Tarski wrote:I imagine you will have to outline what you take to be "Kolob cosmology" and to what extent you expect Mormons are to take it literally. I expect he does not think Book of Abraham astrology/astronomy is to be taken as scientifically accurate. He will probably be more interested in the ways in which Book of Abraham cosmology aligns with ancient thought since this would supposedly tend to support Joseph Smith's claim to be able to "translate" ancient documents.
(Warning: I will not enter into a backwaters of the KEP and all that)
It is clear to me that Book of Abraham statements about time/durations and rates of revolutions and all that cannot rationalized in terms of something like general relativity without a great deal of ingenuity and perhaps brute force. But, Dan might tell you this is not necessarily the point of the Mormon scripture.
Dan?
While I would be happy to outline Kolob cosmology, such an outline should not be necessary because the Mormon beliefs regarding Kolob are set forth clearly in scripture. I have written a few pieces for other websites concerning Kolob's problems with relativity and physics in general.
However, I would much prefer to hear what Prof. Peterson has to say about cosmology, especially from a personal point of view, since he has worked in this area.
I'm more interested in learning what educated Mormons think nowadays on this subject than in debating it.