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I thought readers might like to compare a couple of concepts and see which one they would find to be more astonishing if you were a Lamanite in Alma 49.

This is another chance to reach consensus if we just use common sense. Set aside everything Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery said and just look at the options.

Book of Mormon Central (BOMC) cites Becan as the ultimate example of a Nephite fortification created by Moroni. So does FairMormon (and probably all the other affiliates of BOMC). FairMormon gives us 4 images to consider, all of Becan. At least that’s somewhat scientific; BOMC gives us three illustrations of “a fortified Nephite city” (which is actually an unidentified rendition of Becan with the moat Mormon forgot to mention obscured by different coloration), “Captain Moroni’s Works of Timbers,” and “Nephite Fortifications,” all featuring the ubiquitous Mayan stone temples that appear in all the Mesoamerican artwork but not in the text.

Here is the place of entrance at Becan:

I keep thinking I’ve made the final post on this blog, but then something arises.

Lately people have been asking me why the LDS scholarly community continues to promote the Mesoamerican theory. The short answer is that the Mesoamerican theory is a rational interpretation of the Book of Mormon if you 1) Don’t know about or reject Oliver Cowdery’s Letter VII; 2) you think Joseph Smith didn’t know where the Book of Mormon took place and speculated about the setting; and 3) Joseph wrote or approved of anonymous articles in the Times and Seasons. Each individual can decide the merits of those propositions. In my view, the known facts–many of them relatively newly discovered–contradict those propositions.

When we learn new facts that contradict what we’ve thought for a long time, we can respond in a variety of ways. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can offer some analogies.
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Years ago, I was working on a divorce case. The couple had minor children, and they worked out custody, no problem. They had assets and retirement and the rest, which they worked out, no problem.

But they had one remaining obstacle.

A Smurf collection.

They had some rare Smurfs they couldn’t replace and they were both so attached to them that they couldn’t agree on how to divide the collection.

It was an object lesson in priorities and emotional attachments.

People get emotionally attached to all kinds of things, and no amount of reasoning and no set of facts can overcome deep emotions.
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When our kids were young, we bought a toy that had pegs on a board and a hammer. You could pound the pegs until they were flush with the board, then turn the toy over and pound them back from the other side.

Except the kids didn’t just pound the pegs.

They thought everything they saw needed pounding with that hammer.

The common phrase “to a hammer, everything is a nail” is an example of the law of the instrument. It’s also called Maslow’s hammer or a Golden Hammer. The idea is that people tend to rely on a familiar tool.

Psychologists refer to this as deformation professionnelle. It’s a cognitive bias that “stops us from seeing the world the way that most people see it.” Instead, we see the world from the perspective of our own profession. On this blog I’ve posted comments about seeing things through lenses, which is another way of expressing deformation professionnelle.

There’s nothing wrong with deformation professionnelle so long as we are cognizant of it and adjust our thinking accordingly. This means having an open mind, which is very, very difficult, especially when it implicates one’s profession and life’s work.

I’ve made it plain throughout this blog that I have found a high degree of deformation professionnelle in the field of Book of Mormon geography. Perhaps more than I’ve encountered in any other field, actually. Two rhetorical techniques pervasive in the literature are good examples.

First, advocates of a particular theory create lists of “requirements” that just happen to be perfectly met by their preferred geography. To me, these are transparently circular arguments, but I see them all the time so some people must think they are meaningful.

Second, closely related to the first, a lot of manipulated expectations are set up, which again happen to be perfectly satisfied by whatever analysis is being employed. I addressed a recent example that involved an analysis of tribal vs. state-level society.

Lists and expectations can be helpful for analysis, but the analysis should start with the lists and expectations themselves. Lists and expectations based on deformation professionnelle are taken for granted by like-minded people and become nothing more than rhetorical tools.

I recommend that when you read an article or hear a lecture, you consider whether, and how, the content is driven by deformation professionnelle.
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I freely admit my own professions have affected my approach to these issues. I’ve mentioned in this blog that I also see things through the lenses of my professions. So here is a summary of my own deformation professionnelle. (This is just a quick summary, but feel free to add more examples in the comments.)

As a lawyer, I tend to think issues that can’t be resolved by negotiation can be resolved by appeal to a tribunal, based on presentation and comparison of facts and analysis. (In the case of Book of Mormon geography, negotiations about geography have obviously failed, so.the tribunal for now is each individual who reads, or even thinks about, the Book of Mormon).  Consequently, I enjoy the give and take of debate and argument and don’t take things personally. People remind me frequently of this deformation professionnelle–i.e., others do take things personally–so I’ve tried to tone down the rhetoric and sharpness. (There are two ironies here. First, I really like the people I’ve met who write and think about this topic, regardless of what they write and think. They’re all great people and I don’t intend to offend anyone. Challenge, certainly, because of the content, but not offend. Second, I thought I had been toning it down from the outset, which shows how severe my deformation professionnelle is.)

😉

This deformation professionnelle also leads me to object when the tribunal (each individual) hears only one side of a case. That’s why I keep harping on the monolithic approaches to Book of Mormon geography taken by the publications and institutions I can’t name without offending someone.

Another aspect of my defomration professionnelle–the lens through which I admittedly view the world–involves credentials. I’ve been in situations where competent experts (we call them expert witnesses) completely disagree. In the legal profession, you can hire just about any credentialed opinion you need to support your client’s case. I’ve also funded research at universities, where I learned you can get pretty much any result you want (within reason) depending on how you word the grant and select the recipient. Consequently, for better or worse, I tend to disregard credentials and focus instead on facts and analysis. As I’ve written before, PhD doesn’t stand for “open mind.” It doesn’t stand for “objective,” “rational,” or even “fair.” I don’t accept the rationale of deferring to someone because of their expertise. If their expertise can help them present facts and analysis, great. But it’s not the expertise that matters; it’s the facts and analysis that matter.

For better or worse, I also tend to separate emotional elements in my analysis because I recognize how emotion colors arguments and perceptions. I started discussing that in my blog post about white hat thinking.

As an educator, my deformation professionnelle leads me to think no two people learn the same way, so I try to offer as many different approaches as I can think of to convey information and encourage students to learn for themselves. I have also found that students are more interested in controversy and tension than in rote facts. They don’t like being told what to think. But of course some approaches don’t work for some students, and a lot of students don’t want to learn (or think) for themselves. (I can also see from the statistics that my “controversial” blog posts generate far more views than the “tame” ones. I don’t write click bait on this blog, but there may be a time and a place for that.)

As a business guy, I think common sense is more effective than rhetorical flourishes and semantic gymnastics. My deformation professionnelle biases me toward thinking that institutions and organizations tend to acquire and defend Groupthink. Preservation of and loyalty to the organization become high priorities, and an element of tribalism seems to materialize as soon as one joins “the team.” Consequently, disruptive technology (and ideas) are important for progress and improvement–and especially for the pursuit of truth. Organizations that respond effectively to disruptive technology succeed; those that don’t, fail.

And as an author, my deformation professionnelle exaggerates the impact of the written word. In reality, no one has the time or inclination to read yet another new book. But I also recognize there are decades of publications that express what I consider to be an erroneous ideology, so I indulge my deformation professionnelle and keep writing on this topic anyway.

🙂

Questions about Book of Mormon geography are a means to an end. There is broad agreement on the ultimate objective of focusing on the Book of Mormon itself, in the sense of reading and applying its principles and teachings. For many of us, the geography and historicity issues improve our understanding of the text. These issues help many people dig into the text for themselves to find answers.

Although it would be great if everyone involved with Book of Mormon historicity and geography issues could reach agreement about the major issues, that seems unlikely for the foreseeable future. Instead, I think we can agree to disagree about a few basic issues.

One explanation of the phrase: The phrases “agree to disagree” or “agreeing to disagree” refer to “the resolution of a conflict (usually a debate or quarrel) whereby all parties tolerate but do not accept the opposing position(s).”

Agreements to disagree can result from different perspectives, as the cartoons illustrate. Walking around to the other side–a metaphor for seeing another person’s perspective–can clarify the source of a disagreement. We may prefer the perspective we start with, but at least we understand why the other person sees things the way he/she does.

People tend to think evidence will resolve disagreements. Sometimes it does, but many times it does not. Economists disagree about the meaning of the same statistics they are all using. Although each juror has heard the exact same presentations about the evidence, juries often can’t reach an agreement. Sports fans disagree about calls made during a game, even when they all watch the same replay.

Another component of disagreement is summarized in a question posed by Ray Dalio in his famous Principles statement: “How much do you let what you wish to be true stand in the way of seeing what is really true?” I posted an example of this regarding tribal vs state-level society, in which the article manipulated the Book of Mormon text and the archaeological evidence to support a long-held and pre-determined conclusion that the text and the archaeology support the Mesoamerican theory. The text and the archaeology actually support the opposite conclusion.

One philosopher who has examined the question of why people can’t agree concludes, “A multi-model understanding tells us that such differences may make conversion unlikely. Once we give up on conversion, we may look for those mutually beneficial accommodations that are possible even when models differ.”

That’s the kind of approach I hope everyone can take.

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Here are a few issues that I’ve already agreed to disagree with others about.

Hill Cumorah. Because I accept Letter VII, I think there is only one Hill Cumorah and it is in New York. Others don’t accept Letter VII and claim there are two Cumorahs, the one in New York being merely the place where Moroni deposited his plates, the other (where Mormon deposited the Nephite records) being somewhere else (Baja, Meso, Peru, etc.).

Book of Mormon terminology. Everyone likes to claim they are relying on the text, but of course they mean they are relying on their interpretation of the text. For example, I think terms such as narrow neck, narrow neck of land, small neck of land, narrow pass, narrow passage, and narrow strip of wilderness refer to different features. Others think they refer to the same thing, which leads to the common hourglass shape of many abstract and proposed Book of Mormon maps.

Anonymous Times and Seasons articles. I think the anonymous Times and Seasons articles that linked Zarahemla to Quirigua were not written or approved by Joseph Smith. Others disagree. I think these articles were the genesis of the Mesoamerican theory of geography. Others disagree with that, too.

There are many more, of course, but we can probably narrow it down to a dozen or so.
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One thing that makes agreement to disagree so difficult in a gospel context is we all presumably have an objective of finding the truth. We’re used to thinking “The truth shall make you free,” and “truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come.”

I’ve had people tell me they are very uncomfortable with the idea of multiple views about Book of Mormon geography. That approach seems analogous to the approach to fiction generally; i.e., as long as we’re imagining a setting, no one’s imagination can be excluded from consideration.

I agree with those concerns, which is one reason why I think the New York Cumorah is so important.

But I think we need to let each individual make his/her own choice on each of these areas in which we agree to disagree. This is healthy, not only because it respects agency, but because it encourages individuals to dive into the text and decide for themselves.

A decision-tree exercise would help people navigate the issues. People who haven’t considered these issues before, or who are bewildered by them, or who sense a state of cognitive dissonance, could find the process rewarding.
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To make an informed choice, people must have access to information. This is why I consider the decades-long embargo on North American geography ideas to be counterproductive. I realize people are touchy about this subject, but ignoring the fact that major LDS publications (scholarly and popular books, articles, and web pages) have promoted the Mesoamerican theory to the exclusion of alternatives doesn’t help. It’s time to get real about this.

It is understandable, but not excusable, that the so-called consensus about the Mesoamerican theory has become the de facto standard. So far as I know, there is not a single editor of an LDS publication–not even a member of an editorial board–who accepts the North American setting. Mesoamerican ideas permeate CES faculty, including BYU. This has nothing to do with the merits, either. It’s a result of a collective Groupthink approach to the topic, and it contradicts the Church’s official policy of neutrality.

Most LDS people alive today have been raised with the Mesoamerican mindset. It permeates Church curriculum through the artwork. Editions of the Book of Mormon are still being published with Arnold Friberg’s Mesoamerican paintings in them. People who accept the Mesoamerican model don’t seem to realize how offensive the two-Cumorah theory is to thousands of members of the Church. The shorthand way to put it is that these faithful members agree with Joseph Fielding Smith and Oliver Cowdery.

More examples: every one of the affiliates of Book of Mormon Central promotes the Mesoamerican setting and opposes alternatives. I’ve specifically addressed BMAF and FairMormon as examples.

Consequently, members and investigators who are interested in these issues are presented with only one point of view: the Mesoamerican setting. When that doesn’t work for them, they either leave (or stop seeing the missionaries) or they enter the state of cognitive dissonance that gnaws at them. Some people can live with cognitive dissonance, but others resolve it by eventually leaving, or finding an alternative that makes sense to them–such as the North American setting.

I realize some people think that offering alternative geography theories will create its own cognitive dissonance for people. Many people just want answers, without having to think much about it. Maybe most people. They think, “Why should I study this if the scholars can’t even agree?”

That’s why it would be ideal if all LDS scholars could agree on a setting that integrates all the known facts from Church history, the text itself, and the sciences. But until that point, openly acknowledging the agreements to disagree is far preferable to pretending there is only one legitimate setting because the scholars have reached a consensus about it.

There is a risk of replicating the Pharisees vs. Sadducees scenario. Awareness of that risk mitigates the likelihood of it becoming a reality.
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What I propose is a set of points upon which we can agree to disagree. Each side explains its perspective on the points. Book of Mormon Central would be the host for the comparisons. To remain an affiliate, every organization would have to adopt a respectful approach towards non-Mesoamerican models. Individuals could continue to advocate one or another approach, but the editorial process would include representatives from other points of view to assure accuracy of published material when it purports to characterize the positions of alternative points of view.