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Daniel,

CK just posted a radio conversation you had in which you referred to the "latest research" supporting the existence of the horse during the Book of Mormon time period. Could you please check out that thread (FARMs and the invention of evidence) and explain your comment?

Beastie... did you happen to read this month's National Geographic?

There is a fabulous article (three actually) on the Maya.

With each discovery is seems more and more unlikely the Book of Mormon has anything to do the Mayans.

~dancer~

truth dancer wrote:[...]

With each discovery is seems more and more unlikely the Book of Mormon has anything to do the Mayans.

~dancer~

With each reading of the Book of Mormon, it seems more and more unlikely to have anything to do with Mayans too. It seems to have something to do with Nephites and Lamanites. ;-)


[edited to fix my inability to type this morning]

The National Geographic Maya feature is really striking.

I was looking at it on their website and found an interactive quiz to test one's knowledge about the Maya. Some of the questions and commentary seemed to uncannily speak to issues recently discussed here about Mayan language and "literature."

In the quiz section on language, the remark is madem "The Mayan language illustrates the literary genius of the Maya civilization," before revealing that the english word "cigar" is derived from Mayan.

Another interesting question asks:

"For which of the following is there no word in Mayan?

1) Beard

2) Priest

3) White

4) Scribe

No title for priesthood has yet been recognized in deciphering of Mayan hieroglyphics. Religious affairs were a tremendous source of power and as such were the indispensable concern of the ruling elite.

At religious ceremonies, the Maya ruler served as the chief priest, protecting his subjects and interpreting divine signs. In this way, the Maya ruler was both the political and the religious leader of his people."

beastie wrote:Daniel,

CK just posted a radio conversation you had in which you referred to the "latest research" supporting the existence of the horse during the Book of Mormon time period. Could you please check out that thread (FARMs and the invention of evidence) and explain your comment?

Latest research??
yikes! What could it be?

Here's the link to the thread where CK posted the radio interview excerpt, page 7

http://mormondiscussions.com/discuss/vi ... &start=126

No, I haven't seen the National Geographic, but I will look for it now, thanks!

Yes, the priest issue is one of the most troubling for the Book of Mormon - not because there isn't a word for priest, but because of the total integration of "priestly" duties and governmental control. I wrote a fairly lengthy essay about the problems this creates for the Book of Mormon. In brief, the only Mesoamerican polities that could possibly qualify as Book of Mormon sites are fairly large ones (for the given time period), due to the described social complexity described in the Book of Mormon. So, according to the Book of Mormon, some of the largest polities in ancient Mesoamerica had a form of government completely contrary to what actually existed in ancient Mesoamerica. This presents a problem because it was the largest polities themselves that, so to speak, "directed" the social/governmental evolution in Mesoamerica to begin with - they exerted more power and were copied or outright influenced other polities. Even without finding each and every site in Mesoamerica, we can still tell what the largest polities were like because they were the ones who set the pattern for the others, which we have found. So the idea that a quasi-democratic polity that separated religion from state existed in ancient Mesoamerica is dead in the water immediately.

Anyway, I explain this is more detail here:

http://zarahemlacitylimits.com/wiki/ind ... /Holy_Lord

Latest research??
yikes! What could it be?

That's what I want to know.

Hi Blixa...

What strikes me every time I read something about the Mayans is what is missing in the Book of Mormon that one would logically assume would be there.

In other words, where is the mention of jaquars, monkeys, maise, cocoa, feathers, jade, etc. etc.

There is just so much information about the culture, environment, everyday life, that is completely absent in the Book of Mormon.

I'm NOT suggesting this is proof that the Book of Mormon is not true... it is just that there is virtually nothing in the Book of Mormon suggestive of the time and place it supposedly occurred.

~dancer~

Oh no...


Now the National Geographic mag is on the anti Mormon list.....

With that there goes a bunch of canceled subscriptions.... like a few hundred from Zion...

I cancelled my subscription because of the naked African women.

Unchaste heathens.

That's too funny. And what's funnier is that because of my Mormon upbringing and the unhealthy focus on the "second only to murder" seriousness of inappropriate sexual activity, and the focus on nudity and its connection to sexual sin, I actually felt guilty when I'd see a naked African tribeswoman in National Geographic. It's really bizarre to me now, to think that people, because of their religion, think that it's somehow sinful for a person in another part of the world to walk around without a shirt on as part of their culture. We really are cultural chauvinists.