From the FAIR Journal

[_ludwigm]

...Nyet...

[off]Do You speak Russian?[/off]

[_Kishkumen]

Or is their job simply to call anyone asking an uncorrelated question an "antiMormon"?

Based on what we see on this board, clearly yes.

[_Kishkumen]

My favorite part of your Anthon-Isaiah blog entry, Mortal Man:

In recognition of these difficulties, Cloward, Tvedtnes and others allege that the extra verses belong to Nephi, rather than Isaiah. In their scenario, Nephi reinterpreted Isaiah’s sealed book as his own gold plates and co-opted Isaiah’s dust of death as the hill Cumorah. According to Cloward, prophets are entitled to liken the scriptures unto themselves and “there is no impropriety in their giving old scripture new meaning for their lives.”

How many times do these apologetic arguments make a run for the unfalsifiable hypothesis? Let's see, since we have no way of discovering whether Nephi changed Isaiah, then this must be the solution! Of course, in this case I think you lay the problems bare by noting that Nephi attributes the words to Isaiah.

[_Mortal Man]

Mortal Man, I love, love, love your blog. I'm glad that you decided to copy your posts from MD to a more permanent location.

Thanks FC. You've helped give me the motivation to put it together. I've no desire to bash the church, just clear out the apologetic smoke.

[_Mortal Man]

...Nyet...

[off]Do You speak Russian?[/off]

Other than the pronunciation and bits I picked up in Moscow last year, nyet.

[_Mortal Man]

How many times do these apologetic arguments make a run for the unfalsifiable hypothesis? Let's see, since we have no way of discovering whether Nephi changed Isaiah, then this must be the solution! Of course, in this case I think you lay the problems bare by noting that Nephi attributes the words to Isaiah.

There is simply no way Nephi could have written those verses. How could he have put them in the JST? Trying to pin them on Nephi is a desperate act of a floundering apologist. 2 Nephi 27 and JST-Isaiah 29 hang like millstones around Joseph Smith's neck.

[_Kishkumen]

There is simply no way Nephi could have written those verses. How could he have put them in the JST? Trying to pin them on Nephi is a desperate act of a floundering apologist. 2 Nephi 27 and JST-Isaiah 29 hang like millstones around Joseph Smith's neck.

I am not all that concerned about Joseph Smith. What astounds me is that so many LDS apologists spend so much time avoiding the most obvious conclusion: that Joseph Smith's scriptural "translations" simply are not ancient in the sense of "written in antiquity." It is so painfully obvious. Ordinarily I dissuade people from wasting any time on this stuff for that very reason, but your contributions are genuinely original and good.

Keep up the good work.

[_Mortal Man]

Ordinarily I dissuade people from wasting any time on this stuff for that very reason, but your contributions are genuinely original and good.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks Kish.

[_Joseph]

Was this the ONLY set of brass plates with old testament writings on them? Would Laban have the only set in existence? Doesn't seem right there have not been many archaeological finds of brass plates throughout the holy land.

Or have 'the elders of zion' hidden the many copies from the world?