![]() The initial argument by the critics that the Book of Mormon was man-made was based on the premise that Joseph Smith was too unlearned and “ignorant” to write such a comprehensive work and therefore someone allegedly much more intelligent than he, such as Sidney Rigdon or Oliver Cowdery, must have authored it. A natural question that arises at some point is whether or not this book is man-made or God-given. "This year we will be studying the Book of Mormon as part of the “Come, Follow Me” curriculum. For the purposes of looking at this article, I just want to point out where Callister purposefully misstates the critical position in order to slay that defenseless straw man he creates. Now before we get into the article, I do want to note that on this site we tend not to use or cite "logical fallacies" much at all because they are overused by many apologists as well as frequently misused in order to make a point seem stronger to their readers than it actually is. One who engages in this fallacy is said to be "attacking a straw man."" For those who are interested, there's a great podcast from Radio Free Mormon on Tad Callister's presentation from last August as well.Ī very basic summary from Wikipedia is that "a straw man is a form of argument and an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument, while actually refuting an argument that was not presented by that opponent. When his book was released, many people online noted how Callister used straw man arguments in order make his case in a way that avoided the real issues, and this article is a perfect example of how he does it. Callister: The Book of Mormon - man-made or God-given?" which is written by Tad Callister.įor those who don't know, Elder Callister recently wrote a book that attempts to defend the Book of Mormon as a true historical work called A Case For the Book of Mormon. On January 19, 2020, the church posted an article on their official site titled " Elder Tad R.
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