FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Analysis and response to the article "Reinventing Lamanite Identity," by Brent Lee Metcalfe, published in Sunstone, March 2004, 20-25. Critics who wish to use DNA evidence to disprove the Book of Mormon must use a hemispheric model of the lands described in the book and assume that the Lehites and Mulekites arrived on an empty continent. The article argues for a traditional interpretation of the Book of Mormon which would exclude the presence of others on the American continents and thereby enable critical DNA claims to be valid. The article's claims are examined one-by-one and links to corresponding responses in the FAIR Wiki are provided. The analysis can be found here:
A FAIR Analysis of: Reinventing Lamanite Identity
- Elder Holland's General Conference Talk (Oct. 4, 2009)
For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have died—from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.”
—Jeffrey R. Holland, “Safety for the Soul,” Ensign, Nov 2009, 88–90
- Elder Holland gave a powerful testimony about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. During the course of his talk he mentioned two secular Book of Mormon authorship theories. So who are Ethan Smith and Solomon Spalding? What is the best that critics have been able to come up with to explain away the origin of the Book of Mormon? Read the articles below to find out.