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FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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#Just because someone has a bias, it does not mean that someone is incapable of making a true claim. Scholars cite the documentation that substantiates their position. To claim that Latter-day Saint scholars are so biased and so fallible that they simply cannot state a true claim is simply ludicrous. They have their academic reputations to uphold, their faith and the faith of their coreligionists to sustain, and they can't do that by doing shoddy work. They may make a mistake from time to time but it does nothing to invalidate the rest of their work. The entire body of their work has to be evaluated before making any claims of dishonesty or unreliability. | #Just because someone has a bias, it does not mean that someone is incapable of making a true claim. Scholars cite the documentation that substantiates their position. To claim that Latter-day Saint scholars are so biased and so fallible that they simply cannot state a true claim is simply ludicrous. They have their academic reputations to uphold, their faith and the faith of their coreligionists to sustain, and they can't do that by doing shoddy work. They may make a mistake from time to time but it does nothing to invalidate the rest of their work. The entire body of their work has to be evaluated before making any claims of dishonesty or unreliability. | ||
#Latter-day Saint scholars that FAIR cites on here generally all have academic training in the field that they utilize to substantiate claims. For instance, [https://www.FAIR.org/testimonies/scholars/john-gee Dr. John Gee] has his PhD in Egyptology from Yale. John Gee wrote: | #Latter-day Saint scholars that FAIR cites on here generally all have academic training in the field that they utilize to substantiate claims. For instance, [https://www.FAIR.org/testimonies/scholars/john-gee Dr. John Gee] has his PhD in Egyptology from Yale. John Gee wrote: | ||
− | + | ::According to Oxford University’s and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München’s Online Egyptological Bibliography, I am already in the top 4 percent of Egyptologists historically in terms of number of Egyptological publications.[. . .] In 2018 I served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities.<ref>John Gee, in ''2018 Annual Report for the BYU Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship'' <https://mi.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2018-Maxwell-Institute-Annual-Report-small.pdf> pg. 47-8 (accessed 30 May 2019)</ref> | |
5. The scholars that FAIR cites generally have been studying apologetic issues for years. Brian Hales began work on early Mormon polygamy back in the early 1990's. Ugo Perego has been studying issues surrounding DNA since the mid 2000's. John Gee has researched issues surrounding the Book of Abraham since the 80s. Their research has seen a lot of refinement and will continue to be refined as more data becomes available. | 5. The scholars that FAIR cites generally have been studying apologetic issues for years. Brian Hales began work on early Mormon polygamy back in the early 1990's. Ugo Perego has been studying issues surrounding DNA since the mid 2000's. John Gee has researched issues surrounding the Book of Abraham since the 80s. Their research has seen a lot of refinement and will continue to be refined as more data becomes available. |
Critics have a few common ways of dismissing the work of FAIR. As these have come to the point that they mislead people easily about FAIR, a response is necessary
Some people assume that the amount of work that has gone into Latter-day Saint apologetics through the FAIR organization suggests that there are a lot of issues that the Church has to deal with. Others have claimed that “Truth needs no defense. It will fight for itself.” This is utter nonsense for at least four reasons:
FAIR has had to respond to every type of criticism and/or adjust to such advancement. This is why we get so many articles.
Some have claimed that FAIR, in their responses, aren’t fully honest about issues. It is claimed that FAIR does not recognize the full extent of problems when they respond, that we create answers full of confirmation bias [citation], and that we purposefully lie about an issue being solved.
It has been claimed by a few critics that FAIR's answers are "full of logical fallacies" and that apologists in general "attack with ad hominem more than anyone." FAIR's answers are not "riddled with fallacies" as the critics might think through caricature. There may be fallacies in arguments that we hope will be pointed out to us so that we can improve. It should be noted that just having a fallacy in an argument does not invalidate it completely. This is known as the "fallacy fallacy". Fallacies generally point out some weaknesses in arguments. Some invalidate the argument completely. The answers should be evaluated carefully. If there is room for improvement, we gladly welcome recommendations at the link provided below. But fallacies don't invalidate the argument automatically.
Regarding ad-hominem specifically. Some assume that an ad-hominem is an applicable fallacy when it is often not. Additionally, everyone may be guilty of ad-hominem. A common ad-hominem attack from critics is: "The BYU professors that FAIR cites are just paid apologists and have to defend the Church to keep their paychecks." That is trying to poison the well and not address the actual argument made. It is a common hand-waving tactic of critics.
Readers should be careful to watch out for these dismissals in others and themselves. FAIR does acknowledge the humanity of each of its volunteers and, again asks, that any questions or concerns be directed to FAIR volunteers at this link.
It is frequently claimed that FAIR simply "obfuscates" the issues. This happens nearly every time FAIR provides evidence that refutes the criticism of tries to at least add nuance to the critical belief. Every answer should have hard data and solid documentation to back up claims which people can evaluate. People are free to disagree with our responses but they shouldn't simply dismiss our work through hand-waving exercises such as these.
The act of gaslighting is to manipulate someone through psychological means so that they question everything including their own existence. This is usually used in an emotionally manipulative way in order to paint FAIR in the most negative light possible and has virtually no truth to it.
Critics may claim this when we deny an accusation that seems so obvious to them but we apparently don’t see. The problem may be in the critics’ faulty expectations for the data. This should be considered before accusations of gaslighting are leveled.
This accusation is sometimes heard from critics who are trying to make emotionally swaying points. They make dramatic statements in order to distract people. Ironically, the critics are often doing the same thing they accuse FAIR of—trying to justify a pre-determined conclusion. If any paradigm is true, then there should be meaningful ways to defend it. Critics who try to use this are doing so hypocritically. Everyone has a bias.
Some people try to dismiss the scholarship we cite as biased and thus likely to be false. They have done this with regards to all scholarship done on the history of the Church or the historicity of the scriptures. It is a common way of handwaving some of the amazing, positive, and fully substantiated claims of faithful scholarship. A few points need to be made:
5. The scholars that FAIR cites generally have been studying apologetic issues for years. Brian Hales began work on early Mormon polygamy back in the early 1990's. Ugo Perego has been studying issues surrounding DNA since the mid 2000's. John Gee has researched issues surrounding the Book of Abraham since the 80s. Their research has seen a lot of refinement and will continue to be refined as more data becomes available.
Thus, this criticism rings generally shallow. It is of course the case that faithful scholars—like everyone—have a bias. Critics like to pretend that they don't have one, but they do—and they are often not upfront about those biases.
Notes
FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We are a volunteer organization. We invite you to give back.
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