Steven Danderson

Just before my wife and I went on vacation last week, My wife happened upon a book titled, Cults:  Secret Sects and False Prophets, by Robert Schroeder [London:  Carlton Books, 2007].  This book was purchased by a local college library, and my wife, who is also a college librarian wonders whatever possessed that school to buy such a BAD book.

All in all, pages 44-45 of this book is a typical, anti-Mormon screed, full of all manner of errors.  Unlike the Church, Mr. Schroeder capitalized the d in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Perhaps this is the least serious error.
[Read more…] about Fun House Mirrors….

Recently, an old friend had given me a copy of Rod Meldrum’s DVD, DNA Evidence for Book of Mormon Geography.  This newer edition is, in some ways, radically different from the one perused by FAIR members when the original came out, roughly one year ago.   While I haven’t seen the new version in its entirety, I thought the changes were significant enough to put in front of the people.

First, though, I want to make some things clear:

While most FAIR members accept a Mesoamerican setting for the Book of Mormon, there is NO official FAIR position on Book of Mormon geography.  Greg Smith’s blog entry should make that abundantly clear.  Moreover, I know of no FAIR member who is closed-minded to a Anglo-North American setting of the Book of Mormon.  Indeed, FAIR member Larry Poulsen, who is an advocate of the Mesoamerican theory, posts Theodore Brandley’s thesis on his web site (and he has eloquently–if unconvincingly–advocated his position in comments on my earlier blog entry!), and I have speculated about a Florida setting for the Land Southward in those same comments.

Here are some of the parts of the revised DVD that I thought noteworthy:

1.  There is an explicit statement  by Emeritus General Authority Elder Hartman Rector at the beginning of the DVD, that there is no official Church position on Book of Mormon Geography.

2.  Meldrum inserts a similar statement into his presentation–early on.

I hope that those who have read the reviews by FAIR personnel–including Robert White’s blog entry–would realise that the greatest issue that FAIR took with Meldrum’s presentation was the implied Church endorsement of his position–with the accompanying implication of the apostasy of those who didn’t agree.   I don’t know if Elder Rector wisely advised him to make the insertions, whether the Brethren put pressure to insert those disclaimers, or if Meldrum himself “saw the light” and made the insertions on his own initiative, the fact is, those changes were made–quietly, and without fanfare.  [A more cynical person might argue that the quiet with which Meldrum made those changes was an attempt to give a false impression that FAIR lied about his presentation.]

Whatever the motivation, those changes are quite welcome, and I, for one am quite happy that those who are unpersuaded of Meldrum’s position (not just FAIR and FARMS members–whom Meldrum refers to as “the scholars”!) are now free from any taint of being charged with apostasy.  For that, Brother Meldrum deserves credit.

Still, there are problems with Meldrum’s presentation:

Firstly, he claims that a thorough search of what “the scholars” had on the DNA issue revealed nothing.  I really don’t know how Rod Meldrum could possibly have missed this list of FAIR articles, including those by David Stewart, D. Jeffrey Meldrum, and Scott Woodward–all of them trained in genetics, and all of them written before his DVD. Moreover, how could he have missed this list of DVDs–one of which, The Book of Mormon and New World DNA, was copyrighted in 2007 (I own a copy!)?

Another problem is with the “scientific method” that Meldrum employs.  I am trained as what the business world calls a “quant jock.”  Thus, even though I CLEPed out on the sciences as an undergrad–and got some training on counteracting nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons, it would be presumptuous to claim that I am a scientist–and my looking for better counteragents would NOT be “scientific research.”  It would be equally presumptuous for Meldrum, who, as I understand, was a technical writer, to claim that HE engaged in “scientific research.”

Though I am incompetent to comment on genetics, others, such as Ugo Perego, are quite competent in the field–and they take issue not only with Simon Southerton, but with Rod Meldrum and their (at best) naive assumtions and faulty conclusions.

However, I AM competent to comment on geographic issues on his claim, because of my undergraduate and graduate training in the social sciences.  To be fair to Meldrum and others who accept a Great Lakes setting for the Book of Mormon, I was wrong when I said that I failed to find a “Land Southward” that was “nearly surrounded by water” [See Alma 22:29-30] in the Great Lakes.  Honesty compels me to admit that Southwestern Ontario certainly qualifies as a peninsular “Land Southward,” and the land stretching from the southern tip of the Georgian Bay to the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario is undoubtedly narrow enough to be traversed in a day and a half [See Alma 22:32]. However, even considering that the Nephite first month is the same time of year as the crucifixion [III Nephi 8:5], Ontario–even that part, is much too cold for Lamanites to get away with wearing only skins about their loins [Alma 43:4, 19] about that time. As I write, a perusal of the weather forecast for Toronto at this time of year shows that there will be SNOW on the seventh of April[http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/CAXX0504?from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_business].

While Brother Meldrum may have graduated from the FAIR hot-seat, he will have to produce far better evidence for him to get some POSITIVE attention.

It was reported on MADB that Kevin Graham was in a serious accident and in a coma.  Kevin used to live about 50 miles (80 km) from me–before marrying his bride from Brazil.  I invite one and all to join me in keeping Kevin and his family in prayer–for both his physical–and spiritual well being.

Even though the Saviour was almost certainly NOT born on 25 December [See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas], I would like to wish all of FAIRBlog’s readers a very merry Christmas.

Why should I do that, you might ask? Let’s look at the the word itself: The word, “Christmas” derives from the words “Christ” and “Mass”–in essence, it is a mass (what we would call a “Sacrament Meeting” celebrating the Lord, Jesus Christ.

While we should be celebrating Him EVERY day, Christmas–TODAY–is a good day to start! 😉

Have a joyous one–and may God richly bless you as you treat Him as Lord in the coming year!

I recently perfunctorily read a new study written by three Stanford University professors, titled “Reassessing authorship of the Book of Mormon using delta and nearest shrunken centroid classification,” and published in the latest issue of the journal, Literary and Linguistic Computing.   While I admit to being disturbed by the article, it is not for the reason they would like it to be.  I teach statistics at America’s largest privately-owned university, and, frankly, I see so many problems, I’m not sure where to begin.

To start, they were not exhaustive in alleged authors. In this regard, the “study” is not unlike choosing five National Football League (NFL) teams at random (and two Canadian Football League (CFL) teams as a “control”), and stating that the one with the best won-lost percentage won the Super Bowl. Choosing the best of an woefully incomplete list tells the reader nothing about “Who really wrote the Book of Mormon”–the Stanford authors’ clucking agreement with the authors of the book by that name notwithstanding–just as not checking out ALL NFL teams says nothing about the winner of the Super Bowl.

For one thing, Joseph Smith’s writings were missing from this study. I can imagine that even many anti-Mormons would be upset at crowning Solomon Spaulding’s Manuscript Story as the true Book of Mormon, if it were demonstrated that Joseph Smith’s letters or journal was a better match!

Moreover, the authors alleged by Latter-day Saints are VERY conspicuous by their absence. While I admit that there are no other samples of Mormon’s or Alma’s or Nephi’s writing than what is found in the Book of Mormon, the Book does extensively quote Jesus Christ–and not just the rerun of the Sermon on the Mount!

Why is the New Testament missing from this study? Surely, if Solomon Spaulding were the author of III Nephi 9-12; 15-21; 23; 26-30, rather than the Saviour, wouldn’t testing His words in the New Testament put the final nail in the coffin burying Mormonism? However,whether or not Jesus’ New Testament statements are a match with His alleged words in the Book of Mormon, these authors have made sure that the reader would never know it. What are they afraid of–that the Gospels would be a match?

It gets worse. As I read the results, not one of the works studied had more similarities with the Book of Mormon than dissimilarities. Their choice of Spaulding’s manuscript as the true source of the Book of Mormon, then, is like taking the last place team in each division of the NFL and congratulating the best of them for winning the Super Bowl. Just as every last place team is disqualified from the playoffs, let alone winning the Super Bowl, a manuscript with more dissimilarities than likenesses to the the Book of Mormon should also be disqualified from consideration.

In short, this game is rigged, and such a misuse of scholarship offends me as a teacher of statistics, as a Latter-day Saint, as a Christian, and as a fair-minded person.  The fact that this pseudo-scholarship is in reality a poorly-reasoned anti-Mormon bromide makes it worse.

Earlier, I had written a post titled, “I will not quit my post until properly relieved.”  I wish to thank those of you who commented–even if you disagree.

The point of my original post was that we should follow the Brethren when they act ex officio, even if it means certain defeat.  I would like to comment more along those lines.  Now, what should you do if you’re a government official, and the Brethren advocate policy X, which is extremely unpopular, and, in your best judgement wrong, and perhaps illegal or perhaps unconstitutional?  Then your oath as a government official may supercede the Brethren’s counsel.  The late Rex Lee stated in his confirmation hearing as US Solicitor General that if the Brethren advocated something in contravention with the Constitution and laws of the United States, then his duty was to side with the law.  Indeed, all Latter-day Saints (at least the ones in the USA) are expected to “befriend” the constitutional law of the land [D&C 98:5-6]. Even Dallin Oaks opposed the Brethren’s take on a public issue (school prayer).

[Read more…] about More musings on Prop 8 and Amendment 2

Twenty-eight years ago, I was introduced to Heavenly Father’s Church, through the auspices of “Uncle Sam.”  One thing that those drill sergeants shoved into our heads were the General Orders:

Events of the past few years have me re-reading the Book of Mormon, as Mormon implies that he is writing it for our benefit, because we’re going through the same thing [Mormon 8:35-36]. 

In California, the Church seems willing to make a “last stand” on the issue of homosexual marriage–which is part of a concerted effort to make the behaviour seem normal, rather than the sin that it is.  Sadly, it appears that this is a fight that the Church will lose–if not at the polls, then in the courts, ratified at the polls when people elect those who appoint the anti-Mormon and anti-Evangelical judges. [Read more…] about “I will not quit my post until properly relieved.”

Recently, much has been made of FAIR taking issue with a DVD and fireside presentation of a theory which claims that the Book of Mormon events were based in the upper Great Lakes region.  While that theory may be right, the proponents of the Great Lakes theory bear the burden of showing that it is so.

While I shan’t go deeply into the that theory, let me briefly state why I am unconvinced by the evidence thus far presented, in spite of the fact that an emeritus General Authority is convinced: [Read more…] about Using and misusing scholarship and revelation….

One week ago, I celebrated the twenty-eighth anniversary of my baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One reason for my baptism was the fact that I saw the various hallmarks of the ancient Church I gleaned from studying ancient Roman history that were absent from the other Churches I attended.

In my early days as a member of the Church, I had thought, like James Talmage in his book, The Great Apostasy, that the Roman Catholic Church had fallen away from the true Christian Church, and that other non-LDS Christian Churches were corruptions of a corruptions. I have found that my opinions have, …, um, …, evolved. Rather than being the Great Apostasy, I now regard the Roman Catholic and other non-LDS Christian Churches as pious humans’ valiant attempts to salvage true Christianity from the Great Apostasy; attempts that were, for the most part, successful–significantly more successful than I had previously thought.

[Read more…] about Reevaluating the Great Apostasy

During the primary season, several of us at FAIR were discussing the advisability of sustaining those whose ideas of good government are morally repugnant to us. My friend, Mike Parker, had made the observation that it was morally repugnant to vote to oppose sustaining, merely for political differences.

[Read more…] about Sustaining evil?