Why does this make me feel sad?

[Hagoth]

https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/con ... ugust-2021

So much energy invested in so much desperate tap dancing, surreptitiously supported by the church while they maintain enough distance for denial and under-the-bussing of any of the people involved.

[blazerb]

I wonder how many of the presenters are on their way out. Is this an attempt to hold on to a faith that makes less and less sense every day? I'm sure Dan Petersen has no intention of leaving, and I think it goes even beyond his paycheck. He has been thrown under the bus a couple times already and maintained the faith. He has no plans to give up the loyalty points he purchased so dearly. Some of the others I wonder about, though.

I'm also curious about inviting an evangelical Christian to speak. These guys used to be enemy number 1 for FARMS. They are still the only enemy that apologists know how to fight. When you're opponent believes nutty things, you can distract others from your own nutty things.

[Hagoth]

I think apologetics will get less and less relevant as the message of "doubt your doubts" and "choose to believe" moves onto the center stage. Ultimately apologetics are only useful for a small percentage of the membership. They help as many people out of the church as they keep in. The vast majority neither consume nor care about apologetics. I think the church would be wise to cut their losses and keep everything in the realm of faith and hope, since attempts to prove the church true have proven to be either unconvincing or overly complex in a way that you finally just say, "it must be true because these guys are so smart I can't even follow them."

[jfro18]

I watched that Netflix documentary on the Flat Earthers a while back and the FAIR conference reminds me of that... I don't mean to be so dismissive, but once you are on the other side of it and you see all of these presentations to try and prove something that is clearly false it just feels like a flat earther convention trying to convince each other that they're the sane ones.

Also agree with Hagoth that so few people actually care about apologetics and usually they aren't even known about until you've got one foot out the door. I would love to do a more robust study of people who leave and people who stay to see how many are helped by FAIR Mormon and how many ultimately find it as a reason to leave once you see all of the problems and really unsatisfying answers.