🤨 Critical Thinking¶
Estimated time to read: 2 minutes
Hugh B Brown¶
The honest investigator must be prepared to follow wherever the search of truth may lead. Truth is often found in the most unexpected places. He must, with fearless and open mind insist that facts are more important than any cherished, mistaken beliefs, no matter how unpleasant the facts or how delightful the beliefs.
— Hugh B Brown, 2nd Counselor in the First Presidency, General Conference, October 1962
Side note: Lds website only shows general conferences back to 1971. Why?
And now come, saith the Lord, by the Spirit, unto the elders of his church, and let us reason together, that ye may understand;
Let us reason even as a man reasoneth one with another face to face.
Now, when a man reasoneth he is understood of man, because he reasoneth as a man; even so will I, the Lord, reason with you that you may understand.
In conversation¶
When discussing/arguing/debating church issues or talks or anything theological, DON'T ever say the words "logical fallacy" or use the specific fallacy terms. It instantly turns people off and makes you seem like a pretentious know-it-all. This is largely why I don't engage with believing members about their beliefs. Epistemology is personal and emotional. Invalidating that with logic isn't going to be a useful conversation for either of us. That, and I don't think I'd have the verbal nimbleness to make a case without writing everything down.
What seems to work better is explaining the fallacy instead of invoking it. Rather than saying “well what nelson said in that talk was an argument ad populum,” say, “just because a large group of people did something, doesn’t make their reasons for doing so valid.” then provide an example.
All Things Denote There is a Mormon God¶
One Veronika Tait wrote a neat article about unfalsifiable claims specific to the LDS Church. At some point, I'd like to copy some excerpts here. Until then, there's a link for you to peruse on your own.