{"id":18071,"date":"2015-02-22T09:55:17","date_gmt":"2015-02-22T16:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=18071"},"modified":"2015-02-22T10:00:02","modified_gmt":"2015-02-22T17:00:02","slug":"of-course-i-only-defend-mormonism-because-im-a-mercenary-hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/of-course-i-only-defend-mormonism-because-im-a-mercenary-hack.html","title":{"rendered":"Of course, I only defend Mormonism because I’m a mercenary hack."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
Click to enlarge.
Click again to enlarge further.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Twice within the past few days, in the comments sections of two Utah newspapers in two distinct northern Utah cities, I\u2019ve read the claim that I earn\u00a0my living by defending The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is false.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I earn my living as a professor of Islamic studies and Arabic. \u00a0This term, I\u2019m teaching three classes, which is pretty much the standard teaching\u00a0load in my department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages. \u00a0They are \u201cIntroduction to the Religion of Islam,\u201d \u201cIntroduction to the Humanities of Islam,\u201d and \u201cThe Qur\u2019an in Arabic.\u201d \u00a0You can read the course numbers \u2014 most easily, of course, if you enlarge the photo accompanying this entry\u00a0\u2014 on the teaching schedule posted outside my office door and reproduced above. \u00a0I also chaired a department rank and status committee that just completed and reported on its work this past Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, on the basis of that false claim, one commenter flatly stated, while the other commenter insinuated, that what I write isn\u2019t to be trusted. \u00a0I\u2019m a mercenary, you see. \u00a0I\u2019m in it for the money.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But even if the Church were<\/em> paying me to advocate my religious beliefs, the proper way to test what I write and what I say would be by\u00a0the adequacy of my evidence and the soundness of my logic. \u00a0Declaring that I can\u2019t be trusted because I\u2019m paid, or because I\u2019m a Mormon, or because I\u2019m a white male, or because I teach at BYU is an ad hominem irrelevancy<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 no different, really, from saying that somebody\u2019s theories on physics can\u2019t be trusted because he\u2019s a Jew, or that women aren\u2019t rational enough to be allowed to vote.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The charge will never die, of course. \u00a0Such fallacious reasoning is\u00a0quicker and easier to post than marshaling actual evidence and formulating logically sound arguments would be.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Twice within the past few days, in the comments sections of two Utah newspapers in two distinct northern Utah cities, I\u2019ve read the claim that I earn\u00a0my living by defending The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. \u00a0 This is false. \u00a0 I earn my living as a professor of Islamic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOf course, I only defend Mormonism because I'm a mercenary hack.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"      Twice within the past few days, in the comments sections of two Utah newspapers in two distinct northern Utah cities, I've read the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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