Author: Jonathan Neville

Current events have given us a rare opportunity to finally expose the M2C hoax.

The collapse of the Russia collusion hoax has primed people to recognize that they have been lied to. Everyone now sees that what the media portrayed as truth for 2 years was actually a hoax.

The Russia hoax is a parallel to the M2C hoax. People who believed the Russia hoax for two years are angry to see the hoax exposed. They just cannot believe that the media and their favorite politicians misled them so completely for so long.
_____

I often hear from readers who, when they share the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah, get angry responses from people who believe M2C* because of what they were taught in CES or BYU classes.

(*M2C is the acronym for the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory, promoted by certain LDS intellectuals who claim the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah.)

To understand the source of this anger, we need to recognize that there are two categories of people in the Church:

A. those who still believe the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah, and 

B. those who disbelieve those teachings.

[Technically, there is a third group: those who have never heard those teachings. This includes pretty much everyone who is younger than 40 years old. However, the young people in the Church have been skillfully primed by M2C intellectuals to reject the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah, so they usually fall into group B until they learn more about the M2C hoax.]

Group B also includes the employees of Book of Mormon Central and other members of the M2C citation cartel who actively work to persuade members of the Church (and the world as a whole) to disbelieve the teachings of the prophets.
_____

Group A, those who still believe the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah, do not feel anger at all. They feel confidence and peace. They do not contend with anyone about this; they simply oppose censorship, especially censorship of the teachings of the prophets.

They happily desire to share the teachings of the prophets so others can make informed decisions for themselves. For them, the joy of sharing the teachings of the prophets is akin to sharing the gospel itself. They respect free agency. They don’t expect others to agree; they certainly don’t demand agreement.

They are surprised that other members of the Church get angry when they learn what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah, but they recognize this anger arises from cognitive dissonance, because M2C is incompatible with faith in the teachings of the prophets.

Those who still believe the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah identify with Nephi, who wrote, “Behold, it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cry much unto the Lord my God, because of the anger of my brethren.” 2 Nephi 5:1
_____

We are reminded of something Michael Crichton said:

“Human beings never think for themselves; they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told – and become upset if they are exposed to any different view.”

George Orwell put it this way: “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” 
_____

It’s fine for people to believe whatever they want. No one should get angry about what someone else believes. 

But no one should tolerate the intentional censorship of the clear teachings of the prophets. 

Members of the Church deserve good information. President Nelson taught us that “good inspiration is based upon good information.”

Yesterday I heard a variation of that:

“Information begets inspiration.”

We can’t make informed decisions when we don’t have good information.

The M2C citation cartel continues to censor good information because they don’t want Church members to make informed decisions. They know that, given a clear choice between the teachings of the prophets and the teachings of the M2C intellectuals, most members of the Church will chose the prophets instead of the intellectuals.

This is true despite the effective priming techniques employed by CES and BYU with their fantasy maps.

But now, thanks to the exposure of the Russia collusion hoax, it is a good time for Church members to recognize the M2C hoax.
_____

Americans are beginning to accept the reality that the media perpetrated the Russia collusion hoax. They can see that the media (and many politicians) deliberately misled them for political reasons.

Likewise, members of the Church, at least in the U.S., are beginning to accept the reality that certain LDS intellectuals, as well as LDS media, perpetrated the M2C hoax.

They can see that the M2C citation cartel deliberately misled them for academic and financial reasons.
_____

M2C intellectual arguing in favor of M2C by telling the prophets, “But you were all ignorant speculators who misled the Church about the New York Cumorah!”

The M2C hoax, started in the early 1900s by RLDS scholars, has persisted for over 100 years despite the objection of LDS Church leaders, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference.

You can read what the prophets have taught here:
http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html

The M2C intellectuals claim superiority over the prophets. They claim their intellect is greater than the mantle of the prophets.

They are telling us that the prophets who taught the New York Cumorah were merely ignorant speculators who misled the Church.

It is astonishing that so many members of the Church believe this hoax, but in almost every case (not counting the paid activists), it is because Church members don’t know any better.
_____

Think about this. Book of Mormon Central has raised millions of dollars and is hiring fine young scholars to promote M2C throughout the world on social media. They want everyone to know that they, the intellectuals, are correct, while the prophets are wrong.

BYU fantasy map that teaches students the prophets are wrong

BYU and CES are actively teaching the youth of the Church that the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah.

How is that playing out?

Fewer and fewer members of the Church believe the Book of Mormon is an authentic history.

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery recognized that it was essential to ground the Book of Mormon in the real world.

That’s why they wrote and published (and republished many times) Letter VII, which declares it is a fact that the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is the same hill where Joseph found the plates.

Joseph and Oliver had first-hand, personal experience with the repository of Nephite records in that hill. Moroni himself identified the hill as Cumorah.

The New York Cumorah was reaffirmed for 140 years by many prophets, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference.

Yet the M2C intellectuals insist they were all wrong.

Why?

Because of the speculation of a couple of scholars from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who also rejected Brigham Young, John Taylor, and all the other prophets who succeeded them.

Our M2C intellectuals preferred this speculation instead of the teachings of the prophets and have spent decades confirming their bias.

And that’s fine. They and their followers can believe whatever they want. No one should be angry or contentious on either side.

But no one should engage in censorship, either.
_____

There is something else Michael Crichton said that pertains to all of this.

“In the information society, nobody thinks. We expect to banish paper, but we actually banish thought.”

The M2C citation cartel knows they can banish thought by controlling information. They know that censorship can succeed in the Church because so many Church members rely on the employees at CES, BYU and COB to provide good information.

Most Church members are shocked to learn how the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah is being systematically censored.

As Joseph wrote,

For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, [including LDS] who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it— D&C 128:12

A good place to find the truth is Letter VII and the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

Great advice from Richard Feynman:

1. Continually ask “Why?”

2. When you learn something, learn it to where you can explain it to a child.

3. Instead of arbitrarily memorizing things, look for the explanation that makes it obvious.
_____

Here are 3 “Why?” questions for Cumorah.

1. Why did Martin Harris say, in 1859, that “The plates were kept from the sight of the world, and no one, save Oliver Cowdrey, myself, Joseph Smith, jr., and David Whitmer, ever saw them.”

2. Why did witnesses give different descriptions of the plates, including size and weight?

3. Why doesn’t the Title Page, which describes the contents of the Original Book of Mormon, make no reference to any original plates (i.e., the plates of Nephi we call the small plates)?
_____

Traditional assumption; graphic from lds.org

The traditional assumption about the plates cannot answer any of these questions.

1. If there was only one set of gold plates, Martin Harris could not have made such a basic mistake as to forget there were 8 witnesses in addition to the 3 witnesses. Martin knew all of the 8 witnesses personally. The testimony of the 8 witnesses was included in every copy of the Book of Mormon.

2. If there was only one set of plates, the witnesses would have described the plates similarly. We wouldn’t have Joseph’s father saying they weighed 30 pounds while his brother William said they weighed 60 pounds.

3. If there was only one set of plates, then the Title Page, which was on the last leaf of the plates and listed the contents of the Original Book of Mormon, should have listed the plates of Nephi, which were not abridged. Instead, the Title Page lists only the two abridgments, plus Moroni “sealing” them with his own testimony. The absence of the plates of Nephi from the Title Page indicates that they were not included in the Original Book of Mormon.
_____

The answers to these “why” questions is very simple. You can easily explain them to a child. (You’ll have more difficulty explaining it to someone who rejects what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah, however.) The explanation is obvious once you see it.

You no longer have to avoid these questions, put them “on the shelf,” or engage in elaborate sophistry to explain them away.
_____

Here’s the explanation: Joseph Smith translated two entirely separate sets of plates.

Current understanding

Joseph translated the “Original Book of Mormon,” the set of plates he got from Moroni’s stone box in the Hill Cumorah, in Harmony, Pennsylvania.

When he approached the end of the plates, he and Oliver considered retranslating the plates of Lehi (the 116 pages Martin Harris lost).

Instead, the Lord told him he would have to translate the plates of Nephi. (D&C 10)

But he didn’t have the plates of Nephi yet.

Before leaving Harmony, Joseph gave the plates (the Original Book of Mormon) to a divine messenger. 

This is the same messenger that Joseph, Oliver, and David Whitmer met when they were traveling from Harmony to Fayette.

The messenger said he was going to Cumorah. David observed he had a knapsack that contained the plates. Joseph explained he was one of the Nephites.

The messenger took the plates (the Original Book of Mormon) to the depository of Nephite records in the Hill Cumorah.

While there, the messenger searched through the piles of Nephite records, located the original plates of Nephi (the small plates), and then took them to Fayette, where he gave them to Joseph to translate.

Simple.
_____

A lot of people ask why they haven’t heard about this before. There’s a simple answer for that, too.

The intellectuals who prepare curriculum for CES, BYU, and Church lessons don’t believe what the prophets have taught about the Hill Cumorah in New York. They believe and teach that the “real” Hill Cumorah is in Mexico.

They are so attached to their theory that they would rather have members of the Church remain confused about these “Why” questions than provide the simple answer that there were two sets of plates.

These intellectuals also teach that Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Wilford Woodruff and others did not tell the truth about the depository of Nephite records in the Hill Cumorah. There’s a good example of this here.
_____

Summary of the answers to the “why” questions.

1. Martin Harris said only he, Joseph, David, and Oliver saw the plates because the Three Witnesses saw the Original Book of Mormon (the abridged plates Moroni put in the stone box in the hill Cumorah). They may have also seen the unabridged plates of Nephi, along with the brass plates, the original plates of Ether, etc., but the Eight Witnesses did not see the Original Book of Mormon.

2. The 8 witnesses saw the plates of Nephi. That’s why Joseph’s father, one of the Eight witnesses, said they weighed 30 pounds. Joseph’s brother William, not one of the 8 Witnesses, presumably hefted the Original Book of Mormon a year earlier.

3. The Title Page omitted the original plates of Nephi because they were not part of the Original Book of Mormon. The Title Page listed the contents as the abridgment of the record of the Nephites and the abridgment of the record of the Jaredites, which Moroni sealed with his testimony. Had Martin Harris not lost the 116 pages, we would have the Original Book of Mormon today. Instead, we have part of the Original Book of Mormon, plus part of the original plates of Nephi. (The first verses of Words of Mormon serve as a separate Title Page for the plates of Nephi.)

This is so simple that any child can understand it.

In fact, this explanation makes it obvious.

Just as Feynman suggested.
_____

You will undoubtedly encounter people who resist this explanation. They have been taught their entire lives that the “real” Cumorah is in Mexico, so it is impossible for the depository of Nephite records is in New York.

They think President Oliver Cowdery was wrong when he wrote Letter VII. They actually think the Assistant President of the Church, with the cooperation and endorsement of Joseph Smith, misled the Church about the New York Hill Cumorah.

You will find that, once they learn about the evidence from Church history, they will experience cognitive dissonance. They will try hard to confirm their bias because they really don’t believe what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah.

Be patient. Eventually the right thing happens. Cognitive dissonance is a power psychological reality, but for many people, hopefully most, it will eventually yield to reality.

🙂

And, in many cases, they have never known what the prophets have taught.

This is especially true if they are under 40 years old. The rising generation has never been taught what the prophets have taught about Cumorah. Those over 40 have mostly forgotten, or have been persuaded by the intellectuals that the prophets were wrong.

Fortunately, most members of the Church, once they learn what the prophets have taught, are happy to accept their teachings.

BTW, the details of all of this are in my book, Whatever Happened to the Golden Plates?

Before continuing our look at Mormon’s Codex and the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory (M2C), we need to pause and consider the issue of scholarship more broadly.

15 years ago, a manual for Seminary teachers included a talk by then-Elder Boyd K. Packer titled “The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater than the Intellect.”

You can read it here:
https://www.lds.org/manual/teaching-seminary-preservice-readings-religion-370-471-and-475/the-mantle-is-far-far-greater-than-the-intellect?lang=eng

Before reading excerpts from that talk, let’s be clear.

Everyone acknowledges that M2C constitutes a repudiation of the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

By definition, M2C means the prophets were wrong.

This is no secret. Supporters of M2C freely and openly acknowledge this.

BYU map that teaches students that the prophets are wrong

Employees at CES, BYU and COB openly teach that the “real” Cumorah is in Mexico (or in a fantasy land), while the “hill in New York” was incorrectly named “Cumorah” by early members of the Church who were ignorant speculators.

The M2C citation cartel and their followers and employees claim that all Church leaders who taught that Cumorah was in New York misled the Church. This includes members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference.

If you read FairMormon, Book of Mormon Central, BYU Studies, the Interpreter, Meridian Magazine, and other members of the M2C citation cartel, you know they (and their predecessors) have been teaching this for a long time.

To support M2C, all of these intellectuals uniformly reject the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. (For a compilation of the teachings they reject see here:
http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html)

These M2C intellectuals claim these prophets were ignorant, lacked credentials, and were merely expressing their own opinions as uninformed men.

And that’s what they are teaching the youth of the Church.
_____

Now, let’s review what Elder Packer taught. Think of how it applies to those who claim the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah.

Once you recognize that Mormon’s Codex is a long-winded academic justification for repudiating the teachings of the prophets, you see the logical fallacies and circular reasoning throughout the book. Today we’ll look specifically at Cumorah.
_____

John L. Sorenson begins his Preface to Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book, John L. Sorenson with these observations:

“This book presents a wide array of evidence that the Book of Mormon is an ancient historical record that could only have been produced by a writer who lived in Mesoamerica (southern Mexico and northern Central America) many centuries before Spanish explorers reached that area…. Numerous theories have, of course, been proposed to correlate Book of Mormon geography with the modern map of the Americas. None of these theories have been considered definitive by authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In chapters 2 and 7, I explain why I consider only one of those theories–involving a particular area in Mesoamerica–to escape the fatal flaws exhibited by all the others.”

I suspect most readers glide right over this sleight-of-hand rhetoric. The truth, though, is that Church authorities have always made a clear distinction between fact and theory regarding Book of Mormon geography.

Fact: The Hill Cumorah is in New York. This was established as a fact in Letter VII, written by President Oliver Cowdery who was an eye-witness to the depository of Nephite records in that hill (Mormon 6:6). Joseph Smith helped write these letters, had them copied into his personal history, and endorsed their republication for the rest of his life. The fact that Cumorah is in New York has been repeated many times by Church leaders, including by members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference. No member of the First Presidency or Quorum of the Twelve has ever repudiated this teaching of his predecessors.

Theory: Church leaders have always said don’t know for sure the locations of other Book of Mormon events, so every proposed geography other than the New York Cumorah is necessarily a theory.

All of this means that, starting right from the outset, Mormon’s Codex is propaganda, not scholarship.
_____

Mormon’s Codex does refer to Cumorah several times. In a passage that is really the heart of M2C, the book even addresses the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah, albeit dismissively and obliquely:

“There remain Latter-day Saints who insist that the final destruction of the Nephites took place in New York, but any such idea is manifestly absurd. Hundreds of thousands of Nephites traipsing across the Mississippi Valley to New York, pursued (why?) by hundred of thousands of Lamanites, is a scenario worthy only of a witless sci-fi movie, not of history.” 

Mormon’s Codex, p. 688.

The disdain expressed here for the teachings of the prophets persists in all the writings of the M2C citation cartel. 

BYU fantasy map that instructs the youth that the teachings of the prophets are absurd

Book of Mormon Central, BYU Studies, the Interpreter, Meridian Magazine, and other members of the M2C citation cartel continue to teach that the New York Cumorah is absurd.

The fine young scholars employed by Book of Mormon Central are active on the Internet, seeking to persuade their peers that the prophets are wrong.

Employees at BYU, CES, and COB (the Church Office Building) continue to teach the youth of the Church (as well as everyone else in the world) that the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah are absurd.

Relying on the illusion of scholarship created by the M2C intellectuals, the authors of Saints actually altered Church history to censor the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

Even the anonymous Gospel Topics essay on Book of Mormon Geography, already changed once, purports to overturn the long-held teachings of Church leaders about the New York Cumorah without even acknowledging those teachings.

All of this is the result of the illusion of scholarship that Mormon’s Codex typifies.
_____

Ironically, we could agree with Brother Sorenson and still accept the teachings of the prophets.

But the conclusion would be the exact opposite of M2C.

If it’s absurd to think that hundreds of thousands of Nephites would traipse across the Mississippi Valley to New York, and if we accept the teachings of the prophets that Cumorah is in New York, then the absurd element is thinking that the Nephites came from Mesoamerica in the first place.

That possibility never seems to occur to Brother Sorenson or the rest of the M2C citation cartel. It’s one of the main reasons why the material they produce is merely an illusion of scholarship.

Whatever it is, the work of the M2C citation cartel is not scientific. No scientist censors viable alternative explanations without at least carefully considering them and explaining the reasons for rejecting them.

(And yes, I realize they claim they have done so, but as we’ve seen before, their treatment consists of one or two brief outcome-oriented articles that I’ve addressed in detail on this blog before.)

To be clear, I do not reject the Mesoamerican setting and I won’t until it has not been rejected by the prophets. However, I think it is implausible, given the New York Cumorah. I think the evidence from ancient North America aligns far better with the text of the Book of Mormon than the evidence from Mesoamerica, Baja, Panama, etc.

For me, the distinction between fact and theory, between the New York Cumorah and everything else, is so well established by the prophets that it is inexcusable to censor, let alone repudiate, the teachings of the prophets.

It’s a side benefit that the fact of the New York Cumorah is so well supported by available archaeology, anthropology, geography, and geology.
_____

Mormon’s Codex is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.

(For those reading this post in translation, that phrase in English is used to describe a situation in which an important or powerful person, organization, etc., is being controlled by someone or something that is much less important or powerful.)

Here we have an admitted theory–the idea that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica–being used to repudiate a known fact taught by eye-witnesses and prophets of God for over 140 years, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference.

The key point is this:

Mormon’s Codex (and M2C as a whole) depends entirely on the premise that the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah. 

Because they are wrong, any theory that identifies Cumorah in New York is also wrong.

Therefore, the events of the Book of Mormon could not have taken place in North America and must have taken place in Mesoamerica.

Therefore, believers in the Book of Mormon must find evidence of the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica.

Because such evidence is not obvious, believers must reinterpret the text so it fits the evidence that actually exists in Mesoamerica.

Hence, we have Mormon’s Codex and all the rest of the publications from the M2C citation cartel.

All of the “correspondences” and “parallels” in Mormon’s Codex are a produce of this circular reasoning. Most of them are attributes common to most human societies–especially the Asian societies from which the Mayans came.
_____

The treatment of Cumorah in Mormon’s Codex is an illusion of scholarship, as you’ll see if you read it carefully. Here are some examples:

“In the final stage of their retreat, all the identifiable Nephites assembled near the hill Cumorah, probably Cerro El Vigia in south-central Veracruz…. 

When all the remaining Nephites were ‘gathered in,’ the numerically superior Lamanite horde waged battle. In a single day they exterminated all 23 units of the defenders (each nominally of 10,000 men)….

Finally, the hill where the end came for the Jaredites, who called it Ramah, and the location of the last battle of the Nephites at the same hill (they called it Cumorah), have a highly likely correspondence to Cerro El Vigia (see fig. 7.2), an outlier on the northwest of the Tuxtla Mountains. In overall location and in a dozen other features, the textual information in the Book of Mormon agrees with the geographical situation. 72″

In classic M2C citation cartel fashion, Footnote 72 (page 142) cites David A. Palmer, In Search of Cumorah (Bountiful, UT: Horizon Publishers, 1992). Brother Palmer, of course, encouraged Brother Sorenson to write his books.

Brother Palmer is the one who wrote the self-serving entry on Cumorah in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism that cites only his own book for authority, again in classic M2C citation cartel fashion. You can read my discussions of his book if you search for “David Palmer” on this blog. Brother Palmer cites the anonymous articles in the Times and Seasons for authority, while ignoring the teachings of the prophets entirely, except for a brief dismissal of Letter VII, which he doesn’t even quote.
_____

As you go through the “criteria” for Cumorah set forth in Mormon’s Codex and In Search of Cumorah, you’ll see that the criteria are derived not from the text but from the assumed Mesoamerican setting. There must be volcanoes, for example, which Mormon and Moroni forgot to mention but which Brothers Sorenson and Palmer thoughtfully provide.

As I noted at the outset, once you recognize that Mormon’s Codex is a long-winded justification for repudiating the prophets, you see the logical fallacies and circular reasoning throughout.

We’ll have more examples in the next few posts.

In my previous post in this series, we saw how Terryl Givens claimed Mormon’s Codex is “the high-water mark of scholarship on the Book of Mormon.” Foreword, Mormon’s Codex, p. xvi.

Today, let’s look at the basic premise of Mormon’s Codex.

First, I re-emphasize that I have great respect and admiration for Brother John L. Sorenson, the author of Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book. As I mentioned in my own book, Moroni’s America, Brother Sorenson has helped me and many other members of the Church think of the Book of Mormon people and events in a real-world context. That is an important and invaluable contribution that I hope everyone recognizes.

He also taught us all that we can and should use scientific discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, geology, geography and other fields to understand the real-world context of the Book of Mormon.

In my view, the only problem is that Brother Sorenson started with a false premise and never looked back.

To understand this, we need to assess what we mean by scholarship.
_____

If you google the definition of “scholarship” you get this result from the online Oxford dictionary.

NOUN

• 1[mass noun] Academic study or achievement; learning at a high level.

  ‘the intellectual dishonesty has nothing to do with lack of scholarship’

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/scholarship

I want to be crystal clear about this.

I do not think the M2C intellectuals, including Brother Sorenson, are intellectually dishonest.

I do not think they lack scholarship.

Scholarship involves citations and analysis of data. It involves interpretation of source materials. It involves source-checking and peer review.

But scholarship also requires careful, respectful consideration of alternative viewpoints, and this is where Mormon’s Codex, as all of M2C publications, falls way short.

It’s very simple.

The M2C intellectuals have elevated their intellectual preferences over the teachings of the prophets, and then they have engaged in bias confirmation to persuade themselves they are correct and the prophets are wrong.

When it comes to the Hill Cumorah in New York, we as members of the Church can choose to accept the prophets or the intellectuals. It’s an either/or choice.
_____

Some critics claim that my book, Moroni’s America, lacks sufficient “scholarship” to match up with Mormon’s Codex. I have three responses.

First, I explained at the outset that Moroni’s America was an introductory examination of the evidence for the North American setting. It was an experiment, essentially. I wanted to see if the physical evidence and the text supported the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. It was never intended as a full-bore scholarly proof of the North American setting. There is abundant scientific evidence to support the North American setting that has never, to my knowledge, been assembled in one location or document. However, that will change soon, as we’ll announce next month.

Second, for members of the Church, the teachings of the prophets deserve deference, especially the accounts of eye-witnesses to events that no one since has experienced. When someone from history says “I saw such-and-such,” no amount of scientific analysis, especially scientific analysis 150-200 years later, can disprove that eye-witness. IOW, the burden of proof is virtually insurmountable if one seeks to disprove a historical eye-witness account; conversely, the burden of proof is low when all one seeks is to corroborate a historical eye-witness account.

Third, the question of Book of Mormon geography depends largely on interpretation of the text. Anyone who claims their view is “based on the text” is delusional; everyone’s view is based on an interpretation of the text. There are few nouns, verbs, or modifiers that do not have more than one connotation. This should be self-evident to everyone, especially scholars and academics. Yet it is their belief in a particular interpretation, and their subjective rejection of alternative interpretations, that guide M2C intellectuals throughout their work, including Mormon’s Codex.
_____

Lately, people have been citing the anonymous Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography to claim that (i) the modern prophets have changed the teachings of their predecessors and (ii) that we should not discuss Book of Mormon geography and historicity.

Neither proposition is set forth in the essay.

The essay has already been changed once, and will undoubtedly be changed in the future, if only to correct the obviously false statement of fact it contains, as I’ve discussed before. Plus, there is the obvious problem in the essay where it conflates theories and facts, and the confusion about the difference between claiming prophetic and Church support for one’s theories vs. supporting the unambiguous and (so far) unrepudiated teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

In the meantime, the essay reaffirms the principle that we can all believe whatever we want.

The question still boils down to prophets (New York Cumorah) vs. scholars (M2C) because there is scientific evidence to support both positions.

That leads us to examine the M2C claim that M2C is the product of sound scholarship.
_____

The cover jacket of Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book explains the fundamentals. Original in blue, my comments in red.

Leading scholar and author John L. Sorenson brilliantly synthesizes in this volume his work from 60 years of academic study of ancient Mesoamerica and its relationship to the Book of Mormon.

IOW, the book synthesizes 60 years of bias confirmation.

Here Sorenson reveals that the Book of Mormon exhibits what one would expect of a historical document produced in the context of ancient Mesoamerican civilization. 

Notice carefully the word choice here. “Reveals” implies the uncovering of a previously unknown truth or reality. Yet no one–literally no one–would expect ancient Mesoamerican civilization to produce a manuscript such as the Book of Mormon. 

Even the M2C intellectuals lament that the Book of Mormon refers to horses instead of tapirs, sheep instead of agouti, wood and cement instead of stone and cement, etc. There is a stark absence in actual Mesoamerica about Israelite practices and teachings, let alone the Christian teachings that permeate the Book of Mormon from start to finish. 

He also shows that the scholars’ discoveries about Mesoamerica and the contents of the Nephite record are clearly related. 

Here, you should notice that “contents of the Nephite record” is really “Sorenson’s interpretation of the Nephite record.” As we’ll see, the book is full of reinterpretations of the actual text.  

Indeed, Sorenson lists more than 400 points where the Book of Mormon text corresponds to characteristic Mesoamerican situations, statements, allusions, and history.

These are the illusory correspondences of which I’ve written quite a bit. We’ll take another look in this series. 

Are we to simply suppose that mere coincidence can account for similarities of this magnitude? 

These illusory correspondences are anything but coincidences. Sorenson and other M2C intellectuals have specifically interpreted the text to match elements of Mesoamerican society and history. 

The parallels are too striking and too sweeping to answer in the affirmative. 

The “parallels” were designed by the M2C intellectuals. The surprise would be if they were not striking and sweeping.

Even the greatest savant of the early 19th century–let alone a marginally literate frontier farm boy–could not possibly have produced a volume as rich in Mesoamericana as the Book of Mormon.

Joseph Smith was prepared by the Lord to translate the Book of Mormon. He was anything but “marginally literate.” And could hardly be a book more removed from Meosamericana than the Book of Mormon. The text says nothing of jade, jaguar, and jungles, for example. No stone pyramids. No volcanoes. Nothing, really, about Mesoamerica. 

The only format in which a record such as the Book of Mormon could have been preserved is that of a native Mesoamerican book referred to by scholars as a codex. 

Re-read that statement of fact and judge its absurdity for yourself.

According to the record itself, the text was compiled by a man named Mormon, who lived in the Mesoamerican isthmus area in the late fourth century. Mormon passed the record to his son Moroni, who survived him by more than 35 years and made modest additions to the text.

This is perhaps the most audacious statement on the jacket. Now the text of the Book of Mormon itself claims Mormon lived in the Mesoamerican isthmus. I realize this was probably an editing error; they meant to say only that the “record itself” identified Mormon as the compiler, not that he lived in Mesoamerica. But whoever copy edited this piece was so persuaded by M2C that he/she didn’t catch the distinction. In fact, I suspect many M2C scholars and their employees and followers actually believe the text refers explicitly to Mesoamerica, just as this jacket copy claims.

A significant contribution to the fields of Book of Mormon studies and Mesoamerican studies, Mormon’s Codex is John Sorenson’s magnum opus. It contains copious explanatory material, extensive footnotes, over 1,300 bibliographical references, illustrations, an appendix, and detailed maps. This long-awaited volume will appeal to informed general readers, archaeologists, and scholars alike.

Quantity as evidence of veracity. Beautiful. 

Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship
Deseret Book Company

Neither of these organizations has, or ever will, publish something that supports the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. Enough said.
_____

Next in this series we’ll discuss the origin of the bias that the book confirms.

Recently Glenn Greenwald discussed the causes of the Russian collusion hoax (which has a lot of parallels with the M2C hoax).

The media formed a citation cartel and refused to engage with anyone who questioned their cartel.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/04/19/glenn_greenwald_donald_trump_broke_the_brains_of_a_lot_of_people.html

_____

Today I’m giving my sixth presentation in the last 2 weeks. Other people have given many more recently. This means thousands of Church members have learned, for the first time, about the teachings of the prophets regarding the New York Cumorah and the evidence that supports the prophets.

This is progress. Members of the Church are enthusiastic about learning these things. But there is still a long way to go.
_____

Many people are upset at how deeply they’ve been misled by the M2C hoax (the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory).  One of the most common questions people ask is: Why do employees at BYU/CES and COB continue to teach the M2C?

The academic cycle

The answer is two-fold:

1. These employees have all been taught M2C by people they trusted, so they accepted it. The academic cycle works great.

2. They believe the scholars instead of the prophets because they have been persuaded that the scholarship is overwhelming and conclusive.

We can stipulate that the M2C intellectuals are faithful LDS members with good intentions. They just have a different view on the question of intellectuals vs. prophets.

M2C is driven by the claim of intellectual superiority over the prophets.

It’s not easy to persuade members of the Church that the prophets are wrong. That’s why M2C intellectuals created the M2C citation cartel in the first place.

They use the cartel to censor the teachings of the prophets and the evidence that supports those teachings. The M2C citation cartel wants people to believe there is no alternative to the Mesoamerican setting for Book of Mormon geography. It is M2C or bust.

That censorship is one sign that M2C is phony scholarship. 

M2C proponents refuse to provide readers (and Church members and leaders generally) with all the information they need to make informed decisions.
_____

Tomorrow we’ll resume our series on the Illusion of M2C scholarship, focusing on Mormon’s Codex.

After my post on the illusion of scholarship, people wanted specific examples.

Let’s start with Mormon’s Codex, which Professor Terryl Givens claims is “the high-water mark of scholarship on the Book of Mormon.” Foreword, Mormon’s Codex, p. xvi.

Well, let’s start with Brother Givens. In the Foreword, he writes,

“Whether or not God spoke to Moses on Sinai, Jesus resurrected from the dead, or Paul wrote words given him by inspiration, no one doubts the Old World setting and ancient origins of the Old and New Testaments. Until such time as a preponderance of evidence provides comparable historical plausibility for the Book of Mormon’s ancient origin, no one can expect scholars to consider the book as anything other than a nineteenth-century cultural artifact. If such a time is to come, it will arrive in large measure through the efforts of John Sorenson, who has done more than any Latter-day Saint scholar to shift the terms of the Book of Mormon debates.”

This is the M2C or bust approach; i.e., you have to believe the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica, and that the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah, or else you have to believe the Book of Mormon is fiction.

Brother Givens’ M2C or bust approach has two major fallacies that we must infer Brother Givens is fully aware of.

First, Brother Sorenson did not originate M2C and was not the first to focus on Mesoamerica. Both were the work of RLDS scholars in the late 19th and early 20th century. Sorenson simply adopted their approach, rejecting the teachings of LDS prophets in the process.

Sorenson’s innovation was re-interpreting the text to fit Mesoamerica (an audacious feat of circular reasoning) and then adding lots of footnotes to support his interpretation. This, we’re told, constitutes “the high-water mark of scholarship on the Book of Mormon.”

Regarding M2C scholarship, we have to agree with Brother Givens. But “high-water mark” is faint praise because Mormon’s Codex was already underwater in the sense that it specifically and intentionally repudiates the teachings of the prophets, as we’ll see below.

Second, for all of his scholarly work (Mormon’s Codex alone is 714 pages, plus Bibliography, Index, and Preface, with hundreds (thousands?) of footnotes, professional maps, etc.), the only debate Brother Sorenson has shifted is away from the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

No non-LDS Mesoamerican scholar thinks the Book of Mormon describes Mesoamerican culture. M2C is completely unpersuasive to the experts.

Worse, fewer and fewer LDS members are convinced by M2C.

The Next Mormons contains survey data that show a rapidly declining belief in the historicity of the Book of Mormon among LDS Millennials that corresponds with the increasing prevalence of M2C.

Let’s be clear: thanks to the work of Brother Sorenson and his fellow M2C advocates at Book of Mormon Central, the Interpreter, BYU Studies, CES, COB, and their various other outlets, fewer and fewer members of the Church believe the Book of Mormon is “anything other than a nineteenth-century cultural artifact.”  
_____

M2C cannot stand on its own merits. 

To keep the M2C hoax on life support, the M2C intellectuals depend on censoring the teachings of the prophets and the evidence that supports those teachings.

The M2C intellectuals raise millions of dollars from unsuspecting Church members and pay fine young scholars to promote M2C on social media. 

These tactics reveal the weakness of their M2C theory even among LDS who want to believe the Book of Mormon is an authentic history. 

BYU fantasy map portraying the Book of Mormon as a myth

Nevertheless, because of their positions of influence at BYU, these M2C intellectuals have persuaded BYU and CES to teach the Book of Mormon with the infamous fantasy map (derived from Sorenson’s M2C interpretation of the text) that reinforces the very problem Givens claimed Brother Sorenson was addressing.

To slightly paraphrase Brother Givens, thanks to M2C and these fantasy maps, “no one can expect LDS youth to consider the book as anything other than a nineteenth-century cultural artifact.”

It is an unmitigated disaster.

And yet, since the inflection point in the 1980s, M2C has replaced the teachings of the prophets.

The M2C intellectuals justify this because of “scholarship.” In upcoming posts, we’ll examine the scholarship to see whether it deserves to be elevated above the teachings of the prophets.

Suffice it to say, a partial truth, when intentionally presented as the whole truth, is an untruth. Unfortunately, there are some who are so concerned about winning an argument or promoting an ideology that they present only a partial truth, perhaps afraid that if they presented the whole truth it would dilute or even negate their argument. When they do so, that partial truth becomes an untruth. (pp. 70–71)

Brother Callister’s insightful comment deserves more attention.

Partial truth is part of the long-established pattern we’ve seen from the M2C citation cartel. Some Church employees have also resorted to partial truths to promote their private agendas.

In my experience, when presented with the whole truth, members of the Church usually side with the teachings of the prophets instead of the teachings of the intellectuals.

On the topic of Cumorah, the whole truth dilutes or negates the arguments of the intellectuals.

This is why the intellectuals, along with their followers and employees, continue to resort to censorship, both full and partial. Here, of course, I’m referring to Book of Mormon Central, FairMormon, the Interpreter, BYU Studies, and much of the Church History Department.
_____

Let’s consider two examples.

Sometimes censorship is achieved by completely erasing some historical facts from the record, while leaving others intact–a form of partial truth. We saw this with the Saints book, which censored all references to Cumorah while purporting to be “the standard of truth.” People reading Saints have no idea that Joseph Smith and all his contemporaries and successors taught that there was one hill Cumorah and it was in New York.

The editors of Saints justified changing Church history because they wanted to accommodate the modern M2C hoax, as we saw here:

https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-historians-explain-censorship-in.html

That form of censorship works because people never know what they are missing. Consequently, the youth in the Church and the rising generation will never know what the prophets have taught about Cumorah–unless they seek information from sources other than Saints, the Ensign, the New Era, the Friend, CES, BYU, and the M2C citation cartel.

Of course, the situation should be just the opposite. Members of the Church should be able to rely on these sources for good information and complete information and accurate information.

But we can’t, because M2C drives the editorial decisions.

To be sure, Saints and all of these sources also include good information and lots of truth. That is what makes it all the more challenging when they promote partial truth.
_____

Another fascinating example of partial truth is the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography.

The first version, released in January 2019, included this quotation from President Anthony W. Ivins:

Anthony W. Ivins, a Counselor in the First Presidency, stated: “There has never been anything yet set forth that definitely settles that question [of Book of Mormon geography]. So the Church says we are just waiting until we discover the truth.”3

I pointed out that this was a partial truth for two reasons.

First, because the quotation is taken out of context and misleadingly paraphrased. Note what precedes the excerpt and bracketed paraphrase. “There is a great deal of talk about the geography of the Book of Mormon. Where was the land of Zarahemla? Where was the City of Zarahemla? and other geographic matters. It does not make any difference to us. There has never been anything yet set forth that definitely settles that question. So the Church says we are just waiting until we discover the truth. All kinds of theories have been advanced. I have talked with at least half a dozen men that have found the very place where the City of Zarahemla stood, and notwithstanding the fact that they profess to be Book of Mormon students, they vary a thousand miles apart in the places they have located. We do not offer any definite solution.”

In 1929, President Ivins was not casting doubt on the location of Cumorah, as the Gospel Topics essay implied. Instead, he was reaffirming the two separate elements of the long-held position of the Church that (i) Cumorah is in New York and (ii) we don’t know for sure where the other events took place.

Second, the essay was a partial truth because President Ivins endorsed the long-held, firm, and clear position on the New York Cumorah, a position that the Gospel Topics Essay seeks to repudiate without even acknowledging the teachings of the prophets, except by misstating them and conflating the two separate elements.

On April 6, 1928, President spoke in General Conference about the Hill Cumorah in New York, which the Church had recently purchased. After discussing the Hill Cumorah in New York and explaining it was the location for the final battles of the Jaredites and the Nephites, President Ivins said,

“All of these incidents to which I have referred, my brethren and sisters, are very closely associated with this particular spot in the state of New York. Therefore I feel, as I said in the beginning of my remarks, that the acquisition of that spot of ground is more than an incident in the history of the Church; it is an epoch—an epoch which in my opinion is fraught with that which may become of greater interest to the Latter-day Saints than that which has already occurred. We know that all of these records, all the sacred records of the Nephite people, were deposited by Mormon in that hill. That incident alone is sufficient to make it the sacred and hallowed spot that it is to us…. Those additional records will come forth, they will be published to the world, that the children of our Father may be converted to faith in Christ, our Lord and Redeemer, through obedience to the doctrines which he taught.”

To avoid conveying a partial truth, the Gospel Topics essay should have included both of his talks (1928 and 1929); simply omitting one (and quoting the other out of context with a misleading paraphrase) uses partial truth to create a false impression of what President Ivins actually taught.

After I pointed out the problem with this partial truth, the essay was revised. But instead of revising it to teach the entire truth, the authors/editors simply erased President Ivins altogether!

There remain other partial truths in the essay, but in the treatment of President Ivins, we see a partial truth replaced by complete censorship.

You can read about the revisions here, along with my comments:

https://presidentnelsonspeaks.blogspot.com/2019/02/revisions-to-gospel-topics-essay-on.html
_____

For decades, I was perplexed that so few people found LDS scholarship persuasive.

Now that I realize M2C is a hoax, though, I can see why it is so unconvincing to most people.

M2C scholarship looks like the real thing, but it is only an illusion. It is pure M2C confirmation bias, supported by censorship.

I’ve given examples in my reviews of selected Interpreter articles and Kno-Whys, which I refer to as “no-wise.” You can see some examples here:

http://interpreterpeerreviews.blogspot.com/

Readers frequently send me comments and materials pointing out other logical and factual fallacies in the work of the M2C citation cartel. I can’t possibly put them all on this blog or anywhere else. But I can remind readers of what to be aware of when you are faced with the M2C arguments that rely on the intellectuals instead of the prophets.

I encourage everyone to study the scriptures and the teachings of the prophets from General Conference. With those as a firm foundation, we can proceed to consider additional information.

Don’t start with the M2C intellectuals, because they are trying to persuade you to disbelieve the prophets.
_____

What prompted this post was another fine article by an employee of Book of Mormon Central titled “7 Ways to Recognize Bad Gospel Research.” You can see it here:
https://bookofmormoncentral.org/blog/7-ways-to-recognize-bad-gospel-research

This is one of the best explanations of the M2C citation cartel’s editorial approach I’ve seen yet. It is well-written, interesting, and practical–and it focuses entirely on assessing the qualifications of experts. Not once does the article suggest considering the teachings of the prophets and apostles.

Of course, Book of Mormon Central and its employees cannot encourage people to consider the teachings of the prophets and apostles in General Conference as conclusive or even relevant because M2C specifically repudiates what they have taught in General Conference about the New York Cumorah. 

Instead, Book of Mormon Central and its employees want members of the Church to rely on the “experts,” as defined by Book of Mormon Central. It’s unbelievably self-serving, but it’s on full display every day at Book of Mormon Central.

They’ll throw in a few quotations from the prophets from time to time, but they don’t want members of the Church to even know what the prophets have taught to the extent it contradicts M2C. And they are just as adamant about censoring information that supports the teachings of the prophets.

(And I reiterate again that I really like, respect and admire every one of the scholars involved, even though I disagree with their approach to these issues, their conclusions, and most of all, their continuing practice of censorship.)

Here are the article’s 7 ways “to help you navigate the murky waters of religion on the internet.”
1. Know WHO wrote it
2. Know what STANDARDS they are expected to meet
3. Know WHY they wrote it
4. Pay attention to the TONE
5. Know how it stacks up to WHAT is already out there
6. Pay attention to the CONTEXT they are offering
7. You must end with the CORRECT SOURCE
_____

With all this focus on credentials and experts, let’s look at the illusion of scholarship.
_____

M2C logo of FARMS and Book of Mormon Central

In the 1980s and 1990s, FARMS published all kinds of scholarly books and articles. When that organization disintegrated, the participants formed the Interpreter Foundation and Book of Mormon Central (BMC) and continued publishing scholarly material.

The BMC and FairMormon websites collected and organized the material by topics and FAQs to make it more accessible.

At first glance, the scholarly material looks impressive.

It has the appearance of scholarship. There are credentials (PhD, JD, MS, etc.). There are citations. There is “peer review.” There is source checking and editing and all the other elements of publication that confer an illusion of scholarship.

But underlying much of it is a shared assumption that was never challenged: the assumption that the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah, because the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica and there are Two Cumorahs (M2C).

Everyone involved believed in M2C.

No views that challenged M2C were expressed in these publications, except as targets of attack and ridicule.

These groups were citing one another, over and over.

It was a citation cartel.

And it still is.

The M2C citation cartel does produce some great research on topics related to the Book of Mormon separate from M2C, but the overriding editorial stance is M2C. And as a hoax, M2C cannot survive except through censorship and repudiation of the teachings of the prophets.
_____

Many members of the Church (me included) wanted to believe and trust these LDS intellectuals because we thought they were supporting our faith in the Book of Mormon. I accepted their teachings for decades, just like the employees at Book of Mormon Central today do.

Once I realized M2C was merely hoax, with the fundamental premise being that the prophets are wrong, I took another look. I soon noticed that, to sustain the hoax, these groups were engaging in all kinds of logical thinking errors.

Some of these are matters of debate. It’s normal, even expected, for people to interpret facts differently, make a variety of inferences, reach opposite conclusions, etc. All of that is fine. Even healthy.

What’s not fine, and what is not healthy, is the ongoing practice of censorship.

The M2C citation cartel has deluded itself, and its readers, into thinking scholarship justifies censorship. They don’t trust their readers to make informed decisions. You’ll know that changes when they allow even a modicum of faithful intellectual diversity in their publications.
_____

In one of my presentations at the conference, I featured Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow.

I encourage everyone to read that book. Understanding psychology would enhance both ministry and missionary work.

And, it would eliminate a lot of the nonsense that circulates among LDS.

Because psychology is so important to understanding the issues, I’ve created new pages about psychology on the BookofMormonCentralAmerica.com page so you can see and share direct links:

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2019/04/basic-psychology-new-pages.html

_______

Everyone should think about what President Nelson has taught.

It’s also true that informed decisions can only be based on good, complete information. That is why the ongoing censorship by purportedly academic LDS publications and websites is so devastating.

People can’t make informed decisions when they are not informed.

Ask around. Ask your friends, family members, ward members, and other associates whether they know what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah.

In most cases, they will have no idea.

Especially if they are around 40 years old or younger.

Worse, they will never learn what the prophets have taught because of a concerted effort by M2C intellectuals and their followers (and employees) to censor these teachings.

If they were educated at BYU and/or CES, and if they read the material published by the M2C citation cartel, they have no idea what the prophets have taught, except when those employees are explaining why the prophets were wrong.

But you can overcome the censorship by sharing my BYU packet, which you can see here:

http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html

 _____

One commentator summarized Kahneman’s book this way.

A key point about System 1: It can only handle activated ideas.

Censorship is effective because it forces System 1 to manufacture an artificial reality.

From the book, p. 85:

This explains why people continue to believe in the M2C hoax. Their System 1 thinking makes sense of M2C because they don’t have information about (i) what the prophets have taught and (ii) the evidence that supports those teachings.

Continuing:

Hence we have such M2C propositions that Moroni hauled the plates from southern Mexico to “a hill in New York,” that Oliver Cowdery was honest and correct about everything except the New York Hill Cumorah, that Joseph Smith was an ignorant speculator who misled the Church until he learned Book of Mormon geography from a travel book, etc.

Graphically, we can summarize all of this in three images: