Comments on Life On Gold Plates: Elder Holland on the Book of Mormon (with Helen Wh...

Greg, thanks for the link.

2010-01-17T12:59:26.744-07:00

Greg, thanks for the link.

This post reminded me of Elder Holland's Apostolic...

2010-01-17T12:44:54.247-07:00

This post reminded me of Elder Holland's Apostolic Witness. I hope it is a useful reference.

Skousen was something of a nutty conspiracy theori...

2009-10-09T05:12:18.108-06:00

Skousen was something of a nutty conspiracy theorist. He has become somewhat popular again because of Glenn Beck. His scholarship was spotty at best and flat-out false at worst. Anything more specific?

Have you read any of the works by Cleon Skousen? ...

2009-10-08T23:57:26.885-06:00

Have you read any of the works by Cleon Skousen? I am in the middle of a most spectacular argument with Dave about him, and I was just curious to see if perhaps you had an opinion about Skousen. He wrote such works as "The Naked Communist" and "The 5,000 Year Leap".

When you parse his words, he said very clearly in ...

2009-10-07T21:00:33.893-06:00

When you parse his words, he said very clearly in his GC talk that he was addressing his criticism to those who don't even try to understand the BofM's power and central message and those who claim the book is a total fraud.

This talk also influenced how I interpreted his talk when I heard it - and that was reinforced when I went back and listened carefully to it again.

Wow. The tone of that interview is far different ...

2009-10-07T17:05:39.619-06:00

Wow. The tone of that interview is far different than the tone of the Conference Talk (as I would expect). But it still raises the question of who the Conference Talk was intended for, since the interview is probably far more helpful to doubters and skeptics than his Conference Talk was.

I also had this interview on my mind while listeni...

2009-10-07T15:08:48.482-06:00

I also had this interview on my mind while listening to his General Conference address.

Personally, I have tried to view the Book of Mormon from the perspective of a non-believer, but I'm still coming up empty. I've really tried to figure out how if one doesn't believe the Book of Mormon to be authentic based this or that reason, then how DOES one account for it?

Even the "inspired fiction" theory seems to require the improbable--that Joseph and all witnesses who saw and felt the plates were just lying (and why?) I would need someone to do much better than simply try to explain it away by saying that Joseph thought it would be fun to get involved with magic, produce a hoax, and then live the unrelenting and persecuted life he lived defending a lie--even eventually giving his life for it. That just doesn't work for me.

If all someone can do is try to connect a few verses of Alma 40 with similarities from the Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 32, or what not, then you've only attempted an explanation for a few verses in very long book. But what of the rest of Alma, or Mosiah, or the vast majority of the rest of the Book of Mormon?

So far the "best" explanation I've been given by a "thoughtful" critic of the Book of Mormon is that it's simply a "hodge podge of various common 18th century themes, sources, and religious controversies combined into an imaginative and compelling story." But even this explanation doesn't seem like they're giving this topic the amount of thought that it demands. After all, didn't Alexander Campbell say essentially the same thing?

Such a flippant explanation does indeed seem a little "pathetic" for someone familiar with the totality of the Book of Mormon, let alone the abilities of Joseph Smith or the unbelievable help (aka: vast conspiracy) Joseph would have needed to pull off such an amazing "scam".

It's actually harder for me to believe these theories/explanations than it is to simply believe that God and angels were involved. And for any believer in the Bible, it also shouldn't be that hard to believe in angelic visitations.

Thanks for posting this, Blair. It helps to put El...

2009-10-07T10:36:45.469-06:00

Thanks for posting this, Blair. It helps to put Elder Holland's recent Conference talk in better perspective.