F. Michael Watson Personally clarifies Hill Cumorah Letter

[MsJack]

Tom, once again, you amaze me.

Thank you for all of this valuable research, Tom. I am working on the third edition of the Master Timeline of Mopologetics right now, using this thread to add crucial information. Your work is helpful. Thanks again!

Let us know if you need any help updating links.

[Dr. Shades]

Folks, please clear up my confusion for me:

• Carla Ogden sends her fax on April 23, 1993.
• On December 19, 2009, Nimrod quoted Brent Metcalfe as saying (on MD&D), "The phraseology of the text quoted by Hamblin in his 1993 article as from the 2nd Watson Letter, and the identical text in the Ogden Fax, apparently originates from Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism (New York: Macmillan, 1992), s.v. CUMORAH. Ludlow had mentioned Mesoamerica location for Cumorah as one of the 'other possible explanations or locations' for Cumorah that might be better fits than New York state, before explaining that in LDS doctrine "there are no conclusive connections between the Book of Mormon text and any specific site that has been suggested".
• Note above that the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, the source of the text within the Carla Ogden fax, was published in 1992.
• Nevertheless, DCP quoted Bill Hamblin as having said, "I published the [Watson] letter in 1993. However, I received it while still in graduate school =before 1985."

PLEASE HELP: How on earth was it possible for Bill Hamblin to receive a letter prior to 1985 (i.e., in 1984 or earlier), whose text didn't even exist until 1992, a full eight years later??

[Physics Guy]

The text might have circulated in oral tradition for some time before it was committed to writing. Or it might have spent some time in an intermediate state, circulating in notes but unpublished.

[Kishkumen]

Let us know if you need any help updating links.

Thanks, MsJack. I probably will, but I will be in Greece until the end of June, so I may not get to that part of this glorious work.

[MsJack]

Thanks, MsJack. I probably will, but I will be in Greece until the end of June, so I may not get to that part of this glorious work.

Safe travels, my friend.

[Dr Exiled]

The text might have circulated in oral tradition for some time before it was committed to writing. Or it might have spent some time in an intermediate state, circulating in notes but unpublished.

There has to be some Early Modern English angle to this. Was the fax originally composed by the ghost committee? Were there any ghost committee sightings around this time? What are they hiding (besides the truth about the 2nd Watson Letter)?

[Physics Guy]

Perhaps the letter actually said something else, but it was a catalyst.

[Doctor Steuss]

The text might have circulated in oral tradition for some time before it was committed to writing. Or it might have spent some time in an intermediate state, circulating in notes but unpublished.

There has to be some Early Modern English angle to this. Was the fax originally composed by the ghost committee? Were there any ghost committee sightings around this time? What are they hiding (besides the truth about the 2nd Watson Letter)?

Perhaps the letter actually said something else, but it was a catalyst.

And... I'm dead.

[MsJack]

Perhaps the letter actually said something else, but it was a catalyst.

[Marcus]

Perhaps the letter actually said something else, but it was a catalyst.

Oh wow.

Nice one, PG. that just eviscerates every mopologist catalyst argument ever made. "Catalyst," the new loan-shifted word for Hoffman-style (it-exists-because-I-desperately-need-it-to-exist) fakery, previously defined as "divine inspiration."