Okay guys. So in this episode I really just wanted to ingrain in your minds this one thing
when you're doing research and working towards understanding Mormonism,
which is actually called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
be careful with where you go for information. And here are four tips to help you along the way.
Number one: recognize bias. Many websites or YouTube channels that are antagonistic
toward our faith will say you can't trust the information on the church's official website
because it's all biased. Now, of course the church is biased. It's the church, just like the Catholic
church is biased towards the Catholic church, just like every church is biased towards their
own beliefs. This is not a weird thing. This is only weird if you make it weird.
Right on brother. But personally, I'm of the opinion that if you really want to learn about
catholicism, you should talk to a Catholic. If you want to learn about Islam, you should talk to
someone who is Islamic. If you want to learn about our faith, Latter-day Saint sources make sense.
Despite the obvious bias of all of these groups, recognize it, take it into account, but remember
that just because someone is biased does not mean they're lying to you. What I do find ironic though
is when critics disregard official church sources but then present you with a list of antagonistic
sources run by ex-Latter-day Saints or competing christian denominations and say that that's where
you'll find the unbiased truth about our faith. I believe you you see the quotations I'm making with
my claw hands. It means I don't believe you. Let's be real. They're also going to be biased, just in
the opposite direction. It's extremely difficult to find totally unbiased information about the
church or Mormonism because most all of the people that care about doing the research are people with
some kind of investment in the interpretation of that research, for better or worse. Number two:
verify information and check sources. Okay. So in a past episode, we addressed the claim that Joseph
Smith invented some Book of Mormon place names by using the names of real places around him but
when we went to verify the information in those claims, we found that many of the places that were
supposed to be Joseph's inspiration actually didn't even exist in Joseph's day. Verifying
information will help you find out if something is true false or a dangerous mixture of both.
Take the time to check sources. Oftentimes people online have already interpreted the information
for you and are presenting you with their conclusions. That's not necessarily a bad thing,
I do it all the time, but sometimes it can be helpful for you to go back to the raw data and
interpret things for yourself. Never argue with the data. That's one of the reasons I usually
leave lots of links in the description, so you can go through and track down sources. Oftentimes
both proponents and opponents of the church will look at the exact same data but come to totally
different conclusions about that data so it's good to learn how to come to your own conclusions about
things. It's something you have to discover for yourself. Number three: look at context. This
goes hand in hand with checking your sources. For example, I was recently reading on Wikipedia
and found this note commenting on a revelation directed to Martin Harris. The note says the
revelation also commanded Martin, "Release thyself from bondage, leave thy house and home except when
thou shalt desire to see them." It was about this time that Harris and his wife separated. Now, the
obvious intent here is to make it seem like Joseph Smith told Martin Harris to abandon his family.
But when you read the verses that surround this citation, you get a different meaning.
"Pay the printer's debt, release thyself from bondage, leave thy house and home except when
thou shalt desire to see them, and speak freely to all ye preach. Exhort, declare the truth even with
a loud voice, with a sound of rejoicing, crying, "Hosanna, hosanna, blessed be the name of the Lord
God." The bondage was not his family, it was a financial issue and the instruction to leave home
was a call to be a missionary, but whoever wrote this part of the Wikipedia article was banking on
you not looking at the context. Be aware that unfortunately, this kind of stuff happens
all the time so if something seems weird, check the context. It might be as easy as copying
and pasting the quote into Google to see if the surrounding text shows up. Number four: watch out
for doubt bombs. A doubt bomb is when someone just unloads a massive amount of negative information
on you, hoping that something will stick or that the sheer quantity of arguments will be enough
to knock down your house of faith, conveniently making room for them to construct something new,
more in accordance with their worldview. Hey look! I made a bridge. It only took me, like
what, 10 seconds. Doubt bombers overwhelm you with a bunch of information, knowing that it's unlikely
that you're going to slow down and methodically investigate each claim
because investigating a pile of claims takes a lot more time than just throwing them out there.
If you were to investigate them then, you'd find that their arguments are often
not new and not as big a deal as they seemed. Now to be clear, most people that disagree with
their faith are not hostile or trying to deceive people. There are lots of people with really good,
sincere, important questions. There are also a lot of people who have innocently fallen
victim to misinformation and then perpetuate it. But hostile or not, we need to be kind,
patient, and understand that good people can disagree on religion
and still be good people. But on your journey towards a better understanding of Mormonism,
remember to also recognize bias, verify sources, look at context,
watch out for manipulative tactics, like the doubt bombing technique. And have a great day.