Peterson lays out the evidence for the Book of Mormon authenticity

[_Polygamy-Porter]

[_I have a question]

Well, because only Mormonism uses the Book of Mormon...

*waits for penny to drop......*

[_Nightlion]

Helaman 3
8 And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east.

2 Ne. 10:20-21
.... but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea.
21 But great are the promises of the Lord unto them who are upon the aisles of the sea; wherefore as it says isles, there must needs be more than this, and they are inhabited also by our brethren.

Meso America is simply wrong. Yeah, there are nice temples there but so what? The land Northward would stretch all the way up to Alaska and Canada. The time it took to get from Zarahemla in the land South to Cummorah where there are many waters would have been all the way up to the Great Lakes. Does not fit the narrative at all with the narrow neck forced to fit somehow in Meso America. There are many waters in Northern Colombia/Venezuela.

South America with the Sea East, a filled Amazon Basin, and the yet to uplift Patagonia (Changed at the crucifixion of Christ and not as Darwin had to pander to what people would believe about it) leaving a relatively close Sea South for the land of Nephi, South America is the isle in the sea the Book of Mormon testifies of. It fits so what's the problem looking into it and getting the proofs?

Seems like the Lord purposefully gives apostate Mormonism a stupor of thought about this lest they are galvanized in their abominations with real proofs.

[_DarkHelmet]

And what "scholars" are there outside of Mormonism that are scholars in relation to the Book of Mormon as there are about the Bible?
Near ZERO......

QFT.

Maybe someone with a modicum of self-awareness will ask himself why that would be the case.

[_Calculus Crusader]

Impressive parallels to the ancient near east

Professor Peterson's "Nephi and his Asherah" is a great Onion parody.

Subtle complexity

This really comes through when you read it in the original hayseed.

Seeming ties to Preclassic Mesoamerica

Yeah like those steel breast plates and weapons, horses, chariots, etc.

Astonishing speed of dictation

Smith was an extremely talented bull****er, I'll give him that.

Solid statistical evidence of multiple authors

Uh-huh. Incidentally, Professor Peterson forgot to include Professor Hamblin's NHM probability calculations in his list of evidences for the Book of Mormon.

[_malkie]

Helaman 3
8 And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east.

2 Ne. 10:20-21
.... but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea.
21 But great are the promises of the Lord unto them who are upon the aisles of the sea; wherefore as it says isles, there must needs be more than this, and they are inhabited also by our brethren.

Meso America is simply wrong. Yeah, there are nice temples there but so what? The land Northward would stretch all the way up to Alaska and Canada. The time it took to get from Zarahemla in the land South to Cummorah where there are many waters would have been all the way up to the Great Lakes. Does not fit the narrative at all with the narrow neck forced to fit somehow in Meso America. There are many waters in Northern Colombia/Venezuela.

South America with the Sea East, a filled Amazon Basin, and the yet to uplift Patagonia (Changed at the crucifixion of Christ and not as Darwin had to pander to what people would believe about it) leaving a relatively close Sea South for the land of Nephi, South America is the isle in the sea the Book of Mormon testifies of. It fits so what's the problem looking into it and getting the proofs?

Seems like the Lord purposefully gives apostate Mormonism a stupor of thought about this lest they are galvanized in their abominations with real proofs.

NL, is that your next project - looking into it and getting the proofs?

[_Runtu]

for what it's worth, I responded on my blog.

https://runtu.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/ ... of-mormon/

Be aware, however, that at least one commenter thinks my post is a vicious attack on Dan Peterson.

[_beastie]

for what it's worth, I responded on my blog.

https://runtu.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/ ... of-mormon/

Be aware, however, that at least one commenter thinks my post is a vicious attack on Dan Peterson.

That was really a great response, runtu. Absolutely on target. It reminds me of another quote from Michael Coe in an this article:

http://user.xmission.com/~plporter/lds/ ... bomnot.htm

With Sorenson's elastic style of argumentation setting the overall tone, there is about FARMS a dizzying buzz of intellectual energy, with scholars investigating every imaginable cranny of inquiry, from hermeneutics to meteorology, from animal husbandry to the prevailing currents of the oceans. Yale's Michael Coe likes to talk about what he calls "the fallacy of misplaced concreteness," the tendency among Mormon theorists like Sorenson to keep the discussion trained on all sorts of extraneous subtopics (like tapirs and nuptial beds) while avoiding what is most obvious: that Joseph Smith probably meant "horse" when he wrote down the word "horse," and that all the archaeology in the world is not likely to change the fact that horses as we know them weren't around until the Spaniards arrived on American shores.

"They're always going after the nitty-gritty things," Coe told me. "Let's look at this specific hill. Let's look at that specific tree. It's exhausting to follow all these mind-numbing leads. It keeps the focus off the fact that it's all in the service of a completely phony history. Where are the languages? Where are the cities? Where are the artifacts? Look here, they'll say. Here's an elephant. Well, that's fine, but elephants were wiped out in the New World around 8,000 B.C. by hunters. There were no elephants!"

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Solid statistical evidence of multiple authors

I love that one. Of course there's evidence of multiple authors. Mr. Smith plagiarized his book from multiple sources, and had the help of others when writing the Book of Mormon.

I'm still waiting on the massive archaeological dig at the NY Hill Cumorah that will certainly happen any time soon. Uncovering millions of Nephite & Lamanite bones, artifacts, and whatever else will be one of the most stunning and game changing developments in human history.

Also, I'd like someone to just go get the stone box that was washed down the hill from its original spot. I'm pretty sure an angel didn't take that back with him or her...

- Doc

[_Brackite]

Seeming ties to Preclassic Mesoamerica

DNA vs the Mesoamerican Limited Geography