Brian Hales & The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Book Review: ML: 140 We lost Dan due to storms affecting his internet connection, so join us next week for part 2! In this week’s episode, Mormon apologist Brian Hales enters the scene to deliver a 2-star review of “Charisma under Pressure,” the groundbreaking book by Mormon critic Dan Vogel. As the battle of perspectives unfolds, it becomes apparent that Brian’s review may not be all it seems, raising questions about intellectual honesty and genuine consideration. While giving us all pause to consider the believing mindset and church loyalty of its apologists while also considering the fine line between passionate belief and intentional misleading.
Chapters
09:00 The Review
17:30 Brian Hales by the numbers
23:25 The first paragraph
28:00 Brian makes the caricatures 32:30 Second paragraph
34:15 God of the (dictation) gap
48:00 RFM on the revelations Joseph also got
50:00 BoM a “complex” book
1:08:45 Joseph’s Composition and Oratory skills
1:27:45 Bill goes over proof he is a liar
1:30:45 Caller: Brian, words aren’t miracles
1:39:20 NaNoWriMo
1:45:25 Caller: I wrote my 77,000 Master’s thesis as a mom of 5 in two months
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I’ve never been able to catch the show live, but I’d try to call in if I could. I caught the admission by Mr. Hale (as asserted on the air) that he had not even read the whole book before he was was writing a dismissive negative review. That fact, in-and-of-itself, says all you need to know about his intentions and prejudices (literally, “prejudgments”) about the book. But even given that, this is what then occurred to me: he must have realized that he wouldn’t find even one, single factual assertion to be incorrect in Dan’s book. So he just surrendered the field at the outset, and tried to change the topic (to a negative review version of “where did the words come from?”). I’ll say it again: he didn’t refute a SINGLE factual assertion in Dan’s book.
High praise from Mr Hales, indeed….
PS – to my initial comment: I realize he disagreed with Dan’s CONCLUSION (“pious fraud”) but he did NOT disagree with or refute a single factual assertion made by Dan.
Many of the apologetic arguments for the Book of Mormon closely resemble apologetic arguments for the Koran. For example, the argument that the eloquence and complexity of the Koran could not be produced by an uneducated man like Mohammed is longstanding. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27jaz
What does Brian Hales think of the argument that Mohammed lacked the education to compose the Koran, which is complex and eloquent, and therefore the Koran is divinely inspired? Does he find this argument compelling? Does he feel compelled to investigate it? If not, why not?