Embedded Files
( - previous issue - / - next issue - )
AR 22:35 - Have evangelicals lost interest in critiquing Mormonism?
In this issue:
APOLOGETICS - Sean McDowell reflects on how culture has changed since his dad's influence began with Evidence That Demands a Verdict
MORMONISM - the "bright side to the disappearance of anti-Mormon literature"?
TRUTH - "Artificial Intelligence is going to change the kinds of evidence that we can trust"
Apologia Report 22:35 (1,355)
September 15, 2017
APOLOGETICS
"How Culture Has Changed since the Release of Evidence That Demands a Verdict" by Sean McDowell, assistant professor of apologetics at Biola University -- summarized: "In the 1970s, Josh McDowell's book Evidence That Demands a Verdict [1972] helped launch the contemporary renaissance in Christian apologetics. [H]ow has culture changed in the intervening years, and how should those changes affect our approach to evangelism and apologetics today?"
McDowell reports that on October 3rd "we are releasing a completely updated and revised version [1]. It is still the classic format of Evidence (research notes that include lengthy quotes and context), but it contains more than 50 percent new content. ...
"While there are many issues that could be discussed, the purpose of this article is to highlight five cultural shifts that directly affect evangelism and apologetics today." The first of these is information overload. Back in the 70s, "Information on the veracity of the faith was scarce, and so Evidence was released into an audience with instant demand.
"The updated version of Evidence, however, releases in a culture with the opposite problem: *abundant information.*" McDowell believes the overload actually makes apologetics resources "*more important.* First, quality resources and brands can provide *trust.* ... Second, quality resources save people time."
The second cultural shift McDowell isolates is that of increased skepticism: "While there have been skeptics since long before the birth of Christ, skepticism seems to be on the rise." His evidence of this is the recent proliferation of conspiracy theories, finding that "*greater amounts of information can increase skepticism.*"
Third, "the new tolerance" is seen in the shift from a time when "Students largely assumed truth existed and that reason was one means of finding it. ...
"Rather than focusing on truth, [today] students often say things such as, 'Who are you to make such a claim? That's intolerant' or 'You're bigoted for claiming to know truth.' The importance is no longer on truth but on how a claim allegedly makes someone *feel.*"
Fourth is the destruction of the family: "In 1960, roughly when my father first set out to research Evidence, nearly three-quarters of kids lived in a traditional home with two married parents (73 percent). Today it is less than half (46 percent). ...
"Technology cannot solve this problem. In fact, as Sherry Turkle <www.goo.gl/AWSnv1> has argued, technology <www.goo.gl/jUyb8P> often exacerbates loneliness." This is especially important because "Our relationships shape how we see truth."
Last, western culture has rejected traditional values in favor of self-designed spirituality's fluctuating opinions about eternity. "Even in an endless sea of religious options, the person and character of Jesus is uniquely attractive. Apologists today must bring attention first and foremost to the person of Jesus." Christian Research Journal, 40:4 - 2017, pp26-31.
For content related to Josh in back issues of AR visit <www.goo.gl/WRjLsG> and use <www.goo.gl/j1Jpk8> for Sean.
---
MORMONISM
"RIP, anti-Mormon literature" by Jana Riess, <www.goo.gl/vLnch8> an influential and widely cited "comparative-religions expert who converted to Mormonism" (Time magazine) -- begins: "A search for anti-Mormon literature at Thomas Nelson, the world's largest evangelical publisher (now part of Harper [along with Zondervan]), revealed no hits. ...
"There's a book coming out in January from Prometheus, which specializes in books for The Skeptical Inquirer <csicop.org/si>. This one focuses on the LDS Church's attempt to wrest control of the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper.
"Rachel Jeffs, daughter of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, has a memoir coming in November from HarperCollins [2]. That's not about Mormonism per se, but an offshoot fundamentalist sect. However, it appears to follow the basic tropes of the escape-from-polygamy genre established within anti-Mormon literature in the 19th century, so it loosely fits my search for anti-Mormon lit. Meanwhile the LeBarons, not to be outdone, have The Polygamist's Daughter: A Memoir, Anna LeBaron's story, which came out a few months ago from Tyndale. [3] ...
"What the heck is going on with the disappearance of anti-Mormon literature?" Riess speculates that "Evangelicals care less about theology than they used to. Sociologists have noted a trend over the last few decades that suggests theology is not as important as it used to be in the minds of most American Christians. If Americans are fussed about religion at all (and a growing number aren't), they are more concerned with behavior and political views than with orthodox belief. And many self-professed evangelicals don't even know their own theological tenets, according to a LifeWay study <www.goo.gl/ZLqMCz> released last year. More than half, for example, agreed that Jesus was the 'first and greatest being created by God' - an Arian heresy that's anathema to classically-defined evangelicalism. If evangelicals don't care about (or even know about) their own theology, the whole raison d'être of anti-Mormon lit has just gone up in smoke."
(Contra Riess, Harvest House Publishers <www.goo.gl/qaPnpr> - Baker Books <www.goo.gl/ry6rou> - Zondervan <www.goo.gl/4eCNQ1> - and Kregel Publications <www.goo.gl/GmxMk3> all have recent - and significant - titles opposing Mormonism in print.)
"Mormonism is still growing, but the rate of that growth has significantly decelerated worldwide. Moreover, what growth does occur is largely happening in the global south. If Mormonism's most promising areas of conversion are in West Africa rather than the western U.S., American evangelicals are not going to get terribly exercised about it. ...
"Of course, there is a bright side to the disappearance of anti-Mormon literature. Now that there is less opposition to the restored gospel, Mormons can say that the Lord has cleared the way for his church to move forward." Religion News, Jul 11 '17, <www.goo.gl/XreU3t>
We found this piece odd in so many ways. It's like an extended exercise in wishful thinking. Note that Riess conveniently omits any mention of non-print opposition to Mormonism, such as thriving websites like those of Utah Lighthouse Ministry <www.utlm.org>, the Institute for Religious Research <www.mit.irr.org>, and Mormonism Research Ministry <www.mrm.org>
---
TRUTH
"Fake news: you ain't seen nothing yet: Generating convincing audio and video of fake events" (no byline) - observes: "Faith in written information is under attack in some quarters by the spread of what is loosely known as 'fake news'. But images and sound recordings retain for many an inherent trustworthiness. GANs [generative adversarial networks] are part of a technological wave that threatens this credibility. ...
"Generative audio works differently, using neural networks to learn the statistical properties of the audio source in question, then reproducing those properties directly in any context, modeling how speech changes not just second-by-second, but millisecond-by-millisecond. Putting words into the mouth of Mr Trump, say, or of any other public figure, is a matter of feeding recordings of his speeches into the algorithmic hopper and then telling the trained software what you want that person to say. ... Currently, these algorithms require levels of computing power only available to large technology companies, but that will change. ...
"GANs were introduced in 2014 by Ian Goodfellow, then a student at MILA [Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms] under Yoshua Bengio <www.goo.gl/BwM4Yr> - one of the founding fathers of the machine-learning technique known as deep learning. ...
"Mr Goodfellow now works <www.goo.gl/SYT58i> for Google Brain, the search giant's in-house AI research division.... [H]e suggests that the generation of YouTube fakes that are very plausible may be possible within three years. Others think it might take longer. But all agree that it is a question of when, not if. 'We think that AI is going to change the kinds of evidence that we can trust,' says Mr Goodfellow. ...
"Amnesty International is already grappling with some of these issues. Its Citizen Evidence Lab <citizenevidence.org> verifies videos and images of alleged human-rights abuses. ... Amnesty's work mostly catches old videos that are being labelled as a new atrocity, but it will have to watch out for generated video, too." The Economist, Jul 1 '17, <www.goo.gl/XRywxN>
For an update on just how much the culture of daily news update efforts has changed in the past 40 years, see “Casey Neistat: The Most Trusted Name in News” by Matthew Belloni. <www.goo.gl/ayZ3wU>
Perhaps the value of scholarship will be more appreciated as a consequence of the uncertainties discussed in this issue of AR. For more about Artificial Intelligence in our back issues, visit <www.goo.gl/4zUEfb>
-------
SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World, by Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell (Thomas Nelson, 2017, hardcover, 880 pages) <www.goo.gl/j647JX>
2 - Breaking Free: How I Escaped Polygamy, the FLDS Cult, and My Father, Warren Jeffs, by Rachel Jeffs (Harper, 14 Nov 2017, hardcover, 304 pages) <www.goo.gl/zvR8ym>
3 - The Polygamist's Daughter: A Memoir, by Anna LeBaron and Leslie Wilson (Tyndale, 2017, paperback, 320 pages) <www.goo.gl/qfiQ9t>
------
( - previous issue - / - next issue - )
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse