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.
Question: What are some common ways that critics attempt to dismiss the work of FAIR?
Question: What are some common ways that critics attempt to dismiss the work of FAIR?
Critics often seek to dismiss the work of FAIR and tell their audience that there are no good answers to their questions. It is probably much easier to encourage their audience to ignore us, rather than engage with what we present.
Claim: 'Truth needs no defense'; 'Just seeing the table of contents for FAIR will show you how many problems the Church has'.
Some people assume that the amount of work that has gone into Latter-day Saint apologetics through FAIR 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 clearly false, for a number of reasons:
- Some people are ignorant of the truth
- Some people are aware of the truth, but don’t have the expertise to appreciate all its nuances.
- Some critics misrepresent the truth
- Some critics understand the truth but purposefully lie in order to win influence.
- Knowledge is always increasing; what might have seemed like a good criticism in the past may now be shown to be incorrect because of new information.
If you were accused of a serious crime, would you listen to a lawyer who told you that "truth needs no defense"? In court, we understand that the truth especially needs a defense, since people can misunderstand or misrepresent evidence.
Claim: FAIR doesn’t acknowledge the issue fully; FAIR has created a lot of answers out of confirmation bias and isn’t reliable; FAIR is dishonest and doesn’t include both sides of an argument fairly
Some have claimed that FAIR is not fully honest. Some claim that FAIR
- does not acknowledge the complexity of a problem
- produces answers that are subject to confirmation bias
- is dishonest about whether an issue has a good answer.
In response, we would suggest the reader consider these points:
- FAIR provides its reader with the actual criticisms (usually with direct citation from critics) and our answers. We have worked with hundreds of people with questions, and so are usually well-acquainted with the issues at stake. If we have omitted an area of concern to you, please let us know.
- Like everyone, FAIR authors have biases. By putting our work on an apologetic website, we are making our biases clear. Readers can account for those biases. Critics often portray themselves as just helpful, disinterested seekers of truth. Readers troubled by something from a critic should likewise consider the critics’ biases—and ask whether they received all the information provided by FAIR from the critic.
- FAIR strives for accuracy, truthfulness, and transparency. If readers encounter a statement or citation that is false or mistaken, we appreciate having it drawn to our attention. FAIR has many authors and volunteers, and we do make mistakes. These mistakes are unintentional.
- Readers should remember that it is not in FAIR’s interest to be dishonest. We know that our material will be scrutinized heavily. Critics are often gleeful when they find an error (but this provides us with valuable peer review!) We also know that if we are dishonest in one article, that will reduce readers’ trust.
- Even when mistakes are found, this does not mean that the author was dishonest: an accusation of dishonesty presumes intent to deceive and knowledge that one was deceiving.
Claim: FAIR's responses are full of logical fallacies and especially ad hominem attacks
In an attempt to dismiss FAIR’s work, critics will often claim that we commit logical fallacies, especially ad hominem attacks. An accusation of a fallacy is, in itself, a fallacy unless the critic can provide examples. This they rarely, if ever, attempt. Readers should ask themselves if claims of fallacy are more of an effort to discredit us before our arguments have been heard.
Ad hominem means to the man—it is a type of logical fallacy in which the person making the argument is attacked, rather than the argument itself.
FAIR does not attack individuals, or encourage readers to dismiss their arguments unheard. We have often told critics making this claim that if they can point to any examples, we will correct the problem. No one has done so yet, so if you spot one, let us know! Ad hominem attacks encourage the audience to ignore someone’s argument by painting the person making the argument in a bad light. Readers should realize that accusing someone of ad hominem without providing specific evidence is ‘’itself’’ a form of ad hominem.
Many critics who are quick to blame FAIR for this have egregious examples of their own.
Claim: FAIR simply tries to cloud the issues
FAIR aims to provide context and further information—only someone with significant bias would claim that these are of no importance. Readers will have to decide for themselves whether the information we provide is helpful. (If you realized that claiming someone just clouds the issues without providing specific examples and counterarguments, congratulations—you’ve spotting another example of the ad hominem fallacy!)
Claim: FAIR gaslights
The act of gaslighting is to manipulate someone through psychological means so that they question reality. It is not gaslighting to argue that there is another way of seeing matters in light of different evidence or presuppositions.
Claim: FAIR uses biased scholarship to substantiate their views. Unbiased scholars don't accept the Book of Mormon nor Book of Abraham as factual or historical. Unbiased historians acknowledge Joseph Smith's history as deeply problematic. You can't trust any of FAIR's apologetic scholarship
As noted above, everyone has biases. This is why we must explore the evidence that people offer, and not just claim that they "have biases". (Every critic of the Church has their own biases—often very deep-seated ones. But, they don’t tell us that we should ignore them because of their biases. Bias does not mean that one cannot do good scholarly or scientific or historical work—if it did, there would be no such work done at all.
Many of the authors cited by FAIR have significant academic credentials. For instance, Dr. John Gee has his PhD in Egyptology from Yale. For example, Dr. 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.[1]
This does not mean that Gee should be accepted uncritically—but it is also not fair to claim that because he has a bias, he cannot have something worthwhile to say. The only way to know is to read him—and if you’ve been following along, you’ll know that critics seem desperate to get you to not read what we have to offer. Why might that be?
Notes