The Top Ten Happenings in Mopologetics, 2018

[_Physics Guy]

Good crap or bad crap?

Few objective assessments of taste are available.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Good crap or bad crap?

Few objective assessments of taste are available.

I'd probably go with whatever aftertaste we experience when one finishes reading Sic et Non on Patheos.

- Doc

[_Doctor Scratch]

It's because this crowd thrives on the verbal warfare--just as you yourself pointed out not long ago, Dean Robbers. The posts that get the most comments on Sic et Non are the ones that are about picking fights. The impresario of that blog knows this, and knows how it looks, too. So, there's this attempt to wallpaper over all that with "nice," watered-down, polite, completely boring posts. (And lol at the thinking behind that: "Gee, if I do five nice posts for every mean post, that'll make it all okay, won't it?") Let's face it: bellicosity is the Mopologists' metier, and it's what their principal audience wants as well.

Good Morning Dr. Scratch!

It is with heavy heart that I make this post, what with Mr. Peterson's commitment to a kinder, gentler, more Christ-like approach to living that seems to have gone off the rails mere days after lecturing his readers to embody, as it were, the Lord's love through kindness. The gentle reader of Mr. Peterson's blog may have noted that he exhorted his readers to kindness with not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but SIX quotes about kindness. SIX! Oh that man may be the culmination of Mr. Peterson's wishes. Truly Daniel C. Peterson is the Marcus Aurelius of our time, minus the latter's originality!

As I sit here this morning in my winter home, gazing out over the red bluffs that dominate the views of my quiet artists village of Kayenta, Utah, I can't help but feel there is a bit of irony as I sip my Kopi Luwak coffee. This faux coffee, as it were, isn't a bean but rather a seed, and it can only be processed by having a small mammal eat the seed and then crap out the product. One must pick through the excrement in order to retrieve the nuggets which then undergo rather labor-intensive process to produce what I'm now enjoying this cold dayspring.

It is in similar fashion that I found myself picking through Mr. Peterson's blog in an attempt to pluck out any nuggets that weren't re-hashed from old blog posts, aren't unaccredited plagiarisms of Wikipedia articles (such as the one dated yesterday about Hatikvah), or low-effort musings that might as well be lifted from the comments section of Deseret News when I noticed, unfortunately, that he wasn't following his own urgencies about kindness, and 'published' Part II of his holiday hit piece.

Sadly, I must report he's taken aim at you and another mysterious poster with whom he has quite a bit of animosity. I mourn how quickly Mr. Peterson abandoned his holiday spirit and assumed his usual role of the hateful bigot posting tone deaf diatribes about people who commit suicide at the Lord's university (blaming them of course), taking shots at David Bokovoy, sending missives toward his enemies both real and perceived, and of course bragging about upcoming vacations paid for by the largesse of others.

Well. These certainly are some things to ponder. I'll be taking a stroll up through Snow Canyon state park with my faithful canine companion, ironically enough an Australian Cattle dog, given the narrative of Sic et Non lately. It is a shame, though, that as we mosey toward 2019 Mr. Peterson will be sure to carry his vendettas and bitterness into yet another year as we stand witness to what Mopologetics do to normally decent people. Perhaps we should call it the Sméagol Effect, where perfectly decent people are corrupted by the lure of defending the Church, even unto the absolute corruption of their souls.

- Doc

Hello there, Doctor Cam.

The impresario of "Sic et Non" is really flailing at the moment. The admission that the Church itself pays for travel and lodging so that Mopologetics can spread across the globe is a bell that cannot be un-rung. There were two revelations--the one from Bokovoy, alleging that half of Dr. P.'s pay is "filtered" through the Maxwell Institute, and also the confession that the LDS Church paid for Dr. P. to deliver Mopologetic talks in Australia--that came forth this year, and the Mopologists don't seem to have a real response.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Hello there, Doctor Cam.

The impresario of "Sic et Non" is really flailing at the moment. The admission that the Church itself pays for travel and lodging so that Mopologetics can spread across the globe is a bell that cannot be un-rung. There were two revelations--the one from Bokovoy, alleging that half of Dr. P.'s pay is "filtered" through the Maxwell Institute, and also the confession that the LDS Church paid for Dr. P. to deliver Mopologetic talks in Australia--that came forth this year, and the Mopologists don't seem to have a real response.

Good Morning, Dr. Scratch!

I do wonder if your keen eye for spotting 'purchasable academia' hasn't sent Mr. Peterson into a sort of tailspin this season. For example, I made the mistake of clicking on his blog this morning, hoping to find a nugget of wisdom amongst all the crap, as it were, and he 'posted' this Deseret News-comment-section-level eruction:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... hings.html

I suppose we have to ask the unfortunately hard question of whether or not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is getting its money's worth? The man seems to vacillate between wanting to be a 'General Authority Lite' and waging all out war against his perceived enemies. As you presciently noted, Mr. Peterson seems to cover up his bad behavior and heated diatribes with low-effort pablum, and wouldn't you guess it? Right after he posts a series of unfortunate diuretics he attempts to bury his hatefulness with non sequiturs and misdirections that seem more panicked mea culpas than academic curiosity or professorial tutorials.

Well, whatever the case may be, and as I sit here pondering these things while listening to Sergei Prokofiev's Troika taken from his Lieutenant Kije, I can't help but wonder that much like Prokofiev's festive sleigh ride-of-a-piece has been nabbed by Greg Lake for his Christmas hit, 'I Believe in Father Christmas', perhaps we shouldn't begrudge Mr. Peterson for 'nabbing' other people's greatness and attempting to pass it off as his own on a small corner of the Internet.

I guess I'm just left to wonder if the Brethren really do feel a poor facsimile of greatness is better than nothing at all? I shrug, and I have to realize that, perhaps, this is as good as it gets within Mormon academia. A sobering realization, indeed.

Warm Regards,

Dr. CamNC4Me

[_Stocks]

As if there wasn't enough in the MD trove to discover, this post and past year's like it. Brilliant work.