A difference between Delmarva and other models I’ve seen is that the land is a peninsula rather than an isthmus. There is a large land mass north of the narrow neck, but nothing south.
you have a fear, at least in the back of your mind, that somebody in your audience might be able to catch a mistake on your part, because they might actually know the land that you have in mind.
Only Mormon apologists need a naturalistic explanation for the Book of Mormon events. For skeptics the logic is that Smith wrote what he thought would sound good, based on what he knew. He thought that a spectacular divine judgement would sound good, so he threw in all the special effects that he had ever heard associated with great disasters.
In particular the famous episode of darkness in 3 Nephi 8, where people survived but could not light fires for three days, absolutely does not fit with any volcanic activity.
Since the Book of Mormon is a fantasy, probably by Joseph Smith working at least mostly alone, its setting clearly doesn't have to have a perfect correspondence with any real place. And Smith would surely have wanted to leave the location of his story as ambiguous as possible, so that people couldn't pin him for fraud. But he also had to work within two constraints, I think, which together would have made him want to have at least one real place in mind as a model.
Mesoamerica (emphasis added) is quite active seismically, ...
Regards,
MG
Las Cumbres erupting in 3950 BCE would be a perfect Book of Mormon fit, and 5000 years before that there was a pygmy mammoth on Rangel Island in Alaska. The hits keep coming.
And there were a great many kings throughout the history of dynastic Egypt.
Smith had to avoid the disaster of writing geographical details into his story which someone could prove could not possibly fit any place at all in the Americas.
The volcanic/tectonic activity described in the Book of Mormon could not have occurred on the eastern seaboard. If Joseph used Delmarva geography to create his ‘fiction’ he sure blew it by inserting the cataclysmic narrative that doesn’t COME CLOSE to fitting in with reality. It’s funny, at times folks want to make Joseph out to be a genius (aware of and having read every book being published at his time) and at other times a country bumpkin who was fumbling around neither making heads or tails of reality.
The fact that these chapters/verses ARE in the Book of Mormon acts as another witness that Joseph wasn’t the author. It’s a red flag, of sorts. To say that he inserted these chapters/verses into the Book of Mormon “for effect” is just silly. If he had concocted a false Delmarva geography and then inserted such a wild and unrealistic narrative of earthquakes and volcanic activity he would be shooting himself in the foot.
Las Cumbres erupting in 3950 BCE would be a perfect Book of Mormon fit, and 5000 years before that there was a pygmy mammoth on Rangel Island in Alaska. The hits keep coming.
And there were a great many kings throughout the history of dynastic Egypt.
What's the King's name in Facsimile No. 3?
Ptolemy I.
But you're afraid to respond. You were at first a dogged follower and poster in response to all my posts, insulting me continually. Now, you fear me.
In some ways, Smith was dumb, yeah. Shall we talk about Facsimile No. 3? No, let's not.
The catastrophic events described in the Book of Mormon with the coming of Christ are miraculous judgements and signs made up by Smith's God -- like a fairytale. Kind of like Joshua making the earth stand still. Smith was a believer in the biblical God who did all kinds of whacky and crazy things to scare the people. Like drowning the whole earth, even the mountains. That is the kind of thing Smith ate up and he was a literalist in thinking God could do anything according to writers who claim to be writing for him. But in Smith's case he didn't write. He dictated while his head was buried in a hat. Now that takes the cake!
Of course not. But is Westeros’ Dorne based on southwest England (flipped)? Is Westeros’ south based on Ireland (upside down)? Is Westeros’ north based on England and Wales (misshapen)? Is Westeros’ wall Hadrian’s wall? Is beyond the wall based on Scotland (misshapen)? Take a look:
It sure looks like it. Shulem’s identification of delmarva as the inspiration for the primary setting within the Book of Mormon narrative is accurate, especially considering the source material.
- Doc
Hugh Nibley claimed he bumped into Adolf Hitler, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Gertrude Stein, and the Grand Duke Vladimir Romanoff. Dishonesty is baked into Mormonism.
Smith had to avoid the disaster of writing geographical details into his story which someone could prove could not possibly fit any place at all in the Americas.
The volcanic/tectonic activity described in the Book of Mormon could not have occurred on the eastern seaboard. If Joseph used Delmarva geography to create his ‘fiction’ he sure blew it by inserting the cataclysmic narrative that doesn’t COME CLOSE to fitting in with reality. It’s funny, at times folks want to make Joseph out to be a genius (aware of and having read every book being published at his time) and at other times a country bumpkin who was fumbling around neither making heads or tails of reality.
The fact that these chapters/verses ARE in the Book of Mormon acts as another witness that Joseph wasn’t the author. It’s a red flag, of sorts. To say that he inserted these chapters/verses into the Book of Mormon “for effect” is just silly. If he had concocted a false Delmarva geography and then inserted such a wild and unrealistic narrative of earthquakes and volcanic activity he would be shooting himself in the foot.
You’re saying he was THAT dumb?
C’mon.
Regards,
MG
MG, I do not quite see why you are asking about volcanic activity. I read in the Book of Mormon about destruction from tempest storm lightning fires earthquakes, a city sinking into the sea and another being buried. I do not see volcanoes. As physics guy mentioned the darkness does not fit a Volcano. Believe me I was in the darkness created by Mt St Helens. It was very dark but did not prevent fire or sources of light.
I suppose you might project the idea of volcano because there are volcanoes in the area you prefer to see the books events taking place. I think the destruction described could have happened on the US eastern seaboard as likely or unlikely as most anyplace else.
MG, I do not quite see why you are asking about volcanic activity. I read in the Book of Mormon about destruction from tempest storm lightning fires earthquakes, a city sinking into the sea and another being buried. I do not see volcanoes. As physics guy mentioned the darkness does not fit a Volcano. Believe me I was in the darkness created by Mt St Helens. It was very dark but did not prevent fire or sources of light.
I suppose you might project the idea of volcano because there are volcanoes in the area you prefer to see the books events taking place. I think the destruction described could have happened on the US eastern seaboard as likely or unlikely as most anyplace else.
Indeed! Just look at all the broken up landscape and the rocks and seams split apart and the cities sunk by the earthquakes and all that destruction. Just look! A picture tells a thousand words.
