Stranded cows in New Zealand

The earthquakes that struck New Zealand left a group of cows stranded on a tiny "island" when the ground collapsed around them.

This may become the iconic metaphor for the Mesoamerican theory of Book of Mormon geography.

Actually, for all the non-New York Cumorah theories.

Here is the interpretation of the metaphor:

Here's the video:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2016/nov/14/cows-stranded-on-island-after-new-zealand-earthquake-aerial-video

We hope these Kiwi cows can be rescued.

We also hope all the remaining proponents of a Mesoamerican Cumorah can be rescued.

Effort justification

Yesterday I finished grading a bunch of student papers, an activity that led me to think of the concepts of effort justification and the effort heuristic. This is part of my ongoing effort to understand the psychology behind the persistence of Mesomania.

I posted a comment on cognitive dissonance on the mesomania blog, here. Effort justification is an aspect of cognitive dissonance in the sense that when people spend a lot of time and effort on a project, they tend to justify the effort by believing this proposition:

"the subjective value of an outcome is directly related to the effort that went into obtaining it."

In other words, people who invest in an activity think it is more valuable than those who haven't invested the same amount of time and effort.

IMO, this explains a lot of the Mesomania we continue to see.

Imagine that you've grown up with the belief that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica. Maybe you've gotten a PhD in Mesoamerican archaeology. Or maybe you've written long, detailed books and/or journal articles on the topic. Or edited a journal that published such material. Or you've spent decades researching and writing on the topic, speaking at conferences, maintaining a blog, teaching students, etc. Or maybe you've raised a lot of money to promote the Mesoamerican setting.

Then you are confronted with evidence that completely contradicts your efforts. You develop serious cognitive dissonance.

What do you do?

According to effort justification theory, you will continue to believe your efforts turned out well, that you are still correct, that the evidence is unreliable and not credible, etc.

Effort justification explains why LDS scholars and educators continue to reject the prophets and apostles on the topic of the New York Cumorah.

Here's one explanation, from this site:

"It also seems to be the case that we value most highly those goals or items which have required considerable effort to achieve.

"This is probably because dissonance would be caused if we spent a great effort to achieve something and then evaluated it negatively. We could, of course, spend years of effort into achieving something which turns out to be a load of rubbish and then, in order to avoid the dissonance that produces, try to convince ourselves that we didn't really spend years of effort, or that the effort was really quite enjoyable, or that it wasn't really a lot of effort.

"In fact, though, it seems we find it easier to persuade ourselves that what we have achieved is worthwhile and that's what most of us do, evaluating highly something whose achievement has cost us dear - whether other people think it's much cop or not! This method of reducing dissonance is known as 'effort justification'.

"If we put effort into a task which we have chosen to carry out, and the task turns out badly, we experience dissonance. To reduce this dissonance, we are motivated to try to think that the task turned out well."

Here's another example, from an article on the effort heuristic:

"Consider the following: After receiving a low grade on a paper, a student approaches you after class and complains about his or her grade. Occasionally, such protests stem from errors in grading or strategic attempts by the student to ‘‘work’’ the system. But more often, the grade is correct, and the protest sincere. In such cases, it is not uncommon to hear some version of the following: ‘‘But I don t understand. I worked so hard...how could I get a D?’’ Apparently, the student believes that because he or she invested great effort, the outcome of that effort must be great as well. Indeed, we recently asked a group of Cornell University students to indicate (confidentially) how much effort they put into a term paper and the grade they expected to receive, and compared those estimates with the actual grades received. Although predicted and actual grades were positively correlated, that relationship was dwarfed by the relationship between the grade the students expected to receive and the effort they reported investing in the paper."
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As we deal with the effects of Mesomania, I hope we all keep effort justification in mind because it helps us better understand the LDS scholars and educators who continue to promote the Mesoamerican theory.

Plato's Cave and Cumorah

Plato's Allegory of the Cave compares "the effect of education and the lack of it on our nature." He suggests that most people see only a shadow of reality, but they come to believe the shadow is reality.

In the allegory, one person escapes. It takes his eyes a while to adjust, but now he sees the real world for the first time. He returns to tell his companions in the cave, but they think he is insane and reject him because they prefer their shadows to the reality he has seen.

You can read more about it here, with lots of links.

Here is a common depiction:

 You probably already see the comparison to the Cumorah question.

In this case, the man in the purple box represents the prophets and apostles (Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Fielding Smith, Marion G. Romney, etc.). The people in the blue box are those seeking to know what the prophets have said.

The group in the red box are the LDS scholars and educators who interpret the scriptures by the light of their own theories (Mesomania). They expect the group in the green box to see only what they tell them and not ask questions. The  red box people don't believe what the man in the purple box is telling them and they don't want the green box people to even know about it.

As we've seen throughout this blog, the LDS scholars and educators have successfully developed, promoted and perpetuated Mesomania for decades. They continue to do so. Fortunately, more and more people are escaping to discover what the prophets and apostles have said all along. People are reading Letter VII and the other references that the scholars have suppressed for decades.

It works out like this:

My advice: If you're still in the green box or the red box, move to the blue box.

Once we're all in the blue box, we'll all be united as we're supposed to be. We can forget the shadows and move forward with confidence and renewed faith in the prophets and apostles as we help to sweep the Earth with the Book of Mormon.

It is really that simple.

Veteran's Day

Because this blog is named Book of Mormon Wars, it seems fitting that I recognize our veterans today. As a military veteran myself, I know first-hand how awesome the men and women in our military are, and how committed they are to preserving freedom and defending the nation.

My thanks to all of them.

I'd also like to recognize an awesome military veteran whose words reflect what I believe most members of the military think:

"Behold, I am Moroni, your chief captain. I seek not for power, but to pull it down. I seek not for honor of the world, but for the glory of my God, and the freedom and welfare of my country."

Happy Veterans Day!

How to manufacture your own Cumorah

The text of the Book of Mormon is flexible enough to let you manufacture your own Hill Cumorah pretty much anywhere in the world.

If you like Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Chile, Peru, Panama, Guatemala, Yucatan, southern Mexico, Baja... Take your pick or add your own favorite.

No problem. No problem at all.

Of all the places I've visited, I'm thinking the south of France would be a fun place to put Cumorah. I could visit there often to do research. Another great place would be Rio de Janeiro. Or maybe the south island of New Zealand.

If you want to invent a Hill Cumorah in your favorite part of the world, you just need to:

1) ignore what the modern prophets and apostles have said* and

2) apply a flexible interpretation of the Book of Mormon text.

I put together a video that shows how to manufacture a Hill Cumorah in Mexico. It's based on one of my favorite blogs to follow. You can use the same techniques described on that blog to put Cumorah wherever you want.

https://youtu.be/zUZbgyu6-AI

*Note: You'll notice in the video how important it is to start with step #1. Don't skip step #1. This is the key to manufacturing your own Cumorah. If you make a mistake and pay attention to what the modern prophets and apostles have said, you pretty much have to stick with the Cumorah in western New York, a couple of miles south of Palmyra. That's not nearly as fun as inventing your own Cumorah in Mexico or wherever else you want.

List of Essential Features

On my Mesomania blog, I posted a list of essential features for any theory of Book of Mormon geography. Check it out here: http://mormonmesomania.blogspot.com/2016/11/essential-features-of-geography.html
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I need to explain something along these lines. I often refer to "LDS scholars and educators." It would be more accurate to write "some LDS scholars and educators." I know of LDS scholars and educators who do follow the prophets and apostles and accept the New York Cumorah as the Mormon 6:6 Cumorah.

But either they don't write and submit articles, or the citation cartel refuses to publish them.

I hope it's clear that in the context of Book of Mormon geography, I'm referring to the LDS scholars and educators who teach and promote a non-New York Cumorah. There is a relatively small group of LDS scholars who have been teaching the "two-Cumorahs" theory for decades, but they've influenced generations of LDS educators, who in turn have taught generations of students.

There may be many LDS scholars and educators who don't accept the non-New York Cumorah ideas. Countless LDS people have told me they never believed the Mesoamerican stuff, but they never spoke out because they either thought the Church had approved it or they didn't know there were alternative ideas about a North American setting that accepted what the prophets and apostles have said about Cumorah in New York.

In some cases, teachers in the Church have felt compelled to teach the Mesoamerican stuff even when they didn't personally believe it.

This is understandable because the citation cartel has been very effective at suppressing Letter VII.

If you're an LDS scholar or educator, or a teacher in the Church at any level, and you choose to follow the prophets and apostles instead of the scholars who reject them, then I encourage you to speak out. 

Make Cumorah Great Again - November 2016

People are fed up with elitists telling us what to think and do.

Brexit.

Trump.

Next stop: LDS scholars who reject our prophets and apostles on the location of Cumorah.
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I'm kidding, a little. But there is an important point here.

I do think it's time to Make Cumorah Great Again.

For too long, LDS scholars and educators have managed to cast doubt on our prophets and apostles, beginning with Joseph and Oliver, over this simple issue of the Hill Cumorah. Their influence, which I call Mesomania, has infiltrated Church art and media and education, to the point where, sadly, many LDS people can't unsee Mesoamerica when they read and think about the Book of Mormon.

I've tried in as many ways as I can think of to explain this issue.

I've traced the intellectual history, showing that it was not irrational to move Cumorah from New York to southern Mexico. Except that to do so, the scholars had to repudiate the prophets.

I've addressed the specific arguments made by LDS scholars and educators who established and continue to promote the two-Cumorahs theory.

I've shown that Joseph and Oliver were consistent and persistent on the location of Cumorah (meaning the Mormon 6:6 Cumorah), as were every one of their contemporaries.

I've shown that the effort of scholars to link the New York Cumorah with the hemispheric model doesn't hold up.

I've shown that the scholars' rhetorical arguments based on the text are circular arguments designed solely to justify their predetermined conclusion that the Book of Mormon took place in a limited area of Mesoamerica.

I've shown that the articles and books purporting to cite archaeology were flawed and misrepresented the actual archaeological evidence.

I've shown how Joseph Fielding Smith's prophetic warning about the two-Cumorahs theory has been vindicated by what's happening right now.

If I've missed any arguments or evidence, I'd like to know about them.
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I remain optimistic that at least some LDS scholars and educators will change their views about Cumorah. In the meantime, every member of the Church should realize that any theory of geography that puts Cumorah somewhere other than New York is contradicting every prophet and apostle who has spoken on this issue.