Difference between revisions of "Book of Mormon/Anachronisms/Shiz struggles to breathe"

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==Criticism==
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#REDIRECT [[The death of Shiz]]
[[Image:Brain_1.gif|frame|Right|The human brain.  The midbrain is located at the level marked 'cerebral peduncle'.  From: Henry Gray, ''Anatomy of the Human Body'', 1918, Fig 677. [http://www.bartleby.com/107/illus677.html].]]
 
 
 
In [http://scriptures.lds.org/ether/15/31#31 Ether 15:31], a final showdown occurs between two warriors, Shiz and Coriantumr.  Coriantumr "smote off the head of Shiz...[and] after he had smitten off the head...Shiz raised up on his hands and fell; and after that he had struggled for breath, he died."
 
 
 
Critics insist that this would not, or could not, happen.
 
 
 
===Source(s) of the Criticism===
 
 
 
*John R. Farkas and David A. Reed, ''Mormonism: Changes, Contradictions, and Errors,'' (Grand Rapids, Mich. : Baker Books, 1995), 152.
 
*Ed Decker, ''Decker's Complete Handbook on Mormonism'' (Eugene: Harvest House, 1995), 114.
 
*Latayne Colvett Scott, ''The Mormon Mirage : a former Mormon tells why she left the church'' (Grand Rapids : Zondervan Pub. House, 1979), 90.
 
 
 
[[Image:mesencephalon_1.gif|frame|right|Closeup of mid- and hind-brain; the mid-brain is the area above the pons.  From: Henry Gray, ''Anatomy of the Human Body'', 1918, Fig 681. [http://www.bartleby.com/107/illus681.html].]]
 
 
 
==Response==
 
 
 
Contrary to the critics' assumptions,
 
 
 
:''Shiz's death struggle illustrates the classic reflex posture that occurs in both humans and animals when the upper brain stem (midbrain/mesencephalon) is disconnected from the brain. The extensor muscles of the arms and legs contract, and this reflex action could cause Shiz to raise up on his hands'' [Hadfield, 324].
 
 
 
Cutting the brainstem in this location causes the muscles which ''extend'' (straighten) the arms and legs to contract.  This makes the arms and legs rigid, which would raise a corpse up until lack of oxygen and blood loss caused eventual muscle failure.
 
 
 
==Conclusion==
 
 
 
With the death scene of Shiz, Joseph Smith provides the reader with a vivid example of a catastrophic injury which is consistent with a weary, sloppy cut made by the exhausted Coriantumr.  It is a realistic touch, and a phenomenon that went unrecognized in the medical literature of the modern era until 1898.
 
 
 
==Further reading==
 
 
 
===FAIR wiki articles===
 
{{Book of Mormon anachronisms}}
 
 
 
===FAIR web site===
 
*FAIR Topical Guide:
 
 
 
===External links===
 
*John W. Welch, in "The 'Decapitation' of Shiz," ''Insights'' (November 1994): 2. [http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=insights&id=33]
 
 
 
===Printed material===
 
*M. Gary Hadfield, "Neuropathology and the Scriptures," ''BYU Studies'' 33:2 (1993): 313-28. [http://gospelink.com/library/doc?doc_id=283097]
 

Latest revision as of 16:11, 12 March 2023

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