For Ryan Larsen on Tim Barker's FAIR 2020 BofAbr Presentation

[Philo Sofee]

Nice link in your meditations Ryan! Mucho appreciate that! Barker intrigues me to no end!!! Fun stuff! I just wish he along with all the other Mormon apologists would stop misrepresenting and manipulating Henry Caswell's testimony which at this point is just purely deceptive on their parts. I shall be speaking of this tomorrow night on my Live with FULL documentation. Caswell completely ruins an otherwise very interesting theme which Barker presents and which he did so openly, honestly, and realistically, except for the setting it up where he lamely just followed along with Gee's heinous misrepresentation of Caswell. Come tomorrow night at my Live Fireside and I shall show it in detail. And I won't take 1/2 an hour to get into it this time either.

[Ryan Larsen]

Nice link in your meditations Ryan! Mucho appreciate that! Barker intrigues me to no end!!! Fun stuff! I just wish he along with all the other Mormon apologists would stop misrepresenting and manipulating Henry Caswell's testimony which at this point is just purely deceptive on their parts. I shall be speaking of this tomorrow night on my Live with FULL documentation. Caswell completely ruins an otherwise very interesting theme which Barker presents and which he did so openly, honestly, and realistically, except for the setting it up where he lamely just followed along with Gee's heinous misrepresentation of Caswell. Come tomorrow night at my Live Fireside and I shall show it in detail. And I won't take 1/2 an hour to get into it this time either.

I look forward to your show tonight!

[Philo Sofee]

Nice link in your meditations Ryan! Mucho appreciate that! Barker intrigues me to no end!!! Fun stuff! I just wish he along with all the other Mormon apologists would stop misrepresenting and manipulating Henry Caswell's testimony which at this point is just purely deceptive on their parts. I shall be speaking of this tomorrow night on my Live with FULL documentation. Caswell completely ruins an otherwise very interesting theme which Barker presents and which he did so openly, honestly, and realistically, except for the setting it up where he lamely just followed along with Gee's heinous misrepresentation of Caswell. Come tomorrow night at my Live Fireside and I shall show it in detail. And I won't take 1/2 an hour to get into it this time either.

I look forward to your show tonight!

Thank you amigo. I will be on in 10 minutes!

[Ryan Larsen]

I look forward to your show tonight!

Thank you amigo. I will be on in 10 minutes!

Was a great show, as always! And RFM even compared you to the loveable Yukon Cornelius, in the chat!

by the way, I added/changed the following in my commentary on Barker’s presentation:

The relevant initial facts here are that Joseph Smith directly commented on the characters in question, and that commentary consisted of him indicating that he had not provided a translation of those characters.

It's like Joseph’s way of gently telling people in the future, “I know you’re going to speculate and assume that I made claims about these characters, but let me speak for myself.” And it’s significant for a couple reasons.

First, of all the characters that could have been copied into the damaged hypocephalus area of facsimile 2, Joseph put characters that he is today, in the distant future, being accused of claiming (to his scribes) that he translated as part of the Book of Abraham. And for the record, Joseph Smith never claimed that. It’s always been speculation and I have provided my ideas regarding those arguments, in my response to Vogel on this issue (below).

The second reason Barker’s observation is significant becomes apparent if we consider that it makes no sense as fraud. In other words, if Joseph Smith had actually ever claimed, even just to his scribes, that these were the characters to the Book of Abraham, it would make no sense for him to go out of his way to put those characters "out there" publicly and say the opposite (especially by putting them on an intriguing looking image like Facsimile 2 that people would be looking at and talking about). Even more so because the scribes would have known that the hypocephalus was damaged and filled in with characters for the facsimile. So, if Joseph was trying to fool his scribes, why would he publicly deny something he had told them? And if, alternatively, the scribes were in on it, why did they not expose him when they left the Church? Parrish even recounted, after leaving the Church, that Smith was claiming to receive genuine revelation regarding the translation of characters on the papyrus. So, all of this only makes sense if these are not the characters.

[Philo Sofee]

You are very kind Ryan. I have him! That is Muhlestein. The Lord has delivered him into my hands for this upcoming Sunday Live Backyard Professor Sunday Fireside. I am rather excited to share it...

[Ryan Larsen]

You are very kind Ryan. I have him! That is Muhlestein. The Lord has delivered him into my hands for this upcoming Sunday Live Backyard Professor Sunday Fireside. I am rather excited to share it...

I look forward to it! I don't want to speak any ill of him, as I think he's a great person, but I'm sure you have a lot to offer analysis-wise and I will find it no doubt very interesting!

[Philo Sofee]

You are very kind Ryan. I have him! That is Muhlestein. The Lord has delivered him into my hands for this upcoming Sunday Live Backyard Professor Sunday Fireside. I am rather excited to share it...

I look forward to it! I don't want to speak any ill of him, as I think he's a great person, but I'm sure you have a lot to offer analysis-wise and I will find it no doubt very interesting!

Oh yes, I have no ill to him personally at all, and in fact find him to be a very credible scholar... in some respects. I do have some pertinent analysis I am rather excited to have found and realizing the significance of it for Sunday! Oh heck, all this stuff is just so much fun! No, really!

[Ryan Larsen]

I look forward to it! I don't want to speak any ill of him, as I think he's a great person, but I'm sure you have a lot to offer analysis-wise and I will find it no doubt very interesting!

Oh yes, I have no ill to him personally at all, and in fact find him to be a very credible scholar... in some respects. I do have some pertinent analysis I am rather excited to have found and realizing the significance of it for Sunday! Oh heck, all this stuff is just so much fun! No, really!

And the best part is, we can all have fun TOGETHER!

[Philo Sofee]

Oh absolutely. I have almost gotten too old for antagonism anymore... much better to just discuss, agree, and disagree where we do...

[Ryan Larsen]

Oh absolutely. I have almost gotten too old for antagonism anymore... much better to just discuss, agree, and disagree where we do...