Responding to claims about my dogmas

#maklelan2240

[Ed_Lima]

The Wannabe Mormons is the name of my Switchfoot cover band

[TempehLiberation]

Gotta love when people seem to think Dan is Schrödinger's Mormon.

[that_guy_Ash]

Thanks, Dan. Your videos help me explore my own assumptions and internal biases as an atheist, a socialist, and a secular humanist regarding the way I construct my own cognitive framework or communicate about my understanding of how all this works with all my neighbors.

It's not your focus or the primary intent with your content, I know, but your examination of dogma v/ data in religion has helped me apply similar thoughtfulness to where my own secular/atheist/socialist beliefs and values may rest on dogmas within my communities. I can't be as methodologically rigorous, of course, likely just fumbling with similar tools, but it's still rewarding.

Keep up the good work. Keep up the fun fit checks.

[derfdoerfler]

Thanks for all you do. I genuinely appreciate your scholarship and presenting the "state of the field" on many of the topics commonly discussed. Just thanks. 🎉

[j]

It's remarkably easy to keep your story straight when you're honest.

[AMoniqueOcampo]

I love the story of your academic journey!

[Joshua.-]

Dan might just be my favorite person on youtube

[brettandersson]

It always makes me irrationally happy when someone uses the idiom “eat your cake and have it too” correctly.

[YourVeganNeighbor]

Thank you for your openness and honesty. I love what you do here to the point that I find it hard to listen to anyone else. I feel very informed but also lost, in that I don’t what minister to follow if I need to at all. Maybe just studying in my own with the books and information you provide will be enough.

[SpaveFrostKing]

We're all influence by our beliefs - I'm sure Dan is influenced by his Mormonism. But as best I can tell, he does an excellent job minimizing that influence.

[BradyPostma]

I appreciate this bearded creator for setting Dan up to summarize his academic history and his motives behind that research. What a fantastic video!

[cajonesalt]

I appreciate that you took the time to respond to his accusations (since they are not really critiques) instead of pointing out that he's just mimicking your own argumentation. I wish I knew the term for it (I assume there is one) but this sort of Socratic Whataboutism that hopes to catch you in a gatcha is just so annoying. Easily side-stepped when you have the expertise and knowledge to do so, about impossible to avoid when you are just regurgitating other's ideas. That's why it's so popular in the online discourse, since there are so many non-experts simply regurgitating other's ideas. That's a hidden danger when discourse is so open and has so many participants.

[SterlingTate]

I think it's hard for lay people to understand and separate Dan's biblical scholarship and what Dan actually believes because he doesn't share his religious belief. It took me a while to understand why Dan does this.

[josephpercy]

I think many are coming at this from an assumption that Mormonism is inherently orthodox by nature - which entails "right belief." In other words, many Christian sects maintain that you must believe in their dogmas to genuinely identify as "Christian." However, as much as I do value Dan's insights into the Hebrew Bible, I don't personally jive with holding to scholarly positions on one hand while simultaneously going along with the Mormon crowd. Is it a kind of social club for Dan? Fine, but there's likely a ton of other better options available, in my opinion.

[Skye__]

I’d really like a video about how your academic arguments do or don’t change your personal beliefs (regardless of what those beliefs are, I don’t think that part’s important).

[JimmyTuxTv]

This is the best 6min video, Dan is so knowledgeable. That knowledge pales to how methodical the foundation built up to this knowledge. Dan is an iceberg of knowledge we only see 10%

[Lola]

Don't take this the wrong way Dan, but I don't give a single winking bat's eyeball about what your personal beliefs are. They don't seem to have an influence on your research, which is what I tune in for. I don't understand how you harmonize your dogma with the data you study, but again - I don't care because it's not getting in your way.

[IheartDogs]

And, just like that, bingo! The pieces fell into place for me. When I was a fundie/evangelical, the hot take from the pulpit was "Mormons deny the deity of Jesus, " and the proof text was John's Gospel 1:1. Listening to both your presentations, as well as Dr. Kipp's videos, this issue has begun to make sense to me. I now better understand the images of God in the Bible. The process of untangling dogma from data is necessary, but at times, it is quite difficult to accomplish. Since I have no academic training in Biblical scholarship, as I listen to actual scholars, I can now see more clearly how and why I was misled by the preachers in my former sect of Christianity. Thank you for this video, Dan!

[AntinAchtymichuk]

Spider Dan, Scholar Dan. Taking on a bearded man. What a fun video. Thought I'd stop and say hello. Hey Dan! I love dogs, not dogmas. Cats over catechism. Was Jesus just a

[AurorXZ]

I expect part of the reason folks latch onto these erroneous and/or twisted accusations is that they have zero idea how to reconcile someone holding a religious faith that is flatly contradicted by all the evidence they present. It's a pipe dream, but I really do wish he would help us out by explaining his ability to have religious convictions, and what that looks like.