BOOK OF MORMON SETTING. Many Latter-day Saints still believe what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah/Ramah. President Nelson: "Good inspiration is based upon good information." Here, we share good information from original sources that corroborates the prophets. We support the Church policy of neutrality, which promotes unity by recognizing multiple working hypotheses. We encourage all interested parties to do the same, all in the pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding.
Thought experiments. Which of the following two proposed versions of a 14th Article of Faith would represent what you believe?
14th Article of Faith: We believe what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery taught about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.
14th Article of Faith: We believe that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery speculated and misled everyone about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon because we prefer the teachings of modern scholars, including SITH and M2C.
I did a close review of that section of Rough Stone Rolling, which is now at mobom.org, here:
https://www.mobom.org/rsr-review
The problem arises from the editorial decision in that book to portray assumptions, inferences, and theories as facts.
For example, it is a fact that so-and-so wrote something down. Maybe it's a first-person account, or a second-hand account (such as an account by a reporter or interviewer), or even third-hand. But the existence of the account, which is factual, does not make the account itself factual.
A person can write a statement such as "the car was red." The existence of the statement is a fact, but it is merely evidence that the car was actually red. If we, after reading the statement, say "the car was red," we are assuming the person told the truth, but if we are precise (clear), we can say only that so-and-so said the car was red.
But many historians simply write "the car was red," rationalizing that they have "a source."
Because this is such a common problem with the way historians write history, I can't tell if they are trained to write this way, if they are unaware of the problem, or if they are simply stating their beliefs as if they were facts.
Or maybe they are just trying to simplify history to make it readable for the public. But if that's the case, it's a serious disservice when they don't clarify the difference between facts and assumptions/inferences/theories.
This is why I often assess things using the FAITH model (Facts, Assumptions, Inferences, Theories and Hypotheses). It seems simple enough.
In the pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding, clarity comes first, and that requires applying the FAITH model to historical evidence.
[Note: originally posted at https://funwithsith.blogspot.com/2024/09/sith-in-federal-court.html.]
SITH (the "stone-in-the-hat" narrative about the translation that refutes what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery always said about the translation), is now being litigated at the appellate level in federal court.
As if SITH wasn't bad enough from a purely historical perspective.
https://www.sltrib.com/
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| (click to enlarge) |
I obtained them [the plates] and the Urim and Thummim with them, by the means of which I translated the plates and thus came the Book of Mormon.
https://www.josephsmithpapers.
Nearly every day I hear from people who have questions about various LDS topics, especially Church history and the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.
Rarely do people ask a question I haven't addressed, but they don't know where to look.
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| "become acquainted with all good books | " |
Eventually we'll get all the material organized at the Museum of the Book of Mormon (mobom.org), but for now here are some quick references. The goal, as always, is to eliminate contention by pursuing clarity, charity and understanding, recognizing that when answers are unclear, there are multiple working hypotheses that we can all learn from as we make informed decisions.
Questions about LDS Historical narratives.
See https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/, including the pages. You can use the search box to find relevant material in the posts.
Questions about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.
Overall, see https://www.mobom.org/church-history-issues
For North American setting, see https://www.lettervii.com/
For M2C (Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs) setting, there are two main sites.
- problems with M2C: https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/
- promoting M2C: https://bookofmormoncentral.org/
Note: I wish I could refer people to Scripture Central/Book of Mormon Central, which has spent millions of dollars creating an extensive website with hundreds of essays (Kno-Whys) on various topics. However, the management of Scripture Central insists on promoting SITH and M2C, and that bias infects the content so deeply that the site is untrustworthy. Scripture Central refuses to follow basic academic standards to avoid bias and promote clarity, charity and understanding. Instead, the management of Scripture Central seeks to divide Latter-day Saints along ideological lines.
It's tragic to see the ongoing destruction in Lebanon and Israel. Lebanon has been one my favorite counties in the Middle-East, partly because they speak French there (or used to when I was there). Some nostalgic photos from my time there.
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| filming in Lebanon |
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| The Cedars of God site (cedars of Lebanon in the Kadisha Valley of Bsharre, Lebanon) |
[Blogger wouldn't let me upload photos of me with women wearing hijab, even though they were the archaeologists who took us to Baalbek, Byblos, Sidon and other sites. So I cropped them out.]
As long as I'm reminiscing, here's a photo from the time I crossed the Suez canal on a ferry.
And some pics from back in the day when I was young and ignorant and still believed M2C because I trusted the "experts" at FARMS, FairMormon, etc., haha. Photos of those youthful days reminds me how easy it is for college students to be so easily indoctrinated by their professors.
I often reiterate that I'm fine with people believing whatever they want. But there's a caveat. I assume people want to make informed, not arbitrary or manipulated decisions.
Of all people, Latter-day Saints should be trusted to make good informed decisions. As President Nelson has taught, "Good inspiration is based upon good information."
But the management and staff of Scripture Central disagree.
We can all see that Latter-day Saints are highly confused about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon. It's no wonder that this confusion causes so many people, both Latter-day Saints and otherwise, to question the "keystone of our religion."
Why does this confusion persist?
Because of one thing.
What Joseph and Oliver (along with their contemporaries and successors) once made perfectly clear--that (i) Joseph translated the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, and (ii) the hill Cumorah/Ramah is in western New York--has been obliterated by an onslaught of brainwashing by LDS intellectuals who should know better.
It's not easy to persuade Latter-day Saints to reject the teachings of the prophets about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon. That's why Scripture Central resorts to brainwashing.
One useful definition of brainwashing explains the process: "to make someone believe something by repeatedly telling them that it is true and preventing other information from reaching them."
When Scripture Central presents this image of Mormon and Moroni, we can all see it is outright brainwashing:
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| Mormon and Moroni, according to Scripture Central (click to enlarge) |
Yet this is the image that John W. (Jack) Welch presented to hundreds of BYU-Hawaii students. It will be the message of Scripture Central's "Moroni Day Gala."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY2WPqJbtB8
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It's ironic that even on Moroni Day, Scripture Central will not inform its audience, readers, viewers and listeners of some of the basic information we have about Moroni. https://www.mobom.org/moroni-day
Instead, we have Tyler Griffin brainwashing his students and thousands of YouTube viewers by depicting Christ appearing at a pagan Mayan temple.
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| Tyler Griffin depicting Christ appearing at a Mayan temple (click to enlarge) |
https://scripturecentral.org/video/trending-video-en-9642
This seems incredible, but this is the reality we're dealing with.
Scripture Central doesn't want people to make informed decisions by enabling people to (i) know what Joseph and Oliver taught and (ii) compare different interpretations of evidence regarding the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.
Instead, Scripture Central relies on brainwashing and indoctrinating people to accept M2C.
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BTW, the image of Mormon and Moroni is the image that Scripture Central presents to thousands of users of its "ScripturePlus" software, which was designed to brainwash users into accepting M2C by enticing them away from the Church's own far more credible, objective and reliable Gospel Library app.
https://www.scriptureplus.org/
Scripture Plus even has a "Dark Mode," which is a fitting term for its M2C indoctrination.
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| Dark Mode - Scripture Plus |
