Here Comes The Book of Abraham Part I, II, III

[_Dr. Shades]

You see? You are truly capable of great things when alcohol-free.

[_Jersey Girl]

Dear Shulem, writing a book is a heroic undertaking, whatever your personal motives. I wish you success in articulating the many learnings from your long fought search.

Thank you, everyone, for your well-wishes and toasting me in writing my new paper, "Here Comes the Book of Abraham" which I believe will seriously damage Mormonism today.

Anyway, cheers everyone. Enjoy a drink and toast!

Pssssst. Make a website to go with it. ;-)

[_Fence Sitter]

Paul,

While it is admittedly a short sample I am drawing from here, I think your focus is attacking an apologetic that is fast loosing support within even the Church itself, that is, the apologetic theory that Joseph Smith actually was deriving authentic historical information about Abraham from the Egyptian papyri and artifacts he owned. Those apologists (Gee, Muhlestein, Smoot, Barney and very few others) are being confronted directly on by a group of faithful BYU scholars and church employed historians, among others, who are willing to admit that Joseph Smith simply was wrong when he thought he was correctly translating the relics. They still hold that the Book of Abraham is scripture inspired by God, just that it clearly isn't and wasn't on the collection Joseph Smith bought in 1835.

In the bigger overall picture I think we are seeing increased movement by faithful scholars trained in textual criticism and other non Egyptological fields, like Givins, Hauglid, Wayment, Bokovoy (not a believer now but he was when he wrote his Old Testament book) Grey, Jensen, and a host of others, who are applying their tools to examining the LDS canon and finding out it fails the test of historical authenticity in many areas that were advocated by past LDS scholars. I think many of these scholars would find no issue with the points you raise above.

Do you intend to try and address this apologetic defense of the Book of Abraham? If not, I think your book would only have an impact on a what seems to be a diminishing group of believers.

[_Dr. Shades]

Those apologists (Gee, Muhlestein, Smoot, Barney and very few others) are being confronted directly on by a group of faithful BYU scholars and church employed historians, among others, who are willing to admit that Joseph Smith simply was wrong when he thought he was correctly translating the relics.

Dollars to donuts that 99% of the rank-and-file membership has no idea about any of that. They still believe the Book of Abraham is a literal word-for-word translation of the actual text on the actual papyrus.

[_Shulem]

Fence,

This project I'm working on will have serious consequences in different ways. Yes, I want to see it rammed down the throats of the apologists but in actuality, I don't give a damn about the apologists, really, there aren't very many of them and I'm not interested in converting or saving any of them, per se. They can rot in their fantasies of Joseph Smith for all I care! They are stuck in a paradox and will think anything they can in a vain attempt to solve their paradox and somehow make it work in their own minds in order to preserve their testimonies of Mormonism.

Then there are the tender Mormons who don't know much about any of these matters or are merely acquainted with the controversies and problems regarding the Book of Abraham. How will they grapple with the concepts I am to present? Let us not forget about those who aren't Mormons who may also find it interesting and influential in keeping them from ever joining the church. Who can say?

I'm particularly interested in going back in time to personally deal with Joseph Smith and take him on using his own words against him. This is the key! Never mind today's scholars or apologists! I don't care what they say or what they think. They contradict Joseph Smith's own words and are struggling to solve a paradox that can never be solved by using a rational mind. My argument is with Joseph Smith! I'll take him on myself. The apologists can shut their mouths because they have hypocritically thrown Smith under the bus and are inventing their own form of Mormonism which I'm not interested in. I'm only interested in shutting down Joseph Smith -- taking him on. As far as I'm concerned, modern apologists are hypocritical apostates and Joseph Smith would have excommunicated the whole lot of them.

The Catalyst Theory is taking root and will become the standard before long. The Missing Roll theory is essentially dead and is unsustainable. I think Gee is very frustrated and has retreated to his own self. But whatever. I don't care.

I'm floating the idea of doing a website, perhaps even a podcast or visual presentation of some kind. I don't know yet but I do know that I feel qualified to do this work and have great passion about it. I'm driven to make my contributions stick and become meaningful and valid to the reasonable and rational thinker. I want to keep it simple and yet explore things in a new light while standing in the imagined presence of Joseph Smith himself.

[_Fence Sitter]

Those apologists (Gee, Muhlestein, Smoot, Barney and very few others) are being confronted directly on by a group of faithful BYU scholars and church employed historians, among others, who are willing to admit that Joseph Smith simply was wrong when he thought he was correctly translating the relics.

Dollars to donuts that 99% of the rank-and-file membership has no idea about any of that. They still believe the Book of Abraham is a literal word-for-word translation of the actual text on the actual papyrus.

I think the vast majority of rank-in-file don't care if it is or isn't and wouldn't be reading a book like Paul's anyways. Similar to how they don't care about biblical criticism theories. They simply are not interested in examining why they believe certain texts are scripture. They just are scripture, at least to them. So what is his audience? Well it is those who are interested in investigating these sort of things, the group that is reading the JSPP, or Givins, or perhaps are using the new New Testament that Wayment has put out, maybe they even have Bokovoy's book. So, to use a distinction made famous by you, we don't care much here about chapel Mormons, we are talking about the internet ones.

[_moksha]

Dollars to donuts that 99% of the rank-and-file membership has no idea about any of that. They still believe the Book of Abraham is a literal word-for-word translation of the actual text on the actual papyrus.

The way to reach the rank and file is through a graphic novelization of Shulem's ideas. Sort of like Shulem writes and Quasimodo illustrates.

Put that together with Jersey Girl's idea of on-line access and you would have something similar to a Brother Jake video: Book of Abraham edition.

[_Kishkumen]

I wish you the best in your endeavor, Shulem!

[_kairos]

This will be really good if you can get the chapel Mormons to wake up and be aware of the silliness of the Book of Abraham scam. Perhaps a lighthearted(maybe even a comic book style) but factual account: maybe Book of Abraham for Dummies,( or Chapel Mormons,) or Everything I Was Taught About the Book of Abraham is BS or 100 Lies The Church Teaches about the Book of Abraham or Here Comes the
book of Abraham and There it Goes to the Ash Heap of History or The Book of Abraham: Who are You Going to Believe: Joseph Smith or the Mopologists?

You get the idea but the title will be easier to come up with than your research and writing.

I think also when you finish, the august Cassius University's Mopologist Department should hold a reception and book signing - I will definitely donate for the wine and cheese!

Please don't back to far off the board- we need you to bring raw truth to the discussions here.

Best
k

[_Jersey Girl]

Dear Shulem, writing a book is a heroic undertaking, whatever your personal motives. I wish you success in articulating the many learnings from your long fought search.

Thank you, everyone, for your well-wishes and toasting me in writing my new paper, "Here Comes the Book of Abraham" which I believe will seriously damage Mormonism today.

Anyway, cheers everyone. Enjoy a drink and toast!

Pssssst. Make a website to go with it. ;-)

Dear Dr. Shades,

I am writing to ask you questions.

1. Did you think I wouldn't notice what you did to my posts?
2. Why do you keep picking on me and EA with this business?
3. Don't you like us?
4. Do you see that my posts are to two different people and you messed them up?
5. Do you think that is nice to do to your people?

Jersey Girl

p.s. write back