
Bamboozled by the "CES Letter"
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Narrated by:
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Derrick Duncan
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By:
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Michael R. Ash
About this listen
In April 2013, Jeremy T. Runnells published a PDF booklet entitled "Letter to a CES Director". This booklet, which is now typically referred to as the "CES Letter", catalogs Runnells’ concerns and reasons why he left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). Runnells has worked hard to make his booklet available to people everywhere (and in several languages) and has, unfortunately, been the agent for leading at least a few other believers out of Mormonism.
Sadly, most of those who have been bamboozled by the “CES Letter“ are Latter-Day Saints who were blindsided by scholarly sounding interpretations of challenging data. In my opinion, however, the “CES Letter” creates a caricature of Mormonism. The arguments are fundamentally flawed and do not accurately represent either Mormonism or the only logical interpretations of the data.
Unfortunately, the reason the "CES Letter" has enjoyed any success is that most Latter-Day Saints have never been exposed to some of the more complex matters in early Mormon history. On average, the typical Latter-Day Saint has never needed to think outside of the box on Mormon-related philosophical, historical, or scholarly issues.
Bamboozled by the "CES Letter" explains why these controversial issues need not kill a testimony. Interpretation matters. Many laymembers, as well as educated Mormon scholars, are fully aware of every topic discussed in the "CES Letter" but continue strong in their faith because they recognize that there are logical interpretations that can be integrated with their belief in Mormonism. There are answers to the concerns raised by the "CES Letter", and those answers can be supported by current scholarship as well as harmonized with the acceptance of Mormon truth claims.
©2015 Michael R. Ash (P)2022 The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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any easy read
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CES letter conquered
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Helpful
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Listener received this title free
If you find yourself wanting more in depth analysis and/or rebuttal, I suggest doing a web search for "Sarah Allen's (dice1899) response to the CES Letter" for incredible additional works on this.
Accomplishes what it set out to do.
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Listener received this title free
Cogent and Informative
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A common sense answer to the CES questions
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Listener received this title free
The CES letter mostly repeats old arguments and questions that anti-Mormons claim have not been answered, though solid answers have been given to them. Most of the new material from the letter is inaccurate and misleading in trivial ways. Like much anti-Mormon literature, any careful reading of some of the criticisms reveal that they are not just arguments against the LDS faith, but against Christianity, in general or against religion, in general. Ash appropriately answers the critiques.
I have only two minor quibbles. The first quibble is likely only relevant to those like me who have done a great deal of prior reading and thinking about the issues. It takes about 20 minutes in the audiobook for Ash to dispense with a preliminary explanation of how arguments work and how critiques and answers work. For instance, Ash rightly points out that a one-sentence critique may require several pages of answer, something that one sees in many fields. I would have preferred a sooner "hook" into the CES critiques and answers, with the material in the 20 minutes scattered throughout. Ash is a good writer, so he may have tried this and found that the 20 minutes worked better.
The second minor quibble is that the tone is humorous, but the reader's tone is more serious. At first I wondered if humor was intended until it finally became apparent.
I recommend "Bamboozled..." Ash does a solid job. Those who need answers to the CES letter will find them here. Those who do not necessarily need answers, may, like me, enjoy the fun of hearing the the questions and answers.
A solid answer
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Weak and disappointing arguments
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Immediately Regretted
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Not recommended. Terrible answers.
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