Did Skousen just throw shade at the JSP team?

[I Have Questions]

The latest volume claims Will the Church be editing the current Book of Mormon to reflect the most accurate version of the revealed text, as it was given to Joseph Smith? Because if not, then Skousen has wasted 30 years of his life and hundreds of thousands of dollars. My other question would be, why has Peterson thrown Interpreter money at a BYU project - where they have plenty of Church cash coming their way? Did BYU underfund it, or stop funding part way through?

Brother Skousen and the Maxwell Institute had some sort of falling-out in 2014 (noted here). In early December of that year, the Proprietor wrote:

[O]wing to unwelcome external circumstances, Professor Skousen’s landmark Critical Text Project suddenly needs to find a new home and (certainly by our standards) substantial funding. He has just approached The Interpreter Foundation for help. The amount required—approximately $40,000 for a year—dwarfs anything we’ve heretofore done. But this is an opportunity for Interpreter to participate in an undertaking that will benefit the Saints and the Church for generations to come. If you would like to help with this effort, donations will need to be sent to The Interpreter Foundation by check, annotated to indicate that they are earmarked for the Critical Text Project, Volume 3. Anybody who might be interested in speaking with Professor Skousen and/or with me about the current situation and the needs of the project should contact us via [email address omitted].

I hope the full story about the split emerges one day. Is BYU or BYU Studies providing funding? (I don’t know why the BYU Studies website would be carrying the project’s books for sale absent financial support.)

As of yearend 2024, the Interpreter Foundation had apparently spent more than $600,000 funding the project. (This figure is based on reporting in Interpreter Foundation expense statements and 990s.) We’ll have to wait to learn the final total.

Perhaps there’s an agreement in place that BYU get a share of the proceeds until their investment has been paid off. But the fact remains, Skousen has been conning a living for decades. First off BYU, and then when they saw the vacuousness of what Skousen was doing, Peterson had to funnel Interpreter donations into his friends pocket, in return for some associated (but imaginary) kudos perhaps? $40,000 a year (at least) for the last 12 years from Interpreter for a hobby that nobody else is really interested in. The Joseph Smith Papers Project delivered much better value and a more usable end product. I guess Skousen is just still a bit sore after having his hobby dumped by BYU in 2014.

[yellowstone123]

Some individuals might find it inspirational that when composer Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis over a century ago, he gave credit to the 16th-century composer Thomas Tallis by including his name right in the title.

[Philo Sofee]

I suspect it’s an example of the sunk cost fallacy. Skousen simply cannot allow himself to believe he might be wrong about something.

After being given over $300,000 from FARMS, I should say not!!! (is that about right? The $300,000, or was it $200,000 through the years? Me old addled brain can't keep up, or at least doesn't see the need to at this point. Nothing Skousen did changed my mind on any of it in regards to authenticity of the Book of Mormon.)

[Philo Sofee]

Some individuals might find it inspirational that when composer Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis over a century ago, he gave credit to the 16th-century composer Thomas Tallis by including his name right in the title.

Tallis actually managed to live through four different English monarchs, using his genius with music, with each of the monarchs flipping the country’s religion back and forth between Catholic and Protestant. His lifetime (c. 1505 - November 23, 1585), was dangerous, and darn near miraculously he lived 80 years, odd enough for that time, but especially amazing because of all the political unrest, and especially all the burnings, beheadings and hangings that occurred. I had to do a paper, lo those many years ago in my Renaissance class in college during the era he was living in, so I recognized the name. Remarkably amazing individual who learned to change his affiliations many times to save his neck all the while living in the Royal Court! My Rennaissance Prof actually knew about Vaughan Williams, and from him went backward into Tallis' era, which fascinated me, so I studied it enough to write a paper about Tallis' era.

[Tom]

I suspect it’s an example of the sunk cost fallacy. Skousen simply cannot allow himself to believe he might be wrong about something.

After being given over $300,000 from FARMS, I should say not!!! (is that about right? The $300,000, or was it $200,000 through the years? Me old addled brain can't keep up, or at least doesn't see the need to at this point. Nothing Skousen did changed my mind on any of it in regards to authenticity of the Book of Mormon.)

I don’t know how much BYU/FARMS/Maxwell Institute gave Brother Skousen between May 1988 and 2014. The Interpreter Foundation seems to have given him more than $600,000 since 2014.

[PseudoPaul]

This is from the op link, where DCP quotes Skousen:

Stan Carmack, my collaborator, and I then have a large chapter going through all the archaic entries in parts 3 and 4 of volume 3 and using more up-to-date databases from earlier English are able to make a more databased analysis of which word meanings, phrases, expressions, and grammar were actually in earlier English and those which were still in use near the end of the 1700s. Most of the archaic readings are still holding...

I bolded the part that I find simply astonishing. In no way have 'most of the archaic readings' that Skousen and Carmack have presented over the years been found to be 'still holding'. That was not what happened, as i've documented on this board.

...Skousen did end up redacting about 80% of Carmack's previously published evidence on behalf of his theory, on the basis that further research ruled out legitimacy of the vast majority of his work. (I would love to have been a fly on the wall for the discussion between Skousen and Carmack that preceded those redactions.)

One wonders if they were so confident in their quixotic little theory why haven't they published it in a secular, academic linguistics journal. Maybe because it would never pass peer review because of all the special pleading inherent in their arguments?

[Marcus]

This is from the op link, where DCP quotes Skousen:

I bolded the part that I find simply astonishing. In no way have 'most of the archaic readings' that Skousen and Carmack have presented over the years been found to be 'still holding'. That was not what happened, as i've documented on this board.

One wonders if they were so confident in their quixotic little theory why haven't they published it in a secular, academic linguistics journal. Maybe because it would never pass peer review because of all the special pleading inherent in their arguments?

Special pleading, plus, in my opinion, very inappropriate use of statistical methods. Here's one of Carmack's most recent special pleadings that would not pass peer review in any academic setting:

...The existence of plates ought to be privileged, since Joseph Smith did not word the Book of Mormon. He did not lie about receiving the text by the gift and power of God, nor about the plates...

https://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/11 ... 1210268217

[Marcus]

And this statement by Carmack, ostensibly in explanation of his work, I find completely unintelligible:

...Of course it never was about only Early Modern English (which I've mentioned multiple times recently – what is your problem), or only internally consistent Early Modern English, or only frequencies of use. Sometimes such things can be pointed to, sometimes not. Of course the English language is a continuum, over many centuries, and we use differentiating labels out of convenience, based on a variety of linguistic features, ignoring many other features...

https://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/11 ... 1210268222

[bolding added by me.]

[Marcus]

Sorry to keep harping on this, but Carmack's lack of logic is blatant. He posts:

...Yes, this is circular reasoning by Analytics. Joseph Smith's revelatory language, even derivative revelatory language, cannot be used as evidence for or against Joseph Smith's ability to produce a specific item of revelatory language in the Book of Mormon. Once again, Analytics shows a lack of insight and makes missteps.

https://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/11 ... m/page/18/

The 'circular' reasoning is that Carmack takes Smith's 'revelatory language' as a fact, when it is not. It is an assumption he has not proved, which means he cannot use it as he has above.

Carmack also argues that if Smith doesn't write like authors of pseudo-biblical texts of his day, it means he didn't author the text. That is wrong. All he is showing (if that) is that Smith didn't write like the average pseudo-biblical author of his day.

[Philo Sofee]

After being given over $300,000 from FARMS, I should say not!!! (is that about right? The $300,000, or was it $200,000 through the years? Me old addled brain can't keep up, or at least doesn't see the need to at this point. Nothing Skousen did changed my mind on any of it in regards to authenticity of the Book of Mormon.)

I don’t know how much BYU/FARMS/Maxwell Institute gave Brother Skousen between May 1988 and 2014. The Interpreter Foundation seems to have given him more than $600,000 since 2014.

Oh.....it was the Interpreter! Holy schmoly I didn't realize it was that much! Just wow......