DiscussMormonism.com

Daniel Peterson Nov 17 2004, 09:40 PM wrote:

(Dr. Shades @ Nov 17 2004, 11:46 AM) wrote:I understand your point--I honestly do--where do we draw the line between "subsequent modifications" and "ad hoc hypotheses?"

You can tell by the actual circumstances of its genesis that the Limited Geography Theory is not an ad hoc hypothesis. The fact that it predates the data to which it is suspected of being an ad hoc response -- e.g., studies of Amerindian DNA, purportedly contrary information from archaeology -- and that the actual reasoning behind it is quite transparent demonstrates that beyond reasonable dispute.

Since I can't post over there...something about my moniker...I am surprised by what sounds like an attempt at blatant misdirection by Dr. Peterson here.

LGT may predate DNA questions surrounding the principal ancestors comment but it does not predate the challenges to the claims of the Book of Mormon. The credibility of Smith's claims were doubted almost from the moment that he started making them. E.D. Howe wondered in 1834 in Mormonism Unvailed[sic] about the steel swords in Jerusalem and, thereby, in the Americas. By the time LGT was being concocted there was deafening silence in the archaeological community about a Hebrew influence in America predating Columbus.

Mormon apologists were already scrambling for ad hoc explanations for the dearth of evidence.

The Prophet wasn't praying to get Moroni to return and produce the Golden Plates...for evidence or to translate the remaining sealed portion...but they were trying to shore up the shakey evidence with ad hoc theories, that's for sure.

The major problem of trying to find cities mentioned in the Book of Mormon is that there is very little information on the cites themselves, not only that, but we have newcomers, Lehi, Nephi, etc… that made up their own names to places, so how would we know that we came to the right city if the Book of Mormon names a city Bountiful, for example, but the local name is something else?
In the Bible the names of a lot of cites have been known for hundreds, or even thousands, of years, some of them had even the same name for that long.
I watched a documentary about what some scholars say what was Lehi’s path from the old world to the new world, not knowing where something was, was what they said most of the film.