Brother Bradley R. Wilcox, first counselor in the Young Men general presidency, recalls a way children once earned spending money.
They’d make a hole in a box and drive nails around the hole at an angle. Then they’d place something shiny inside — “completely worthless, but attractive” — and before long, a curious raccoon would reach for it. With the raccoon’s paw clenched in a fist around the shiny object, the nails prevented the raccoon from escaping, and the children could then capture the raccoon, bring it to a facility for payment, and the raccoon was released outside of the city.
Brother Wilcox noted that for the raccoons, escaping was as simple as releasing the shiny object. But the raccoons were trapped by their own curiosity and by a worthless piece of metal they refused to let go of.
Other children did that, not young Bradley, really? Is that how raccoons were really caught? It sounds a lot like the fabled monkey trap.
Premise 1. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable.
Premise 2. The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is eyewitness testimony.
Conclusion. Therefore, the best evidence for the Book of Mormon is notoriously unreliable.
It’s a good metaphor for how people could be living their true lives but are stuck holding on to not just a worthless piece of metal, but a cult that is sucking every bit of time, money, and energy that it can out of its members.
Ahhh, but there is no need for it to have been an actual method used to catch racoons.
All that's required is that it be perceived by people who believe in racoons as a not wholly impossible way of trapping a whale (ceeboo - this one's for you )
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