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I don't know if any of you follow Rock Waterman's blog, but I read it off and on (and quite honestly like much of what he writes, ie. his last blog post on General Conference was great). A friend of mine told me to read his latest blog entry, so I went on there this morning to read through it.
He has been a strong advocate and defender of the Prices' book and theory that Joseph Smith didn't live polygamy ( Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy ). That was one of the first embarrassing posts I read from him.
Well, now he's pushing Meldrum's Book of Mormon location theory (in North America) on his most recent post and there is quite the discussion going on over there.
I really have to wonder how much studying Rock Waterman does on his own.

Here's a link to his blog post:
http://puremormonism.blogspot.com/

I followed your link to his blog. The first sentence put me off from the start:

What struck me when I first arrived in Cahokia was the incredible stink.

I've spent a lot of time at Cahokia and I have to say that he must have brought the stink with him. It's a very pleasant place with wonderful views and a pristine atmosphere.

I skimmed through the rest of it, moving along when I could no longer take the BS from that particular paragraph.

It's painful to read.

Quasimodo wrote:It's painful to read.

Agreed.
And so are Waterman's comments.

That's interesting about what you stated regarding Cahokia, Quasimodo. No stink, huh?

Madison54 wrote:

Quasimodo wrote:It's painful to read.

Agreed.
And so are Waterman's comments.

That's interesting about what you stated regarding Cahokia, Quasimodo. No stink, huh?

I never noticed any. Except maybe myself after climbing to the top. I lived in Nashville at the time and made many trips to Cahokia. I'm a big archaeology buff.

Best quote from Waterman's article:

Waterman wrote:With the advent of the internet appeared another group of Mormon apologists under the name FAIR, which I confess to not being very familiar with. In recent years I've spent less of my time with Mormon apologetics because I've noticed a subtle backing away from academic honesty in some apologetic writings. Rather than explaining and clarifying Mormonism, some modern apologists can be found engaging in the same circular reasoning and academic dishonesty they had been accusing Mormon critics of. It's become more and more apparent to me, that rather than explaining and defending the faith, a good deal of Mormon Apologetics exists today for the purpose of defending the image of the corporate Church, and often through the use of weaselly methods.

My favorite quote is when Waterman wrote (in response to someone asking him why nothing has ever been found as evidence of the North American location for the Book of Mormon):

You ask where is all the evidence of all these great battles that were supposed to have taken place in the Book of Mormon?

I would ask you where is all the evidence of the 60 million buffalo whose corpses were left to rot on the plains?

The answer is they have disintegrated. While bones that are buried in the grown can remain intact for centuries, bones left lying in the sun and exposed to air bleach and then oxydize, eventually moldering into the ground around them.

Shawn above alluded to the complaints of the farmers around Cumorah of the heavy concentration of lime in soil, a sign of decayed bones.

As for the weapons, I believe I mentioned the literally thousands of arrow and spear heads that were plentiful all over this continent in pilgrim and pioneer days. People sometimes couldn't walk through them. The spears and arrows themselves were made of wood that would have long rotted away, so if you're looking for some sticks, they won't be there. Big stone club heads were plentiful, though.

I almost spewed coffee all over my monitor when I read that!

It should be noted that the lovely and breathless Professor Bolnick

What a damned douche this Waterman is.

Rock Waterman can be ok, but I think he doesn't really know WHAT he believes. If I'm not mistaken he is still an active member with a testimony "of the Gospel" by not of the "corporation" (in his words). He's suffering from major Cog Dis and hooks onto some outlandish theories (Joseph Smith didn't live Polygamy, Joseph Smith didn't write Section 132, The Book of Mormon took place in North America) to convince himself that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet, but evil Brigham has led us all astray. Brigham did pretty much start his own church, but that doesn't mean Joseph Smith got it right (or always spoke the truth as Rock believes).

He definitely does not do his own studying and research, but finds others who have (albeit incorrect) and hangs onto their conclusions for dear life.