Hmm...not very readable. So from here:
He began by asking me what position I was going to be hired in or was being considered for, and I said it was as a professor in the history department. The very next words out of his mouth were -- and I'm not exaggerating; these were seared into my memory -- Elder Packer said, "I have a hard time with historians, because historians idolize the truth." I almost sunk into my chair. I mean, that statement just bowled me over.It's not hard to believe that a Mormon might have a hard time with history, because the founder of the religion was a scam artist and a nut who knew nothing. More plausible than Scientology though.
Then he went on to say, quoting him as accurately as I can ...: "The truth is not uplifting. The truth destroys. And historians should tell only that part of the truth that is uplifting, and if it's religious history, that's faith-promoting." And he said, "Historians don't like doing that, and that's why I have a hard time with historians."
13 comments:
I'll be in my history.
Did you see the bit in the interview where the historian -- despite exposure to real-world evidence and knowing that the history of the LDS is a long cavalcade of Inviolable Commandments Direct from God that are revealed and later revoked according to passing political advantage and neverhappenedatall -- would still like to rejoin?
Errol Morris' "Tabloid" is seven kinds of fun.
I haven't seen that one yet. Gotta track it down.
More plausible than Scientology though.
But not as entertaining.
Church of LDS versus Church of LSD: you be the judge.
~
I just learned the history department at BYU is in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences. A bunch of the academic programs have password-protected sites--huh?
Was Hubbard aware of the crazier components of Mormon theology when he was inventing his own belief system?
The Great Gazoogle reveals any number of websites in which fundamentalist christians attack mormons for the crazy stuff they believe. I get the impression that they're in the minority, though, and that for the majority of US citizens it doesn't really matter *whose* fiction you believe as long as you believe *something* that isn't true.
as long as you believe *something* that isn't true.
I believe I'll have another drink.
That fails the "isn't true" test.
sure it does; it wasn't plural.
Milk before meat.
Was Hubbard aware of the crazier components of Mormon theology when he was inventing his own belief system?
Kolob/Xenu, what's the difference?
* historians should tell only that part of the truth that is uplifting *
This was precisely the teaching of the godfather of neoconservatism, the political philosopher Leo Strauss. He explicitly taught his students that the only way to achieve a successful modern democratic society was for the government to lie to the people in order to inspire them and control them. Of course, we all saw the horrors that resulted when the neoconservatives put this teaching into practice during the Bush years.
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