From a response by A. Pratt (slightly edited) regarding an article about the reasons Mormons leave the Church...
This reply to your not-uncommon objections may prove helpful to some.
No scientific and/or historical evidence for the Book of Mormon has yet emerged. That the church and its members urge reliance on faith (“personal evidence,” which is not evidence at all) underscores this point.
Meanwhile, a good deal of evidence has debunked the LDS Church. The trouble is, when an arrow hits, the church moves the target in order to say, “You missed.” A few of the popular target-moving devices employed by the Church with parenthetical examples include:
• “That was policy not doctrine” (among many examples, blacks and the priesthood)
• “He wasn’t speaking as a prophet” and “That was his opinion” (Moves the target when an earlier prophet is later found to have taught false doctrine such as Brigham Young and his Adam/God doctrine)
• “Prophets aren’t perfect” (moves the target from Smith as convicted conman or Young as wrong about blacks and the priesthood to whether they were only human)
• “Don’t judge the church by its members” (moves the target from “by their fruits ye shall know them”)
• “Until I know the answer to that I’ll just have to rely on faith” (moves the target from “the church holds up under scrutiny” to “hang in there even when the church doesn’t hold up”; also moves the target from your own claim that there are “plenty of evidences” [sic])
• “We misinterpreted before, but now we have it right” (DNA and Lamanites)
• “Science has been wrong” (moves the target from a specific claim, such as that DNA shows that Native Americans did not descend from Israelites, to a claim no one made, such as that science has never erred)
• “That’s a lie spread by anti-Mormons” (with today’s easy Internet access, this target has moved to, “Actually, it’s true, but it’s okay because …” See sundry official explanations recently added to lds.org)
• “MY prophet hasn’t said that” (moves the target from what a past prophet said to what a current prophet hasn’t said)
• Each of the five customarily accepted reasons (among Mormons) for someone losing their faith and leaving the Church, namely: 1- being offended, 2- not understanding doctrine, 3- it requires too much effort, 4- anti-Mormon literature, 5- desire to sin. (moves the target from real to assumed objections)
The church and defenders often resort, unwittingly in some cases, to other logical fallacies besides moving the target. Logical fallacies are tricky because they can sound reasonable when in fact they are not. Apologists commonly resort to Special Pleading, Anecdote, Ad Hominem, Straw Man, and Burden of Proof. For a primer on logical fallacies, I recommend https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/.
“Not disproved” does not equal “proved.” You cannot disprove that my living room sofa communicates telepathically with sea turtles. This hardly means you must accept that it does.
This will most likely be of no use to anyone determined to emerge a believer no matter what. I took the trouble to write it in the hopes that it might be of some use to anyone honestly questioning.
