No, ma'am, those are trustworthy scholars

[Dr Exiled]

The apologists need to come here and debate the issues with us. Let the light shine. Should the light be hidden under a bushel? Show the poor slobs the error under which they live. Priesthood power should calm the savage beast and correct the error that supposedly abounds.

A direct conflict between those little pussies and the power houses on this board is too much for them to bear and the pressure is more than they can stand.

This board sets the standard and the bar by which apologists cannot meet. The moment they come here they are doomed! We would destroy them and show no mercy. Everything is timestamped and recorded. Mormon apologists are drowning in the mire...

Come and take Shulem on?



I dare those bastards! I will carve them up into pieces and torture them and only show mercy when they beg for it!



Those bastards are no match for us.

Damned straight!

[Shulem]

I swear I read somewhere on Sic et Non or some other apologetic blog that "Reformed Egyptian" is no longer even a thing.

They're trying to hide every scrap of the translation narrative now.

What's ironic is that Mormon is talking about a race of people far removed from him by some 1,000 years and he has no knowledge of the Egyptians other than what he is able to read from Nephi and those things that were supposedly on the brass plates including a reference by Isaiah. As far as Mormon should be concerned the Egyptians are like Martians on some other planet! They were a race of people that his forefathers knew about a thousand years ago, so there can't possibly be an intelligent conversation about their race let along the details of their writing system. The whole thing is a hole in the script and is ridiculous. Joseph Smith used this to serve as an example of the writing system used in the Book of Mormon because of his misunderstanding of what other scholars misunderstood about the Egyptian language in his day. It was all wild speculation and Smith bought into it like a sucker! Nephi and Mormon would have been just fine writing in HEBREW. There was no need to employ Egyptian. Has John Gee written the whole of the Book of Abraham in Egyptian script and has the Book of Abraham been written in Hebrew so we can compare them? Let's see how much space is really saved by using Egyptian.

Yea, I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians.

For it were not possible that our father, Lehi, could have remembered all these things, to have taught them to his children, except it were for the help of these plates; for he having been taught in the  language of the Egyptians therefore he could read these engravings, and teach them to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children, and so fulfilling the commandments of God, even down to this present time.

And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.

[Shulem]

The critics can say that Joseph Smith thought he was translating fac. 1 and he was wrong. Victory for the critics, but not much of a victory. The Book of Abraham remains a revelation.

Does it though, Brian? How is this any different now than what L Ron Hubbard did?

Brian Hales doesn't know what he is talking about. If he came here to this board we would eat him up and destroy his arguments so fast it would make his head spin.

Bring all the apologists here, round them up like cattle and we will deal with them as a collective and destroy their entire argument. The barn will be burned down!

It's over for the Book of Abraham and until those cowardly bastards take Shulem on here at Discuss Mormonism they can't boast of anything. We are on to them! I Shulem OWN the Book of Abraham. John Gee does not!

[Moksha]

The entire team of distinguished Saintly Interpreters in full battle regalia against a stripling Shulem matching wits. The Saintly Interpreters could even supplement their arguments with the complete works of Beatrix Potter for additional fictional firepower.

[Fence Sitter]

In a review on Tamas Mekis book by John Gee he wrote:

"Just as the evidence left from the past often leaves itself open to multiple interpretations, so also multiple methodologies may be used to examine and analyze that evidence. The researcher must make choices about which legitimate methods to use. Different methods sometimes yield different results.”9 For this reason, any modern interpretation of the meaning of the figures and texts contained on hypocephali should always leave room for the possibility of a plurality of approaches.10"

Oh the irony!
Gee has led the charge against faithful Mormon scholars who dare to challenge his views of the Book of Abraham.
Take your own advice Gee.

[Shulem]

The entire team of distinguished Saintly Interpreters in full battle regalia against a stripling Shulem matching wits.

Let me make it clear, unless discussion takes place in the Celestial forum then the gloves come off. I'm not holding back. I will pummel them and won't stop -- jab after jab, until they are overrun and lack cognitive ability to answer back in a coherent way. I won't stop my offensive and can counter anything they throw at me with powerful deflection and I will control the conversation.

Man, I'm f-ing pissed! This BS has been going on for too long -- decade after decade, year after year and the Church thinks it can get away with it by transitioning into new excuses? Hell no! Not on Shulem's watch! And the BYP has my back and sees the entire battlefield thanks to my contributions on this board. You still there, Philo?

The jig is up for the Book of Abraham. John Gee, step aside, sit down, and shut up! RFM, where the hell are you?

[drumdude]

I think that that the lack, thus far, of any children from Joseph Smith by any woman other than Emma Smith strongly suggests that the perpetual orgy that some of his critics have depicted for him is fictional. We know that he was capable of fathering children -- Emma was pregnant at the time of his murder -- but there seem, at this point, to be no children from any other woman

How to Do The Peterson Shuffle:

Step 1: misrepresent the critical position with hyperbole.
Step 2: ignore the pertinent evidence that makes the church look bad
Step 3: post this on your censored blog and claim victory and bask in your smug sense of superiority

[Doctor Steuss]

I think that that the lack, thus far, of any children from Joseph Smith by any woman other than Emma Smith strongly suggests that the perpetual orgy that some of his critics have depicted for him is fictional. We know that he was capable of fathering children -- Emma was pregnant at the time of his murder -- but there seem, at this point, to be no children from any other woman

How to Do The Peterson Shuffle:

Step 1: misrepresent the critical position with hyperbole.
Step 2: ignore the pertinent evidence that makes the church look bad
Step 3: post this on your censored blog and claim victory and bask in your smug sense of superiority

Witnesses are to be taken seriously...

...unless they say something scandalous or unflattering about Joseph's serial adultery.

[drumdude]

How to Do The Peterson Shuffle:

Step 1: misrepresent the critical position with hyperbole.
Step 2: ignore the pertinent evidence that makes the church look bad
Step 3: post this on your censored blog and claim victory and bask in your smug sense of superiority

Witnesses are to be taken seriously...

...unless they say something scandalous or unflattering about Joseph's serial adultery.

Everything falls so neatly into place for Peterson once he defined the church to be axiomatically true based on warm fuzzy feelings too sacred to share with anyone.

[Shulem]

I think that that the lack, thus far, of any children from Joseph Smith by any woman other than Emma Smith strongly suggests that the perpetual orgy that some of his critics have depicted for him is fictional. We know that he was capable of fathering children -- Emma was pregnant at the time of his murder -- but there seem, at this point, to be no children from any other woman

What? What??

Who said anything about Smith engaging in continuous orgies which implies that multiple partners were involved in sex acts at the same time having group sex? Did Peterson really say that? If he did, he's a son of bitch who loves to play word games in order to score unethical points in his arguments.