Posted on 03/19/2009 1:58:13 PM PDT by colorcountry
There are at least 4 competing theories regarding the bom lands:
Hemispheric Geographists - traditional view that the Lehites and Jaredites were the primary American colonists. The most visible of the hemispheric apologists is David Stewart, webmaster of The Cumorah Project (www.cumorah.com)
Limited Geographists - Overwhelming scientific evidence that American Indians are essentially all descended from Siberian ancestors and have lived in the Americas for about 20,000 years has led many apologists to shrink the Book of Mormon geography to limited territories in Mesoamerica. Rather than the Lehites entering a continent “kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations,” they have them entering densely populated pre-existing civilizations and their DNA being diluted away to undetectable levels. Numerous other problems such as a requirement for a second Mesoamerican Hill Cumorah and the transportation of the gold plates over 3000 miles to the New York Hill Cumorah are swept under the carpet in the apologetic rush. Another awkward problem is that the God, speaking to Joseph Smith in LDS scripture, frequently refers to American Indians in North America as the Lamanites (See Doctrine and Covenants 28:8-9, 14; 30:6; 32:2; 54:8). Most visible are the folk at FARMS/Maxwell inst.
North American Geographists - A new group of apologists is breathing a new lease of life into a geography theory that has long been regarded with suspicion by mainstream BYU apologists. Spearheaded recently by Rod Meldrum, a non-scientist with a background in marketing, this resurging theory argues that Book of Mormon events did not take place in Central America, but rather in the northeastern United States in the vicinity of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes. Meldrum is joined in his campaign by fellow Mormon Wayne May, editor and publisher of Ancient American, a magazine produced largely by Mormons.
Alternative Geographists - Ralph Olson, a retired chemistry professor, has argued that the narrative can be more comfortably situated on the Malay Peninsula than in Mesoamerica. In his book, A More Promising Land of Promise, he presents an eclectic array of evidences to back up his theory, interspersed with criticism of the Limited Geographists, including the challenge created by DNA studies.
Archaeologists use Biblical information all the time as reference points to look for named cities as well as other items, in addition Bible tech mentioned compared with artifacts found.
The last part of your post is a Mormon rebuttal to the Smithsonian letter by apologist John L. Sorenson.
Yeah, wondering how accurate the rebuttal is.
see
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2210200/posts?page=9#9
for the smithsonian’s rebuttal to the rebuttal. That is what generated the second letter.
That is a particularly interesting point, because the "English" of the KJV is not representative of the style of the language during the 17th century. It is English overlaid with the style of Koine Greek texts. So was the BOM in "Reformed Koine?" ;o)
You’re headin’ ‘em off at the pass - just in case.
Thank you
The Smithsonian fails to mention in this posted article what they have previously published here Archeolgy of the United States that the Phoneicans came here as well. There is archeological evidence in the Americas of Phonecian writings back to the 4th century BC. There are also Phoneician maps from the Old world that show the Americas. There aare evidences of visit from other peoples as well. Medeival ages Japanese archaelogical finds in South America as well as Jade from China in ancient digging sites.
No problem, they couldn't find the pass with a GPS and lamanite guide if their life depended upon it.
If you think that was harsh you should google Twain's comments about Presbyterians.
The ancient Olmecs resemble Africans more than Asians.
REallyy? Have you seen one? Are you sayin’ that the Lamanites were actually Africans?
Perhaps they were brought here via UFO. Is your name Kerry Sheets?
The flat-faced, thick-lipped characteristics of the heads have caused some debate due to their apparent resemblance to African facial characteristics. Based on this comparison, some have insisted that the Olmecs were Africans who had emigrated to the New World.[34] However, claims of pre-Columbian contacts with Africa are rejected by the vast majority of archeologists and other Mesoamerican scholars.[35] Explanations for the facial features of the colossal heads include the possibility that the heads were carved in this manner due to the shallow space allowed on the basalt boulders. Others note that in addition to the broad noses and thick lips, the heads have the Asian eye-fold, and that all these characteristics can still be found in modern Mesoamerican Indians. To support this, in the 1940s artist/art historian Miguel Covarrubias published a series of photos of Olmec artworks and of the faces of modern Mexican Indians with very similar facial characteristics.[36]. In addition, the African origin hypothesis assumes that Olmec carving was intended to be realistic, an asssumption that is hard to justify given the full corpus of representation in Olmec carving.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec
“For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8, 9
multiple eyewitnesses
________________________________________
Who all apostasized later...
and changed their stories...
Actually the so called eye witnesses only saw a cloth covering a lump...
They didnt see any plates, golden, lead or Blue Willow patterned...
Joey Smith told them they were not “worthy” to actually see the plates themselves...
Right - read that too ...
“Christians and Jews worldwide who believe the scriptures and their very unscientific claims of faith promoting stories of Noah, Adam, Moses parting the Red Sea, etc would take great care to take anything an accepted scientific body said about their faith.
Seven. They do not focus on exhibits of miracles. They do focus on history.
Every spade of dirt that uncovers evidence in the Holy Land supports the Biblical account.
We are still waiting for the...
==>>first spadeful of evidence<<==
...supporting the fictional history the Book of Mormon claims. If there was such a significant population here, you would think we’d find one artifact, or one building, or one piece of metal, or one tool, or one iron smelting furnace, of one giant hippo... or one of anything.
Unless, you are going to claim that the real miracle of the mormon faith is that God removed all evidence of any civilization reported in the Book of Mormon.
Do you?
And also picked up the errors ... go figure....
That is just silly...
God did not remove all evidence of the BOM, he just hid it real good...
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