Thomas Stuart Ferguson (May 21, 1915 – March 16, 1983)

[sock puppet]

For some posters and readers of this message board, the Thomas Stuart Ferguson story is 'old hat.' For others, they've never heard of Ferguson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Stuart_Ferguson

Ferguson "was an American lawyer, a Mormon and an amateur archaeologist who dedicated his life to finding archeological evidence of the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica. He was instrumental in the foundation of the New World Archaeological Foundation. He initially believed that the history of Mesoamerican cultures provided support to the historicity of the Book of Mormon, but towards the end of his life came to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon was a work of fiction rather than a historical book."

"Ferguson began to work on the idea that the Book of Mormon could be examined for evidence. The dominant theory within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) at the time was that the Book of Mormon took place over the entire Western Hemisphere. Ferguson became convinced that the geography was limited to Central America. * * * In 1947 he wrote his first book, Cumorah—Where? arguing strongly for the Central American setting of the Book of Mormon."

"In February 1952 Ferguson published Great Message of Peace and Happiness, as a way to encourage non-members of the LDS Church to gain interest in the Book of Mormon as a historical record. Apostle LeGrand Richards wrote to Ferguson, 'you are laying away many treasures in heaven in the efforts you are putting forth to establish in the minds of men the divinity of the Book of Mormon.'"

"In 1951 Ferguson reached out to leading archaeologist Alfred V. Kidder about doing archaeological work in Mesoamerica in order to prove the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Kidder encouraged Ferguson but emphasized that he must distinguish between scientific findings, and religious interpretations in his work. Ferguson wrote, 'let the evidence from the ground speak for itself and let the chips fall where they may.'"

"In October 1952 Ferguson founded the New World Archaeological Foundation (NWAF) with himself as president, and Kidder as vice president, and included professional archaeologists with a wide variety of theories on Native American origin. Kidder wrote, 'All shades of opinion are represented!' NWAF was the largest archeological project funded by a religious institution. Ferguson, along with master's student John L. Sorenson, spent the next several years traveling throughout Mesoamerica documenting a large number of artifacts and formative period sites."

"In April 1953 Ferguson met with the First Presidency and other leaders of the LDS Church to ask for $15,000 for the current year and $120,000 for the next for years funding NWAF. Church president David O. McKay replied, "Brother Ferguson, you are a hard man to stop." A week later the LDS Church agreed to donate $15,000 on the condition that no publicity be attached to the donation in any way or any time.[1] Ferguson spent the remainder of the year in Tabasco and Chiapas, believing it to be the location of a Book of Mormon city Zarahemla."

"In January 1955 Ferguson wrote to the First Presidency asking again for funding, 'To confirm Book of Mormon history through archaeological discoveries is to confirm revelation to the modern world. ... I know, and I know it without doubt and without wavering, that we are standing at the doorway of a great Book of Mormon era.' This time, the LDS Church donated $200,000 to fund NWAF for four seasons.

"In 1958 Ferguson published One Fold and One Shepherd presenting his excavated evidence to the broader Latter Day Saint community. It included a Izapa Stela 5 which he argued represented the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi's dream. Replicas of this tree-of-life stone are subsequently found in many Latter-day Saint homes."

"He wrote in 1958:

'One cannot fake over 3000 years ... of history and have the fake hold water under the scrutiny given the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is either fake or fact. If fake, the cities described in it are non-existent. If fact—as we know it to be—the cities will be there. If the cities exist, and they do, they constitute tangible, physical, enduring, unimpeachable evidence that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and that Jesus Christ lives.

'In June 1960 apostles Mark E. Peterson and Marion G. Romney, along with BYU officials Ernest L. Wilkinson and Joseph T. Bentley, visited NWAF operations in Mexico to determine if the LDS Church should continue to fund operations, and came away impressed. In January 1961 the LDS Church decided not only to continue funding, but to absorb NWAF. Apostle Howard W. Hunter became the chairman, and Ferguson's role was changed from president to secretary. Regarding his significantly reduced role in the organization, Ferguson told Hunter that he was 'content to eat whatever piece of pie is thrown my way, however small or humble.'"

"In November 1967, it was announced that the ancient Egyptian papyri owned by Joseph Smith had been discovered. The papyri had been used by Smith in what he said was a translation of the Book of Abraham. Ferguson wrote to Milton R. Hunter to ask if any non-Mormon had translated the papyri. Ferguson had a copy examined by Henry L. F. Lutz who identified the papyri as being part of the Book of the Dead. He then had Leonard H. Lesko examine it and he too identified it as the Egyptian Book of the Dead. This, along with the lack of archaeological evidence for the Book of Mormon after searching for two decades, led Ferguson to doubt the translation abilities of Joseph Smith. From 1970 until his death Ferguson no longer believed that the Book of Mormon was historical, or that archaeological evidence would ever be found.

"Ferguson visited LDS Church apostle Hugh B. Brown, and reviewed the evidence of the Book of Abraham. According to Ferguson, Brown agreed with him that the Book of Abraham was not what the LDS Church said it was. Ronald Barney interviewed Ferguson and recounted:

'After reviewing the evidence with Brother Brown he [Ferguson] said that Brother Brown agreed with him that it was not scripture. He did not say or infer [imply] that it was his evidence that convinced Brother Brown of this conclusion. But nevertheless, he did say that Hugh B. Brown did not believe the Book of Abraham was what the church said it was.'

"Ferguson privately suggested that Joseph Smith had no ability whatsoever to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs. In December 1970 he visited Jerald and Sandra Tanner and developed a friendship with him, and declared that he had spent 25 years trying to prove Mormonism in vain. The Tanners wrote that Ferguson, "after many years one of the most noted defenders of the Book of Mormon, was finally forced to conclude it was 'fictional.'"

"Ferguson was private about his views, sharing them with close associates. Howard W. Hunter was aware of Ferguson's beliefs, but still chose to maintain him as secretary of NWAF. Ferguson chose to remain a member of the LDS Church, believing it to be a good organization even if it wasn't true. He privately expressed in a letter:

'Belonging with my eyes wide open, is actually fun, less expensive than formerly, and no strain at all. I am now very selective in the meetings I attend, the functions I attend, the amounts I contribute, etc. etc., and I have a perfectly happy time. I never get up and bear testimony—but I don't mind listening to others who do. I am much more tolerant of other religions and other thinking and feel fine about things in general. You might give my suggestions a trial run—and if you find you have to burn all the bridges between yourselves and the Church, then go ahead and ask for excommunication. The day will probably come—but it is far off—when the leadership of the Church will change the excommunication rules and delete as grounds non-belief in the two books mentioned [the Book of Abraham and the Book of Mormon] and in Joseph Smith as a prophet, etc.—but if you wait for that day, you probably will have died. It is a long way off—tithing would drop too much for one thing.'"

"When asked in 1976 if he still had faith, he responded, 'I think the LDS Church is better than any other brand of organized religion and I have not lost faith in a very large segment of it.'

"Later in 1976, fifteen years removed from any archaeological involvement with the NWAF, referring to his own paper, Ferguson wrote a letter in which he stated:

'The real implication of the paper is that you can't set the Book-of-Mormon geography down anywhere—because it is fictional and will never meet the requirements of the dirt-archeology. I should say—what is in the ground will never conform to what is in the book.'

"In 1983, a couple months before his death, Ferguson went with Howard W. Hunter on his final trip to Mexico for NWAF. He died unexpectedly from a heart attack while playing tennis at the age of 67."

Ferguson reportedly "enjoyed the company of other members after he had lost faith in Joseph Smith."

[Gadianton]

Thanks for the post, Sock Puppet.

My main issue is that you're giving a one-sided account. Poising the well, anybody? Okay, so great, we have a Mormon American lawyer and amateur archeologist who spent his life in Mesoamerica digging and not finding anything, and then losing his belief in the Book of Mormon as an ancient record.

End of story. Gives the impression that his story ends the conversation.

Why not balance it out by also including a story of a non-Mormon lawyer (or comparable professional) and amateur archeologist or even a non-Mormon professional archeologist, who worked in Mesoamerica and made connections different from Ferguson, and came to believe the Book of Mormon is an ancient record?

Let's hear both sides, people.

[Moksha]

Why not balance it out by also including a story of a non-Mormon lawyer (or comparable professional) and amateur archeologist or even a non-Mormon professional archeologist, who worked in Mesoamerica and made connections different from Ferguson, and came to believe the Book of Mormon is an ancient record?

Let's hear both sides, people.

Excellent point. What of the physical chemists who postulated about cold fusion and came up with an experiment to prove it? Both sides!

[Marcus]

Thanks for the post, Sock Puppet.

My main issue is that you're giving a one-sided account. Poising the well, anybody? Okay, so great, we have a Mormon American lawyer and amateur archeologist who spent his life in Mesoamerica digging and not finding anything, and then losing his belief in the Book of Mormon as an ancient record.

End of story. Gives the impression that his story ends the conversation.

Why not balance it out by also including a story of a non-Mormon lawyer (or comparable professional) and amateur archeologist or even a non-Mormon professional archeologist, who worked in Mesoamerica and made connections different from Ferguson, and came to believe the Book of Mormon is an ancient record?

Let's hear both sides, people.

: D

[Gadianton]

One thing that Dan Petersen and MG 2.0 have in common is that they are both solipsists. Well, not really. They actually both believe in the most extreme frameworks of absolute truth, believing that they indeed have the absolute truth, but unable to make an argument, they pretend to be solipsists. They both claim that whatever assumptions a person starts out with will trivially express themselves as answers, and people only discover whatever it is they wanted to believe or already believed in the first place. Everyone lives in their own bubble, and so don't you dare say their bubble is wrong!

Of course, their alleged solipsism only reveals on topics where Mormon apologists are struggling, they don't use this framework for anything else whatsoever, far from it. They are activists against anything that constructivism and perspectivism is historically associated with like feminism, queer studies, gender studies, critical race theory, and you know, whatever Fox news and Jordan Peterson are telling you is bad at the moment. Interestingly, the New Maxwell institute trades near exclusively in the framework 2.0 and Petersen advocate rhetorically, but they do so consistently, embracing these other similar kinds of scholarship. Petersen has expressed regret that the New MI only explores critical theory, he thinks it's okay to do critical theory but they also ought to do -- what, traditional digs like Ferguson did? That part is unsure, but what is sure is that using critical theory to bolster the Church and then switching to a totally contradictory framework to bolster the Church is the way to do it. Don't be interested in what's true -- and I use the term loosely for this discussion -- be interested only in what helps Rusty the Tin Man rake in more tithing from the poor.

But here we have Ferguson, a guy fully indoctrinated in every way, starting with the assumptions the Book of Mormon is true and his whole world is about Mormonism, he went out looking for the evidence and failed, realized he failed, and changed his views accordingly. And so breaking out of the bubble seems to be possible, as he didn't find the archeological evidence he was totally sure was there, and altered his views in light of it. If that can happen, then surely the opposite happens also, where someone assumed there was no evidence and had no cultural ties to the church, and then found the evidence in Mesoamerica and changed their views accordingly. The other possibility is that Ferguson never really believed in the first place, that a Freudian level disbelief all along was at the helm and yet again 2.0 wins, and Ferguson went the scenic route to express his unconscious desires that contradicted his outward presentation. Fine, if that's true, there should be a non-Mormon scholar with an unconscious desire to construct a Mesoamerican framework for the Book of Mormon, so where is that person?

[sock puppet]

Why not balance it out by also including a story of a non-Mormon lawyer (or comparable professional) and amateur archeologist or even a non-Mormon professional archeologist, who worked in Mesoamerica and made connections different from Ferguson, and came to believe the Book of Mormon is an ancient record?

If I happen upon such an anomaly some day, I will certainly post it. In the meantime...

[bill4long]

In 1947 he wrote his first book, Cumorah—Where? arguing strongly for the Central American setting of the Book of Mormon."

I often wonder why the church members just don't do a mail-in campaign and ask the current lead "prophet, seer and revelator" to just put the stinkin' peep-stone in the hat already and ask the Mormon god where the Book of Mormon setting is. Maybe it doesn't require the head prophet to do it. Just someone willing to peep into a peep-stone. Anyone here lurking on the forum ever tried your hand at peep-stone gazing? You can purchase very nice banded iron-jasper stones on Amazon for $15. Cheap!

[Philo Sofee]

Dang, for that price I might even try it. I sure hope it doesn't send me to Alaska or Siberia however.......

[Fence Sitter]

I often wonder why the church members just don't do a mail-in campaign and ask the current lead "prophet, seer and revelator" to just put the stinkin' peep-stone in the hat already and ask the Mormon god where the Book of Mormon setting is. Maybe it doesn't require the head prophet to do it. Just someone willing to peep into a peep-stone.

It is clear they no longer have the peep stone. Ensign Peak is obviously using it now to find mammon.

[Dr Exiled]

Microscopic Nephites. I think that might prove fruitful as a theory. Central America is a tough climate with a lot of parasites. They could have arrived and then were shrunk to the microscopic level due to the climate. It would explain the utter lack of evidence. It's on the microscopic level!

Maybe interdimentional Nephites as I think someone here proposed? They keep shape-shifting when someone like Ferguson gets close? It might work as well and would explain a lot on how Ensign Peak gets its information.