Stuff they don’t talk about in Sunday School
October 23rd, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, Central America, Geography, Mormon, New York, South America
I’ve posted previously on the various BoM geography theories, and I have to admit, it is one of my favorite topics. Very few Mormons realize how diverse some of the various theories are. Mormon Times recently ran an article on the various theories, and gave some criteria for evaluating them properly.
So, which of these theories sounds most plausible to you? I’ve studied quite a few, and am aware of both strengths and weaknesses of many of the theories. I’d love to hear what you think.
October 15th, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, Geography, Mormon
I came across this article at the Mormon Times (part of the Deseret News) about an all day forum discussion the Central American theory of the Book of Mormon. It sounds like an interesting lineup of speakers.
I would really like to go, but I will be working that day, and can’t go. Is there anyone who wants to take notes for me and update me? I’d be willing to pay half your $25 conference fee for good notes, or if you can get a fair recording, I’d be willing to pay the whole thing. Here’s the details.
July 17th, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, Canon, Christian, Early Christian History, History, Mormon, Multi-Faith, Old Testament, Scripture, Theology
The history of baptism is quite interesting, and much more complex than most people know.
Baptism seems to be related to the ancient Jewish rite called “mikvah”, which was/is used for conversion to Judaism, ritual cleansing (Law of Moses type things, childbirth, women’s menstruation, and other things.) If you go to this link at Wikipedia, you can see a contemporary Mikvah font which look quite similar to a modern-day Christian baptismal font (at the bottom of the article.)
Continue reading →
July 13th, 2008 — 10 tribes, Book of Mormon, DNA, Intellectualism, Judaism, Mormon, Multi-Faith, Science, Theology
Ok, the title of my post actually comes from two different books. The first is called “DNA and Tradition: The Genetic Link to the Ancient Hebrews“, by Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman. The rabbi looks into DNA evidence concerning the tribe of Levi, as well as the other lost tribes of Israel.
In the introduction to the book, there are several interesting quotes, and he quotes from a book written by Rabbi Moses Maimonides (1135 – 1204 ) called Guide for the Perplexed, which examines the issues of being a religious scientist.
June 22nd, 2008 — Book of Mormon, Canon, Christian, Gnosticism, History, Judaism, Mormon, Old Testament, Scripture, Theology
I posted previously on the topics of Gnosticism, Marcionism, and Montanism in my previous three posts. While discussing Marcionism, there was a debate about the apostasy. The topic got sidetracked into a discussion of the definition of scripture, so I thought I’d post a new topic regarding that topic.
Falcon makes the case that Joseph is a fraud because of his polygamy, and by extension, the Book of Mormon should not be considered scripture. So, I decided to issue a challenge. Here’s the reader’s digest version of the challenge, but you can see the entire set of instructions here.
June 8th, 2008 — Book of Mormon, Culture, History, Mormon Culture
I want to give a shout-out to my friend April. She has a blog called Normal Mormons. April is a relatively recent convert living in Idaho, and I have enjoyed hearing her observations about mormons, our sometimes strange culturalisms, and her efforts to become more Christ-like.
I comment on her blog occasionally, and have often commented that nothing really strange happens in my ward. Well, today we had an unusual event.
June 6th, 2008 — Book of Mormon, Intellectualism, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Multi-Faith
Ok, this is an email I received, and I thought it sounded quite interesting. Zelph, I couldn’t help but think of you when I read this. I think it sounds interesting to read myself, and I think others may find it interesting.
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The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) would like to announce the publication of Shaken Faith Syndrome (www.ShakenFaithSyndrome.com) by Michael R. Ash.
June 3rd, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, Creationism, Evolution, Geography, History, Mormon, New York
Ok, I’m ready to lay this to rest. It doesn’t seem to generate much interest, so here is my final post about my review of http://www.bookofmormongeography.info
I thought I’d post the more egregious errors here, instead of going section by section as I had originally intended to do. I just checked the site, and got a chuckle out of this little exchange:
May 25th, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, Geography, History, Mormon, New York
Here is Part 4 of a review of http://www.bookofmormongeography.info
“Amazing” is a new section, which didn’t exist a few months ago when I began researching this theory. The author tries to make the Book of Mormon match NY geography, instead of first coming up with an internal model, and seeing if NY fits. He makes the following claim:
May 22nd, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, Geography, History, Mormon, New York
This is part 3 of a review of http://www.bookofmormongeography.info/
The author has a Welcome section which we reviewed earlier, and this is the second section (called Errors), detailing what the author finds as Errors many other have made. (I am going to refer to the author as “he” from now on–I’m not sure if the author is a he or she, and he so far prefers to stay anonymous, except has posted here as BOMC.)
This section has both parts that I agree with, and parts I disagree with. Let me quote: Continue reading →
