Introduction
Somtimes people or news outlets relate stories about events in Church history that may not be entirely accurate. One way to test accuracy is to evaluate what’s true about the story, what’s missing, and what’s likely added or exaggerated.
Learning Goal
Analyze a commonly told story from Church history and identify what is true about the story, what is missing from the story, and what has been added to or exaggerated about the story.
Instructions
Estimated time: 2 hours
STEP 1: Read pages 78-84 in Dr. Erekson’s “Real vs. Rumor: How to Dispel Latter-Day Myths” book Download 78-84 in Dr. Erekson’s “Real vs. Rumor: How to Dispel Latter-Day Myths” book(the sections “The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But” and “Take a Closer Look”).
STEP 2: Select one of the following stories to analyze:
Zion’s Camp (The Camp of Israel) (in Saints Volume 1 ) (in Church History TopicsLinks to an external site.)
Hawn’s Mill Massacre (in Saints Volume 1Links to an external site.) (in Church History TopicsLinks to an external site.)
Joseph in Liberty Jail (in Saints Volume 1Links to an external site.) (in Church History TopicsLinks to an external site.)
STEP 3: Using an openAI chat tool, like ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/chatLinks to an external site.), create a simple telling of your chosen story. Enter something like “Tell me the story of the Hawn’s Mill massacre,” into the message prompt to create the story. Copy and paste the retelling into the Nothing But the Whole Truth template Download Nothing But the Whole Truth template.
STEP 4: Compare the AI retelling of the story with what is told in Saints Volume I and the Church History Topics Essays (see links above).
STEP 5: Using the table in the template (the same as Dr. Erekson’s table on p. 83 of “Real vs. Rumor”), analyze the AI’s retelling of your chosen story. There is a column for The Truth (the details in the AI’s
version that are actually true), The Whole Truth (important details that are missing in the AI’s version), and Nothing But The Truth (details or exaggerations that the AI version added to the story)? Include at least five details in each column. IMPORTANT: The details do not have to be the same for each column. You do not need to take the detail from the first column and then analyze that same detail under the second and third columns. Each column can have completely separate details.
For step one the document is attached below,then step 2 and 3 links are attached on (Links for steps document below) template for step three is attached on the document written (Nothith But the truth Template) then step 4 and 5 are on the instructions above.