a bad thing.

4-The author of the Doctrine & Covenants (the premise of this would be a subject of disagreement...I believe it to be Joesph Smith and his lackeys....You would say it is Jesus Christ)....has the authority to define reality,...yours, mine, everyone's.

5-There are two ways of thinking....the believer's way and everyone else's. (or "our way" vs the "world's way").

6-The following practices will help me earn an eternal life (the imbeded claim here is that there is such a thing as eternal life), or at the very least, a life that is in line with the teachings of the Mormon church... prayer, following the rules (being obedient to authority), having faith,(which I define as believing in something despite the lack of tangible evidence) being humble (from my experience in the church this means to rely on and acquiese to a power greater than the self. Which seems like a beautiful concept at first, until you start thinking about how to define that power and who interprets it.)

7-Having a testimony...(which I'll define as having a belief in the teachings of the Mormon church) takes honesty.

8-Those who question the teachings of the Mormon church are probably reacting to some offense, and they should be more forgiving.

9-It is important to keep every commandment. (commandment or "the word of God" but the word of God as interpreted by whom? So ultimately who am I being obedient to?)

10-There is such a thing as priesthood, and powers of heaven and they are connected. These powers of heaven can be controlled by someone who is righteous.


So far, I'm trying to lay out what his claims are and begin to examine the underlying premises for these claims. Which I'll get into more later....