text: Alicia's lamentation is based on the faulty theory that there are "basics" and that they are "knowable" (my emphasis, not hers). 
  
  The problem is that all religious discourse is based solely on opinion.  There is no authoritative final word that defines "basic." That scuttles "basics," renders "knowable" null and void. In general, every Christian doctrine was hashed out over several thousand years by the Catholic Church. Christ never proclaimed a doctrine. 
  
  So, there are no "basics." At its gestation, Adventism tried to establish a basic understanding, just for the end of the world.  The Three Angels Messages, the Spirit of Prophecy, and the Faith of Jesus was the presumed authority. But it failed in its entirety because it is an impossible task. The precepts were just faulty opinions, because that is the nature of human conjecture.
  
  Going back to basics can't be done. Just the ones you "like." So it’s only a quest for consensus agreeable with yours, an impossible dream.