For our Thanksgiving enjoyment, Meridian Magazine, aka M2C magazine, published another delightfully fictitious version of “Church History” lately. We looked at the first one here.

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2019/11/meridian-m2c-magazine-and-loserthink.html

Let’s take a look at this second article now.

Here’s the link: https://latterdaysaintmag.com/obtain-knowledge-of-countries-and-kingdoms/

Most readers of Meridian M2C Magazine are unaware of the magazine’s editorial policy to promote M2C and mislead readers about the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

Long-time readers of this blog can readily spot the errors, of course, but it’s always helpful to have a peer review.

Had the editors asked us for a peer review, this is what we would have offered. To do the peer review, we have to provide the full article (sans photos), which also shows we’re not taking anything out of context, as the anonymous trolls sometimes claim we’re doing. Original in blue, comments in red.

Plus, there’s always the possibility that the editors of Meridian M2C Magazine will revise their editorial policy to accurately inform, rather than mislead, their readers. Hope springs eternal…
_____

CHURCH HISTORY

“Obtain knowledge of countries and kingdoms.”
By V. Garth Norman · November 26, 2019

Why is this misquote in quotation marks? The actual quotation is “obtain a knowledge of history, and of countries, and of kingdoms” 
(Doctrine and Covenants 93:53)

Ancient Migrations from Central America to North and South America

Many discoveries of antiquities throughout the Americas relating to the Middle East bring to mind a Biblical statement in Deuteronomy 28:64: “And the Lord shall scatter thee [Israelites] among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other.” This helps us realize that there were more than three migrations (Jaredite, Mulekite, Lehite) by ancient people from the Middle East to the Americas. Also, ancient Central American people traveled outside their principle cities and concourses, such as in the first century BC at the time of Hagoth’s shipping, as well as migrations on land to regions north and south (Alma 63: 4-9; Helaman 3: 3-14), taking with them the Maya Calendar and cubit measuring rods to measure art and architecture throughout the Americas (Norman: 2018 [4] 2015 [19]). [4] Ancient Migrations from Central America to all Americas.

This is a rehash of an article Meridian M2C Magazine published in 2010, also written by Brother Norman. It’s found on the web page of the parent corporation of Book of Mormon Central, here:
http://www.bmaf.org/articles/measuring_mesoamerica_cubit__norman

This is a great example of bias confirmation because the “cubit” measurements are based on measurements from particular points, chosen because they are the right lengths. But there are always other points that could be measured that don’t fit the cubit narrative.

Ironically, John Lloyd Stephens himself, who had also studied ancient Egypt, concluded that the Mesoamerican culture had no connections to ancient Egypt. But Brother Norman doesn’t mention that. Wikipedia explains it this way: “As a result of their explorations, Stephens and Catherwood argued convincingly that the Mayans built the ancient Central American cities in contrast to the theory that ethnic groups from European or Asian civilizations had built them.” 

John Lloyd Stephens and the Prophet Joseph Smith

A pioneering explorer in Central America was John Lloyd Stephens, born in 1805, the same year the prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. was born. Stephens was born in New Jersey, just southeast of New York, Joseph Smith was born in Vermont, just northeast east of New York. 

This is no kind of meaningful connection between these two men who never met.

Both were tutored in New York, Stephens at Columbia College in New York, Joseph Smith in Palmyra, New York where he was taught by his Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ, and numerous visitations from resurrected beings. 

Stephens graduated from Columbia at age 17 and became a lawyer in New York City. Joseph’s educational experience was a little different from that.

Joseph studied the Bible diligently, and had scribes write as he translated words from gold plates of ancient American people—known as the Book of Mormon. Joseph wondered who the people were that he learned of in this Testament of Jesus Christ. 

The idea that Joseph “wondered who the people were” contradicts the previous paragraph and Joseph’s own explanations. 

Joseph didn’t wonder who the people were–he learned about them directly from Moroni and other divine messengers. His mother explained that he told his family about these ancient inhabitants even before he translated the plates. In the Wentworth letter, Joseph wrote, “I was also informed concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of this country and shown who they were, and from whence they came; a brief sketch of their origin, progress, civilization, laws, governments, of their righteousness and iniquity, and the blessings of God being finally withdrawn from them as a people, was [also] made known unto me.”

Steadily he became an avid reader of history, politics, novels, and poets as well as studying foreign languages, primarily Hebrew and German. 

There is historical evidence that Joseph studied foreign languages, but not that he became an “avid reader” of novels and poets. Notice the lack of a footnote to support such an idea. 

During 1839-1842, as the Saints were establishing the city of Nauvoo, the Prophet Joseph Smith led his people in business, church administration, temple building, and as newspaper editor. [11] 

Joseph’s brother, Don Carlos, started and edited the Times and Seasons until his death in 1841. In 1842, Joseph became the nominal editor for a few months. His other activities precluded him from doing any actual editing; Wilford Woodruff noted that in 1842, Joseph barely had time to sign his name to important documents prepared for him.

John Lloyd Stephens practiced law until in 1834, when he traveled abroad to explore Europe, the Middle East, and Mediterranean countries. He wrote his own publications, including Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia, Petraea, and the Holy Land (1835) [3] which was extremely popular. He explored the lands of the Bible, whereas Joseph studied the Bible diligently! When Stephens returned to the USA, in 1839, as a newly appointed United States Diplomat to Central America, he and his artist colleague, Frederick Catherwood combined government duties with exploration of ‘nearly three thousand miles in the interior of Central, America, Chiapas, and Yucatan,” traveling to some 50 ruined cities, making comparisons of Old World and New World antiquities.

He saw in Central America “plausible religious motivation in the monumental art and architecture in ruins choked by jungle growth”. [4] He stated: “With an interest perhaps stronger than we had ever felt in wandering among the ruins of Egypt, we followed our guide, who . . . conducted us through the thick forest, among half-buried fragments, to fourteen monuments of the same character and appearance, some with more elegant designs, and some in workmanship equal to the finest monuments of the Egyptians” [5] Stephens wondered who the people were who built the pyramids and antiquities of Central America. That knowledge was even lost among the dwellers of the ruins. [6] Frederick Catherwood’s drawings and lithographs (see below) show, without question, the Maya to have been the authors of some of the most artistic and intellectual works of pre-Columbian America.

As we noted above, John Lloyd Stephens concluded that the Mesoamerican culture had no connections to ancient Egypt or any other Asian civilization. 

Just 11 years after the Book of Mormon was published in New York, Stephens published his personal writings in the accounts of his travels in Central America in two volumes in Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan (1841 Harper & Brothers, New York). Through his explorations and writings, Stephens was recognized as the founder of American Archaeology.

This is an odd claim because Stephens himself was inspired by Alexander von Humboldt, who had traveled through the Americas and documented ancient ruins in Mesoamerica even before Stephens was born. The English translation of von Humboldt’s book, which contained drawings of ruins similar to Catherwood’s, was published in 1810 and widely available in New York, including in Palmyra. 

In 1839, in Nauvoo, Illinois, the leaders of the Church began publishing the Times and Seasons periodical (the same year that John Lloyd Stevens began his explorations in Mesoamerica). Its motto, “Truth will prevail,” expressed a goal to promote truth, and correct falsehoods, and was the main organ for publishing truths pertaining to the restored gospel to the Church members and the world. 

Among these truths were the 8 essays on Church history written by Oliver Cowdery, with the assistance of Joseph Smith, in 1834-5. Joseph gave the essays to his brother Don Carlos to publish in the Times and Seasons in 1840-41. Letter VII was published in the Times and Seasons in 1841, establishing “the fact, that here, between these hills, the entire power and national strength of both the Jaredites and Nephites were destroyed.” 

Of course, Oliver was describing the Hill Cumorah in western New York, but neither Brother Norman nor Meridian M2C Magazine doesn’t want its readers to know that. 

Letter VII was republished many times and was copied into Joseph’s own journal, which you can read here.

Many of the Prophets revelations, and his Book of Abraham translation, for instance, appeared in print for the first time in the Times and Seasons. 

This is an interesting point. Letter VII also appeared in the Times and Seasons, but unlike the other materials, it also appeared in the Messenger and Advocate, the Gospel Reflector, the Millennial Star, and the Prophet (two days after Joseph was martyred in Carthage). 

In the spring of 1842 (May 11), in consequence of too many errors appearing in print, the Prophet Joseph Smith took over the editorship and announced his personal responsibility for the contents of the paper. 

This is another reprint of the same error that appeared in Brother Norman’s first article on this topic, so we’ll repeat what we pointed out there.

Joseph’s name first appeared as editor, printer and publisher in the Feb. 15, 1842 issue. After Don Carlos died in September 1841, his former business partner took over the paper. Benjamin Winchester, who had started his own Mormon newspaper in Philadelphia but ran out of money, moved to Nauvoo in October 1841 to work for the paper. The paper began publishing Winchester’s articles anonymously. In January 1842, Winchester was rebuked and Joseph announced that the Quorum of the Twelve should take over the newspaper. 

The March 1, 1842, Times and Seasons (which contained the Wentworth letter) also contained this statement:

“TO SUBSCRIBERS.
This paper commences my editorial career, I alone stand for it, and shall do for all papers having my signature henceforward. I am not responsible for the publication, or arrangement of the former paper; the matter did not come under my supervision. JOSEPH SMITH.”

This statement, combined with the boilerplate, is the rationale for attributing to Joseph Smith everything that appeared in the newspaper between March 1 and October 1, 1842.

Historians have assumed that “my signature” referred to the boilerplate at the end of each paper, which stated the paper was “Printed, published and edited by Joseph Smith, Jr.” Of course, no one claims that Joseph actually set type, operated the printing press, cleaned the equipment, etc. He was listed as printer in name only.

Likewise, there is no evidence that Joseph ever actually edited the paper. No journal entries, no observations by others, etc. But there is evidence that he did not know what was in the paper until he read it after it was printed. This evidence indicates that Joseph was merely the nominal editor, just as he was merely the nominal printer. 

Plus, there were errors in the paper that, if he was actually editing the paper, Joseph should have recognized and corrected. One error appears in Joseph’s own history, which states that it was Nephi, not Moroni, who appeared to Joseph Smith in 1823.

There is also evidence that William Smith, Joseph’s brother, who was editing the Wasp newspaper in Nauvoo that was printed on the same printing press as the Times and Seasons, was actually editing both papers, probably with the assistance of W.W. Phelps.

During the next six months he endeavored to raise the paper’s standard of excellence (May-Nov. 1842). One of the distinctive features of Joseph’s six-month editorial career was the attention given to antiquities as they might relate to the Book of Mormon. 

Such antiquities were discussed before and after Joseph’s nominal editorship, both in the Times and Seasons and in other Church and private periodicals and books. Letter VII is the only authoritative publication about Book of Mormon geography, however; it was written by the Assistant President of the Church, with the assistance of the President and approval of the First and Second counselors in the First Presidency, and approved by every member of the Twelve who ever addressed the topic.

In the November 15, 1842 edition, he announced that Elder John Taylor should be the Editor to maintain the high quality of excellence that had developed.  [11]

Stephens’ Incidents of Travel (1841) taken to the Prophet Joseph Smith

Bishop John Bernhisel, in New York, had Wilford Woodruff, who was on his way home to Nauvoo from his mission in England, take copies of Stephens’ 1841 Volumes I & II to Joseph Smith in Nauvoo. 

This is accurate and explains why Woodruff wrote the thank-you note to Bernhisel.

After reading about and seeing the exquisite drawings by Frederick Catherwood of the magnificent ruins of Central American pyramids and stone monuments with hieroglyphic writings on them, Joseph had a new “vision” opened to him of the remains of large civilizations that fit the descriptions of the people in the Book of Mormon who had come to the Americas anciently from the Middle East.

This is fictional conjecture. Apart from the thank-you note, there is no evidence that Joseph every saw or read these books, and especially no evidence that he had a vision on the matter. 

The Prophet Joseph recorded in his personal journal the importance of these discoveries for the Book of Mormon.[12] 

This is demonstrably false, as we saw in the peer review of the previous article.

In the Nauvoo Times and Seasons Editorial of Oct. 1, 1842, titled “Zarahemla”, Joseph compared the ruins of Quirigua, Guatemala from Stephens’ writings, and stated: “The city of Zarahemla, burnt at the crucifixion of the Savior and rebuilt afterwards, stood upon this land.”[13] A year later, John Taylor wrote a similar editorial expounding the importance of Stephens’ books in the Times and Seasons. [14] Taylor also marveled that these magnificent ruins came to light so soon after the Book of Mormon was published in 1830, when there was no knowledge of American Archaeology and Geography to sustain it.

American Archaeology places the beginning of this science with Stephens’ discoveries. It can also be viewed as the birth of Book of Mormon Archaeology. 

Of course, in the previous peer review we saw that “the birth of Book of Mormon Archaeology” occurred when Joseph got the plates, when he and Oliver visited the depository of Nephite records inside the Hill Cumorah in New York, and during Zion’s camp when Joseph’s companions actually dug up Zelph’s skeleton and artifacts. 

The lives of John Lloyd Stephens and Joseph Smith, who never met, paralleled each other in many ways. Consider the following:

Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr.	Explorer John Lloyd Stephens
1.Born 1805 in Vermont (by NY)	1.Born 1805 in New Jersey (by NY)
2.Bible Name-Joseph	2.Bible Name-John
3.Learned & Published in Palmyra, NY.	3.Student: Cambridge College, NY. Published in NY.
4.Studied the Bible (& edited it). Studied History, learned Hebrew & German, and other languages.	4.Explored Bible Lands, Middle East, Europe & published books about them.
5.Translated the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, published in N.Y. in 1830, and organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830.	5.Explored Central America and saw antiquities of high civilizations with pyramids and stones with hieroglyphic writings; published  about Central America in 1841, N.Y.
6.1842: Read Stephens’ books of Central American discoveries & related them to Book of Mormon lands in Journals & 1842 Times & Seasons articles.	6.1841 Published: Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan (NY) taken in 1842 to Joseph Smith in Nauvoo.
7. Early death: Joseph Smith martyred at age 39, (1844) in Carthage, Illinois.	7. Early death: John Lloyd Stephens died at age 46 (1852) in N.Y. from diseases contracted in his Central American jungle travel.

The irrelevance of these “parallels” is typical of the M2C “correspondences” we read in all the M2C literature.

Latter Day Prophets visit Central America

On August 24, 2019, President Russell M. Nelson arrived in Guatemala City to speak to the Latter-day Saints in “The Land of Eternal Spring.” Upon arrival he said “his thoughts were with the ancient civilizations whose ruins still define this nation.  The lands of Central America and South America are studded with ruins—remnants—of ancient civilizations. . . .One wonders what life must have been like among those people. . . .Add to that the message on the title page of the Book of Mormon, that it is ‘written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel,’ [and] we . . . learn more about those ancient inhabitants.”[15] 

Aside from the punctuation errors here (you can see the original article here: https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-08-24/latam-president-russell-m-nelson-guatemala-158124), this statement says nothing about the location of Book of Mormon events. 

The beginning of this article includes a map that shows purported migrations from Central America to North and South America. Of course, in reality people migrated both ways. DNA shows that the native people in Latin America have ancient origins in East Asia; they didn’t originate in Central America and spread out from there. 

Moroni told Joseph Smith that the Book of Mormon related the history of the ancient inhabitants of “this country,” a statement that Joseph reaffirmed in the Wentworth letter. It is perfectly consistent with the Book of Mormon that after Lehi landed in North America, his descendants migrated throughout the hemisphere and intermarried with the existing Asian inhabitants.

Speaking of temple dedications, though, the first temple dedicated in this dispensation was in Ohio. D&C 109 specifically speaks about the “remnants of Jacob” being converted. This reference to the American Indians is corroborated by passages in the Book of Mormon and the D&C. And the next temple dedicatory prayer to mention the Lamanites was in Cardston, Alberta.  

When President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Guatemala City Temple in December, 1984, he observed that “three fourths of the people in attendance were descendants of father Lehi.” [16]

Again, this says nothing about the location of Book of Mormon events. 

Apostle Dieter F. Uchtdorf dedicated the Quetzaltenango, Guatemala Temple on Dec. 11, 2011. In the dedicatory prayer he stated: “Thou kind and gracious Father, our hearts are filled with gratitude for Thy remembrance of the sons and daughters of Lehi. Thou hast heard their cries and seen their tears. Thou hast accepted their righteous sacrifices.” [17]

Again, this says nothing about the location of Book of Mormon events.

Explorer Stephens, Seaman Maury, Smithsonian Institute’s Matthew Stirling

Exciting archaeological discoveries are continually coming forth that bear witness to the world of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Stephens’ 1841 (11 years after the Book of Mormon publication) publications opened the door to the vast antiquities of Central America where Joseph Smith directed us to search and study. 

The anonymous author of that editorial did not exclude the antiquities in North America. In fact, the only specific antiquities that Joseph Smith personally identified were those in the “plains of the Nephites” in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

In 1847 (17 years after the Book of Mormon publication), seaman Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury studied and began publishing “wind and current charts” of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. In 1855, Maury’s The Physical Geography of the Sea became the first standard oceanography text showing ocean currents that propelled ancient and modern vessels on “natural paths” across the seas. [18]

One hundred years after Stephens’ publications on Central America, the Smithsonian Institute’s Matthew Stirling (Director of the Bureau of American Ethology, and associate of the National Geographic Society) visited the ancient site of Izapa, Southern Mexico in 1941, where he photographed the “Tree of Life” monument from the right side. [19] In the 1960’s the New World Archaeological Foundation (NWAF) began archaeological excavations at the Izapa Temple Center. 

Even most M2C scholars agree that the Izapa stone has nothing to do with the Book of Mormon.

Many other American institutions began serious archaeology reconnaissance throughout Central America discovering ancient cities, pyramids, and monuments. Today, LiDar imaging from airplanes shows even greater antiquities (covered in jungle growth) in Central America: massive cities, roads, fortifications, animal corals, and pyramids in Guatemala and Mexico—to be shared in future articles.

Those Church members who still believe the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah are interested in the Mesoamerican discoveries, but they recognize that the more we learn about ancient Mayan culture, the less that culture has anything to do with the Book of Mormon.

At the same time, the more we discover about the ancient inhabitants of North America, especially the eastern U.S., the more we see how well the Book of Mormon describes those ancient societies. 

This Thanksgiving, we ought to remember the prophets who have brought about and preserved the Restoration of the gospel, beginning with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.

Together, Joseph and Oliver received the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood and the associated keys in the Kirtland temple.

Together they wrote the first history of the Church, the eight essays that were published as letters in 1834-5. (This includes Letter VII, of course.)

Together they testified that Joseph translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim, thereby producing the Book of Mormon.

Together they testified of its divine authenticity, including the site of the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6, right in western New York. 

All of their faithful contemporaries and successors have reaffirmed their testimony about these topics.

They all deserve our respect and gratitude, as well as our trust.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

We’ve been away for a few days because we went to Singapore. I wrote about one specific event during the trip in another blog, here:

https://presidentnelsonspeaks.blogspot.com/2019/11/a-gracious-and-loving-prophet-president.html

_____

I would much rather focus on President Nelson’s message in Singapore than write about M2C, but I’ll discuss those teachings in the other blog in the next few days.

In this blog, we offer an alternative to M2C (the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory of the Book of Mormon). We also alert readers to the tactics and methodology of M2C intellectuals so they can make informed decisions and help others do likewise. In our view, there is abundant evidence for the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, but not in Mesoamerica.

I emphasize, as always, that we’re all free to believe whatever we want. We can be faithful Latter-day Saints regardless of what we believe about Book of Mormon historicity, geography, the teachings of the prophets, etc.

However, there are many people who think M2C is the quasi-official position of the Church. It’s easy to see why. M2C intellectuals continue to enforce censorship of competing ideas. Their peers in the Church History Department have de-correlated the New York Cumorah to accommodate M2C, as we’ve seen in the Saints book, Volume 1, as well as the Joseph Smith and Brigham Young lesson manuals, the CES manuals, etc.

We have groups such as Book of Mormon Central, the Interpreter, FairMormon, etc. that are spending millions of dollars to promote M2C while simultaneously censoring and repudiating the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

This leaves many people with the mistaken impression that you have to accept M2C to believe the Book of Mormon is a real history. Because M2C is implausible to many members of the Church (and even less plausible to nonmembers), M2C can cause people to become confused and disturbed in their faith.

When we understand the M2C techniques, we can better help those who seek alternatives to M2C so they can retain and strengthen their faith.
_____

Today’s topic was prompted by another reader inquiry. It involves yet another Interpreter article, this one an excerpt from a book.

The author is a well-known M2C proponent, as you will see. I like much of his work, but his obsession with M2C undermines his objectivity and even credibility, IMO.

For example, in this chapter, the author writes, “Books have been written to examine the geography and history described in the Book of Mormon. This isn’t one of those books.” But as a dedicated M2C advocate, he inserts M2C anyway. In fact, starting on page 39 he delves into one of the “correspondences” that, IMO, are pure bias confirmation; i.e., “it is important to note that this method of recording annalistic history was part of the cultures of Mesoamerica, which I consider the most plausible location of the Book of Mormon events. Perhaps the change to the way time was recorded was influenced by the introduction of the long count among the Maya.” He spends a few pages comparing Mayan annals to the Book of Mormon text.

My reaction to such “correspondences” is to consider whether they have any relevance or are merely examples of Loserthink bias confirmation and pattern recognition.

Annals are ubiquitous on human history. The history of China includes “The Basic Annals” dating to around 2853 B.C. Ancient Roman and Christian annals were well known by the time Joseph translated the Book of Mormon, as were the Chaldean annals, the Phoenician annals, and others. Josephus discussed the annals of the Tyrians.

It may be more difficult to find an ancient civilization that did not keep annals than to find one that did. The Nephites and the Mayans were no exception, but that doesn’t make the Nephites Mayans.

But you’re free to take these correspondences as facts if you want to.
_____

Getting back to the reader’s inquiry… It involves footnote 5, which you can read here:

https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/labor-diligently-to-write-the-ancient-making-of-a-modern-scripture-1/#sdfootnote5sym

First, here’s the paragraph from the article that establishes M2C:

Mormon’s writing career was bracketed by plates buried in a hill. The same plates Mormon removed from the hill Shim at the beginning of his writing career (Mormon 1:3, 4:23), he interred in the hill Cumorah at the end (Mormon 6:6). In the intervening years, Mormon’s relationship to those plates shifted from recorder of events to interpreter of events. Mormon buried the Nephite archive in the hill Cumorah to preserve it, but he gave Moroni a more important set of plates to preserve. Those were later buried in a hill. 5 (emphasis added)

This is a clever way to frame the issue. He contrasts “the hill Cumorah” with “a hill.”

Readers here know that M2C is the acronym for the “Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs” theory. M2C intellectuals and their followers claim that the “hill in New York” where Joseph found the plates has nothing to do with the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6.

Instead, these M2C intellectuals claim that
(i) the “real Hill Cumorah” is in southern Mexico and
(ii) all the prophets who taught about the New York Cumorah misled the Church with their false personal opinions.

The author is clever because the paragraph does not overtly declare M2C. We have to read the footnote for that.

Here’s the footnote:

5. Mormon tells us that he buried plates in Cumorah but that they were not those on which the Book of Mormon was written. Perhaps he returned to Cumorah, but that is speculation. All the text tells us for certain is that the Book of Mormon plates were not buried in Cumorah, although others were. (emphasis added)

This is a patently false claim. It’s true that the text does not tell us where Moroni hid up (buried) the abridged plates, but it never says the abridged plates were not buried in Cumorah.

Orson Pratt explained there were two departments in the hill Cumorah in New York, one for the depository and one for the abridgment. Nothing in the text contradicts that scenario. Letter VII establishes it as a fact.

The footnote then quotes Mormon 6:6.

And it came to pass that when we had gathered in all our people in one to the land of Cumorah, behold I, Mormon, began to be old; and knowing it to be the last struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would destroy them) therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni.” (Mormon 6:6)

Mormon never states or implies that he ever left Cumorah. He gathered his people there for the “last struggle.” After describing the final battle, he explained that he hid up in the hill Cumorah all these records. He never says he left the area before he died.

Perhaps the footnote meant to say it was Moroni who returned to Cumorah, but if so, that’s not a matter of speculation because Moroni himself identified the “hill in New York” as Cumorah and we know from Letter VII that the hill where Joseph found the plates was also the setting for the final battles and the depository of Nephite records.

Nowhere in the text does Moroni say where he buried the abridgment, but he never says he did not bury them in Cumorah. In Mormon 8:4, Moroni says “I will write and hide up the records in the earth, and whither I go it mattereth not.”

The Introduction explains it this way:

After Mormon completed his writings, he delivered the account to his son Moroni, who added a few words of his own and hid up the plates in the Hill Cumorah. On September 21, 1823, the same Moroni, then a glorified, resurrected being, appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith and instructed him relative to the ancient record and its destined translation into the English language.
(Introduction, 4)

The M2C intellectuals justify their position because they are “experts” in ancient Mayan culture and languages, they are “experts” in studying the scriptures, and they are “experts” in Church history. They assert this “expertise” to justify their repudiation of the teachings of the prophets.

The book Loserthink has an important section on “Listening to the Experts” summarized here:

We live in a world in which it is dangerous to ignore the advice of experts, but it is almost as dangerous to follow their advice. The trick is to know when the experts are the solution and when they are the jailers of your mental prison.

There are plenty of “experts” in Church history and Book of Mormon historicity. Some are inside the Church; others are outside the Church.

Critics of the Church and the Book of Mormon also rely on Loserthink tactics. They are jailers of the mental prisons of their followers.

Mormon Stories and CES Letter, two of the best-known critics, employ most of the Loserthink  strategies discussed in the book. We’ll look more at their work in upcoming posts, but today we’ll focus on M2C.

How can you determine whether these experts are the solution or the jailers of your mental prison?
_____

You can consider the tactics they use and their objectives. Are they supporting or repudiating the teachings of the prophets on these topics?

Tactic 1. The M2C jailers of mental prisons use patterns or analogies as arguments and rationales for M2C. The M2C intellectuals use the term “correspondences” to describe the patterns they cite to make people believe ancient Mayan culture has something to do with the Book of Mormon.

The book of “correspondences”

The argument goes like this:

The Nephites were farmers.
The Mayans were farmers.
Therefore the Nephites were Mayans.

When explained that way, the futility of a theory based on “correspondences” is apparent. Yet the entire M2C theory consists of little more than such “correspondences.”

Chapter 6 in Mormon’s Codex, for example, is titled “About Correspondences” and argues that “The text of the Book of Mormon can be compared with the findings of Mesoamerican scholarship at several levels… In this volume, correspondences vary between two levels of persuasiveness. Some correspondences are so specific that there seems to be no explanation for their occurrence in both the Book of Mormon and data from archaeology or anthropology other than that some literal historical sharing must have occurred. Other correspondences are somewhat less striking, yet given the context provided by the strongest correspondences, it seems very likely that those that are less focused also are best explained as the result of direct historical connection rather than by a mental interventionism.”

I give Brother Sorenson great credit and respect for addressing the issue of correspondences because the entire M2C theory depends on such comparisons and patterns. But just because he addressed the issue doesn’t mean these correspondences are meaningful–or that they are so meaningful as to justify repudiating the teachings of the prophets because of them.

These correspondences can be persuasive because, as Loserthink explains, “humans use pattern recognition to understand their world. Humans are very bad at pattern recognition. And they don’t know it. We can’t tell the difference between valid patterns that might predict something useful and something that simply reminds us of something else but means nothing.”

The psychological power of pattern recognition, or finding “correspondences,” enables our M2C intellectuals to frame M2C as obvious and conclusive. In fact, they think these “correspondences” are so decisive that the teachings of the prophets, by comparison, are “manifestly absurd” (to use the description Brother Sorenson uses in Mormon’s Codex).

Loserthink explains how the jailers use this tactic: “if your [theory] is based on pattern alone, you are probably in a mental prison. And your jailers are the people who try to dupe you with patterns that mean nothing.“

That the “correspondences” cited by M2C intellectuals mean nothing is evident from the reality that experts in ancient Mayan studies who are not inside the M2C bubble see no connection between the Mayans and the Book of Mormon.
_____

Tactic 2. Another section of Loserthink, titled “Fake News Filter,” explains the problem of people being stuck in silos. “It is one thing to disagree with an opposing viewpoint, but it is a far bigger problem if you have never heard of it.”

Book of Mormon Central, FairMormon, the Interpreter, Meridian Magazine–all these M2C publications share a common editorial policy of censoring information and commentary that contradicts M2C. In a word, they resort to censorship.

The logo includes a Mayan glyph, foreclosing the possibility that the Book of Mormon could have taken place anywhere else.

This logo represents a closed-minded organization that insists the prophets are wrong. They justify censorship because they claim that, as experts, they have the answers. Further inquiry, discussion, and debate is unwelcome.

Consequently, there are many members of the Church who have never heard that there is an alternative to M2C. Many of them have never heard that the prophets have consistently taught that the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is in New York.

Ignorance is one of the most powerful jailers of mental prisons possible.

As long as these organizations continue to censor ideas and information that contradicts M2C, including the teachings of the prophets, they will continue to function as jailers of mental prisons.
_____

Examples of Loserthink continue to proliferate. A fine one appeared in Meridian (M2C) Magazine, which is operated by adamant promoters of M2C. No one should be surprised that they would publish this article the way it is.

Here’s a link to the article:
https://latterdaysaintmag.com/nauvoo-times-and-seasons-searching-for-book-of-mormon-lands/

Today we’ll do a “peer review” of the article, meaning that had the editors sent it to me ahead of publication, these are the notes I would have sent back. To do this, I have to show the entire article lest my critics, including the anonymous trolls, accuse me of “cherry picking,” not telling the whole story, etc.

In reality, there’s nothing I want more than for people to read what the M2C scholars teach. This article is a fine example. Inevitably, these scholars resort to Loserthink to try to convince members of the Church that the prophets are wrong. This article employs many of the standard M2C tactics, as we’ll see.

At the outset, I re-emphasize that I think the M2C scholars are fine people, great scholars, faithful LDS, genuine, smart, thoughtful, etc. The author of this article fits those descriptions. Brother Norman a great guy whom I respect and like personally.

None of those qualities has anything to do with Loserthink, however. None of my observations about M2C ideology and tactics are personal; we all want to focus on the issues, not the personalities involved.

This article contains a series of assumptions and factual errors presented as facts to support M2C.

We’re not surprised that Meridian Magazine would publish it as is because the article supports the editors’ M2C agenda.
_____

There is a lot of detail in this article. One of the common Loserthink tactics is the “confusopoly,” a term Scott Adams coined “to describe an industry in which price competition is eliminated by making products and services so confusing that customers cannot tell what they are getting for their money.”

M2C scholars use the confusopoly concept by making their arguments so confusing that readers give up and just accept the conclusion that the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah.

To unpack the article, I’ve had to delve into the detail. This may be more detail than most people want to read, so I’ll summarize it here first.

Several anonymous articles in the 1842 Times and Seasons made a link between the Book of Mormon and archaeological findings in North and Central America. Joseph Smith was listed in the boilerplate of the newspaper as the editor of the Times and Seasons from Feb 15-Oct 1, 1842.

Many people, especially M2C proponents, think this means Joseph was personally responsible for everything published in the newspaper during those months, including anonymous articles. That leads M2C proponents to claim Joseph Smith believed the Book of Mormon took place in Central America. They then say the New York Cumorah is too far from Central America, so Joseph and Oliver and their contemporaries and successors misled the Church by teaching that Cumorah was in New York.

While the idea that Joseph actually wrote or edited the anonymous articles was a long-held assumption, it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny for many reasons that I’ve discussed in detail in three of my books.

Basically, there is no evidence that Joseph actually edited anything in 1842 other than the Wentworth letter, which he signed separately in the newspaper.

The boilerplate at the end of each issue of the 1842 Times and Seasons from Feb 15-Oct 1 did say Joseph edited the paper, but it also listed Joseph as printer and publisher. No one claims Joseph operated the printing press, set type, etc. because he was merely the nominal printer; i.e., “in name only.” The evidence, IMO, shows that he was merely the nominal editor, too.

Brother Norman’s article claims it is a fact that Joseph wrote the anonymous articles, but at best he can only speculate about that.

He also claims Joseph actually wrote specific journal entries, but these, in reality, are fake compositions created after Joseph died. 

I think the anonymous articles are as fake as the composed journal entries, but you can reach your own conclusions after you assess the evidence.

IMO, it is completely irresponsible for Meridian (M2C) Magazine to publish an article such as this without at least checking (and correcting) the factual errors, and without offering its readers an alternative interpretation of the facts. This is the type of advocacy journalism that causes divisions and perpetuates ignorance among members of the Church.
_____

Original material in blue, my comments in red. 

CHURCH HISTORY

[13]  Times and Seasons, Nauvoo, Illinois, May 15, 1843. John Taylor Editor. 

The subtitle of Scott Adams’ book* is “How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America.” That seems far more negative than the book itself, however. A more accurate subtitle might be “How Untrained Brains Are Postponing the Golden Age.”

(You need to read the book to see how Scott describes the Golden Age. It’s one of the best parts of the book and should be especially interesting to Latter-day Saints who still aspire to establishing Zion.)

Loserthink is ubiquitous among humans, but there are special applications for particular groups. I discuss this briefly in a chapter in my upcoming book. The chapter is titled “Loserthink for Latter-day Saints.”

Loserthink is postponing progress in many areas. If members of the Church can learn to identify Loserthink and apply it, we’ll all be able to think more clearly, make informed decisions, and focus on the things that matter most.
_____

Loserthink is not limited to M2C, but the way M2C intellectuals promote and enforce M2C is a prime example of Loserthink.

A good example is the section in the book titled “Compared to Nothing.”

Scott writes, “People also make the mistake of not comparing proposed plans to the next best alternative. Sometimes the best plan has big problems, but not as big as the next best plan. If you are not explicitly comparing your preferred plan to the next best alternative, you are not involved in rational thinking. But it might feel as if you are.”

The accompanying illustration is a Sunday cartoon from about a year ago that shows the CEO taking credit for success because he picked the best plan from among the choices provided by the employees. Of course, the employees manipulated the CEO by offering the plan they wanted, giving as options only the worst plans they could think of, which caused the CEO to pick the plan the employees wanted.

One of my more popular and controversial blog posts addressed this cartoon.

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/12/employees-make-decisions.html

The Loserthink element is believing something is the best alternative when you haven’t really compared it with anything. 

That’s a key strategy of the M2C intellectuals.

The corollary, as shown in the cartoon, is keeping critical information away from decision makers.
_____

If you read the material on Book of Mormon Central’s web page, you’ll notice that they promote M2C without any mention of alternative views about Book of Mormon geography.

This is by design.

Some years ago we proposed working with them to develop a comparison matrix that would allow members of the Church (and friends) to compare M2C with other ideas. Some in the organization were enthusiastic, but ultimately the leaders vetoed the idea.

This is classic Loserthink.

Many members of the Church accept M2C because they assume the intellectuals have actually done a comparison of all the alternatives, but that’s not the case.

Loserthink fantasy map

You can ask your CES or BYU teacher if he/she has ever compared the alternative ideas. They’ll admit they haven’t, and they’ll say the geography doesn’t matter anyway. (Of course, maybe it doesn’t matter to them, but that has nothing to do with whether it matters to other people–like the vast majority of people in the world.)

If pressed, they’ll say someone else has done the comparison and concluded that M2C is the best approach.

That’s how we ended up with the fantasy maps from CES and BYU. It’s pretty amazing, actually.

The teachers might cite the work of John Sorenson, such as Mormon’s Codex, or the work of another M2C promoter. As we’ve discussed on this blog, that book is based on a mistaken premise that it doesn’t explain and consists of a series of cascading assumptions and “correspondences” that require people to repudiate the teachings of the prophets and essentially rewrite key parts of the Book of Mormon to make it fit in Mesoamerica.

What you’ll never see from Book of Mormon Central is a comparison chart.

That’s because M2C is based on the Loserthink principle of comparison to nothing.

By now, readers here know why. The M2C scholars know that, in most cases, once members of the Church learn what the prophets have actually taught, they usually chose the prophets over the M2C scholars.

Of course, everyone is free to chose the scholars instead of the prophets. We don’t mind if people make an informed decision to follow the scholars and repudiate the prophets.

But when there is no basis for comparison, it is Loserthink to chose the scholars by default.
_____

I created some comparison charts a few years ago and invited others, including the M2C scholars, to make comments or corrections if I misstated anything.

You can see the results in this post:

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2017/09/comparison-chart-and-decision-tree.html

I continue to welcome comments and suggestions for improvement. I’ll probably make some myself soon.
_____

*Apparently the title page on the print version says “How Untrained Brains are Ruining the World,” which is a better subtitle because America has no monopoly on untrained brains.

Believing the intellectuals instead of the prophets has become popular lately, but ironically, the intellectuals are far less credible than the prophets on these topics. We’re seeing the natural consequences of people preferring the intellectuals over the prophets.

Below is an email that went out a while ago. It involves an event to take place in Salt Lake City on November 17, 2019.

Many people living in Utah are familiar with this group and its activities, but many are not. Those living outside of Utah may be less familiar with this, but in my experience, nearly every member of the Church, everywhere in the world, knows people who have left the Church for various reasons.

In very few cases does anyone leave the Church while retaining a testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

I include this event as part of the “Perfect Storm” series because the combination of M2C and the peep stone narrative are undercutting the basic premise for the Restoration.

That is, the Restoration is based on the premise that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery told the truth about the translation of the Book of Mormon and related events. They were the sole witnesses to the translation, the restoration of the Priesthood, and the restoration of Priesthood keys in the Kirtland temple.

Modern LDS scholars who promote M2C and the peep stone narrative are teaching members of the Church to disbelieve Joseph and Oliver on key points they emphasized over and over.

This inevitably leads to an erosion of faith.

Our M2C scholars insist that Joseph and Oliver (and their successors) misled the Church about the New York Cumorah. Instead, these scholars claim the “real” Cumorah is somewhere in Mexico, with all the baggage that brings.

The revisionist historians claim that Joseph didn’t really translate the plates, but instead merely read words that appeared on a peep stone he put in a hat. They are teaching this throughout the Church. Of course, that contradicts everything Joseph and Oliver ever said on the subject and questions the point of Mormon abridging the Nephite records in the first place; i.e., if Joseph didn’t really translate the plates, why did everyone go to so much trouble to create and preserve them?

Joseph and Oliver specifically addressed both issues when they wrote the eight historical essays we’ve discussed here many times, including Letter VII. They cited facts to establish their teachings, but now these intellectuals want members of the Church to reject those facts and their teachings.

Many members of the Church reject what the M2C scholars and revisionist historians teach, but Book of Mormon Central is spending millions of dollars to promote both ideas. 

Now, Book of Mormon Central is promoting M2C through a scripture app designed to entice Church members away from Gospel Library.

We hope these intellectuals will reconsider their message, but based on past experience, we think that’s unlikely. Instead, they will continue to promote M2C and the peep stone narrative, enforcing their beliefs by censoring and repudiating the teachings of the prophets on these topics.

As a result, we’ll see more and more people confused and disturbed in their faith, exactly as Joseph Fielding Smith warned.

The upcoming event is a prime example of what happens when people lose their faith in the prophets.

We empathize with those who have lost their faith and wish them all the best. But we hope any who have lost their faith because (i) they realize that Mayans have nothing to do with the Book of Mormon, or (ii) they can’t believe the peep stone narrative, will reconsider.

People would be better to repudiate the teachings of the M2C intellectuals and the revisionist historians (and their followers) than to repudiate the teachings of the prophets.
_____

We realize there are many reasons why people obtain or lose faith, but these two issues are core to faith in the restoration. That’s why Joseph and Oliver addressed them in the first place and why Joseph had these essays republished so often.

It’s one thing to believe what Joseph and Oliver taught about the physical reality of the Book of Mormon, citing the New York Cumorah as a fact; it’s another thing altogether to reject their testimony and claim we don’t know anything about where the Book of Mormon events took place.

It’s one thing to believe that, as Joseph and Oliver always testified, Joseph actually translated ancient records after years of training and that he was able to accomplish a literal translation of the Title Page. It’s another thing altogether to reject their testimony and claim that Joseph merely read words that appeared on a peep stone he put in a hat, a sort of supernatural teleprompter.

Some people have faith to believe in M2C and the peep stone, and that’s great. But for others, it’s a step too far, not only because of the inherent implausibility, but because it means that Joseph and Oliver (and their successors) misled the Church for decades.

Now that our intellectuals have undermined the credibility of Joseph and Oliver on these topics, it is more difficult for many people to believe what they taught on other topics. And once that faith is eroded…

Well, the upcoming conference is a good example of the result.

The end

In a previous post, I mentioned the bizarre headline announcing the visit of Dr. Stephen Houston to BYU (bizarre because of the way it was worded). Dr. Houston spoke about some archaeological discoveries in Central America.

I wasn’t able to attend, but I’ve heard from some attendees. I also have some screen shots of the presentation, which are basically the same images from previous accounts of the LIDAR work done in Guatemala recently. He gave a similar presentation at the Library of Congress, which you can see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxveog3liyM

Professor Houston, a former BYU professor who now teaches at Brown University, is not LDS. I’m told that at his recent presentation at BYU, he said, “It’s really hard to see how the Book of Mormon relates to Mesoamerica–especially for archaeologists.”

By now, I think it’s becoming apparent that it is really hard for anyone outside the delusional M2C bubble to see how the Book of Mormon relates to Mesoamerica.

Probably that’s because M2C is a hoax, based on a mistake in interpreting Church history. The M2C hoax persists only because our M2C scholars and their followers continue to censor, suppress, and repudiate the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

Which is fine, so long as everyone involved understands what’s going on here.
_____

I’ve previously discussed the disconnect between non-M2C Mesoamerican scholars and M2C scholars who “can’t unsee” Mesoamerica when they read the Book of Mormon. This post is an example:

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/04/m2c-exposed-on-facebook.html

M2C is an outstanding example of bias confirmation. No matter what discoveries archaeologists make in Mesoamerica, our LDS M2C intellectuals will suddenly “find” something in the text that fits.

Dr. John Sorenson was one of the best at doing this, so it’s appropriate that this lecture was named for him. 

For example, the largest enumerated army in the entire Book of Mormon was a Lamanite army that had 42,000 men. But now that LIDAR has discovered millions of Mayans, our M2C scholars claim the Book of Mormon wars involved massive armies.

Mesoamerica features volcanoes. The Book of Mormon does not. Naturally, our M2C scholars “find” volcanoes in the text, just as they “find” tapirs, mountainous terrain, etc.

If you’re not inside the M2C bubble, the M2C hoax is obvious. If you’re still inside the bubble–if you still follow the M2C intellectuals instead of the prophets–you might want to step outside the bubble for an hour or so and look around.

You’ll be surprised to discover that actual archaeology, anthropology, geology, geography, etc., support the teachings of the prophets–something you’ll never learn as long as you’re inside the M2C bubble.

We thank Dr. Houston for his presentation and comments.

Maybe a few more presentations such as this will finally pop the M2C bubble and liberate members of the Church to believe the teachings of the prophets once again.