Book of Mormon geography

[_Tobin]

Ah, but the process that Whitmer describes is not dictation in any traditional sense, but reading words that God makes appear on the special stone in Joseph's hat. Or do you consider that impossible as well?

Most Mormons I've ever discussed it with consider that completely pointless. If Joseph Smith was a simple copyist, then why have Joseph Smith do it at all? God could have just handed him an English translation on a silver, err make that golden, plate. There had to be more to it than that.

[_Jaybear]

Ah, but the process that Whitmer describes is not dictation in any traditional sense, but reading words that God makes appear on the special stone in Joseph's hat. Or do you consider that impossible as well?

Most Mormons I've ever discussed it with consider that completely pointless. If Joseph Smith was a simple copyist, then why have Joseph Smith do it at all? God could have just handed him an English translation on a silver, err make that golden, plate. There had to be more to it than that.

Your Mormon friends have it wrong. Smith was not a "simple copyist", he was a "seer."
I presume that your Mormon friend recognize the need and value of having a seer lead their Church.

[_Tobin]

Your Mormon friends have it wrong. Smith was not a "simple copyist", he was a "seer." I presume that your Mormon friend recognize the need and value of having a seer lead their Church.

When I picture a seer, I don't picture some guy with his head buried in a hat looking at some stone he probably couldn't even see. And I'd quibble with the notion that Mormons need a seer to lead their Church. They seem to be getting along just fine with TSM and company. I wouldn't characterize any of them as being seers in any stretch of the imagination.

[_Jaybear]

Your Mormon friends have it wrong. Smith was not a "simple copyist", he was a "seer." I presume that your Mormon friend recognize the need and value of having a seer lead their Church.

When I picture a seer, I don't picture some guy with his head buried in a hat looking at some stone he probably couldn't even see. And I'd quibble with the notion that Mormons need a seer to lead their Church. They seem to be getting along just fine with TSM and company. I wouldn't characterize any of them as being seers in any stretch of the imagination.

Lets put it this way, when Smith formed the predecessor to the LDS Church, those who joined his church saw the value and need for a seer. Then again, at that time, people were seemingly far more adept at discovering ancient religious artifacts, and having the skills to work with seer stones was more highly valued.

[_Darth J]

Now that we're 22 pages into this, is it okay if I ask how the phrase "Book of Mormon geography" is substantively different from the phrase "leprechaun anthropology"? Or "unicorn biology"?

[_Shulem]

Now that we're 22 pages into this, is it okay if I ask how the phrase "Book of Mormon geography" is substantively different from the phrase "leprechaun anthropology"? Or "unicorn biology"?

Yes, it is OK. The thread has died. The faithful Mormons have run for cover and are hiding behind their apologetic loincloths.

Paul O

[_Darth J]

I've graduated from the School of Comparative Irrelevance.

Tetrapyloctomy
- The art of splitting a hair four ways.
Aztec Equitation
- the name describes itself
Crowd Psychology in the Sahara
- among other things, it handled the fastest growing churches
Mechanical Avunculogratulation
- how to build machines for greeting uncles,
- linguistic structures of seer stones,
- how to stand in the air (for the feet did not touch the floor)

At that time, as I didn't meet yet with Mormonism, I couldn't comprehend the importance of the courses under Impossibilia Department (the history of antarctic agriculture, the history of Easter Island painting, contemporary Sumerian literature, Montessori grading, Assyrio-Babylonian philately, the technology of the wheel in pre-Columbian empires, and the phonetics of the silent film), and the courses under Oxymoronics Department: Tradition in Revolution, Democratic Oligarchy, Parmenidean Dynamics, Heraclitean Statics, Spartan Sybaritics, Tautological Dialectics, Boolean Eristic
Especially I use here the material of the Grammar of Solecisms on a daily basis.

This is one of my most favorite posts ever.

[_Bond James Bond]

Now that we're 22 pages into this, is it okay if I ask how the phrase "Book of Mormon geography" is substantively different from the phrase "leprechaun anthropology"? Or "unicorn biology"?

Bigfoot physiology? Hobbit historiography?