Kwaku El is one of the rising generation of young Mormon apologists.
In a recent video, Kwaku attempts to prove the Book of Abraham is true.
But in doing so, Kwaku employs a well known apologetic trick; well known to Radio Free Mormon, at least.
In fact, Radio Free Mormon publicly exposed this very apologetic trick in a podcast published seven months BEFORE Kwaku posted his video.
Some tricks need to be retired from the apologist playbook.
This is one of them.
RESOURCES:
Radio Free Mormon – Book of Abraham Part 1
Radio Free Mormon – Book of Abraham Part 2
Radio Free Mormon – Book of Abraham Part 3
The Book of Abraham Explained as simply as possible
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Good podcast, the only thing I would caution you on is accusing young, deeply indoctrinated people of being intentionally deceitful. It feeds the us vs them narrative that keeps confirmation bias alive.
I think it is more accurate to note that healthy, smart, honest people suffer from confirmation bias in ways that make it hard to see facts even if they are right in front of them.
If he responds directly, his response will likely ignore the bulk of the evidence you presented (because confirmation bias coupled with a personal attack won’t allow him to see facts clearly) and he will probably respond by finding some minor error in something you said, magnifying it, and then attacking you personally in retaliation for you attacking him personally.
Either way though I am definitely going to be following where this all leads 🙂
I think the best defense Kwaku would have here is to come out and say that he was not aware of Jasher and Josephus containing the same stories and being available to Joseph Smith, and that he was just parroting research done by others under the misapprehension it was correct.
Undermining this defense, however, it was brought to my attention yesterday that Kwaku posted a comment on his own YouTube video webpage a week ago in which he evinces knowledge of both Jasher and Josephus.
In light of this, it is hard for me to understand how Kwaku could sincerely and in good conscience state in his video that no ancient documents containing these stories was available to Joseph Smith.
Hahaa, I would just like to emphasize what I wrote earlier:
“ If he responds directly, his response will likely ignore the bulk of the evidence you presented (because confirmation bias coupled with a personal attack won’t allow him to see facts clearly) and he will probably respond by finding some minor error in something you said, magnifying it, and then attacking you personally in retaliation for you attacking him personally.“
https://youtu.be/xLvQ-iMOJGg
Confirmation bias is great, when you understand how it works you can predict how people will act in the future with surprising accuracy.
His response was more hilarious than I could have predicted though. Hopefully you are a good sport about it. He is now my favorite apologist, with Zelph on the Shelf and Brother Jake in a close tie for being my favorite anti’s. Thank you for the entertainment and good job finding those references in the Bible commentary.
Air-tight. Good job, again.
Thank you for the kind words, Tom!
Bullseye! With one exception . . .
His first name is pronounced with a hard A, not a soft a. So it’s “KwAy-coo”, not “Kwack-coo”.
Other than that one very minor point, this podcast was absolute perfection, IMHO.
Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
If I should have occasion to pronounce Kwaku’s name in the future, I will endeavor to do so correctly.
No one…let me repeat that no one can study the history of the mormon church and still believe Joe Smith is a prophet. History shows only that he is a con artist, liar, adulterer, all around scum. The JS papers on LDS.org as it was called is so damning that if you have the patience to wade through it no one of sound mind will come out the other end a believer. It’s impossible. So if you say you are a true believer after doing so…I say you’re deceitful and a liar.
I hear where you are coming from, K.
Let me simply note that the human brain’s ability to rationalize both belief and action is virtually limitless.
Agreed.
Loved the level of research and detailed walked through. Too bad Kwaku won’t even listen to this criticism as it has Mormon Stories vibes to it.
Shameful ad hominen attack or in this case ad websitican attack.
Once again you are going the extra mile by providing this real life example.
Kwaku has been reluctant so far to address the points raised in the RFM podcast, other than to write a series of lol texts in response to Bill Reel calling him out on it.
Copies of those texts are available on Bill Reel’s FB page.
We will see if Kwaku wants to give a more substantive response in the future.
Excellent work as usual! Especially the detail of going through various sources. Many are familiar with the BofM being read on the day of Joseph and Hyrum’s martyr but nobody every relates Josephus was read as well. Seems TBMs will allow just about anyone to represent them so long as they don’t have to spend time researching for themselves. I certainly wouldn’t want Kwaku or people like him to represent my beliefs.
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