geography

Book of Mormon Geophysics

August 28, 2010
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Book of Mormon Geophysics

When most people use their rational faculties to test their testimonies about their religious scriptures, they tend to concentrate on things like history, archeology, or textual development. A number of writers on this site and elsewhere in the bloggernacle have far more expertise in those areas than do I. So I have to take their arguments second-hand. Instead, I like to test my scriptural canon in the disciplines where I have my own professional training in college or experience on interdisciplinary teams later in life. So rather than argue about Mesoamerican artifacts, I like to look instead at Mesoamerican...

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Book of Mormon on the Baja

May 2, 2010
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Book of Mormon on the Baja

When I think  of the Baja California Peninsula, I think of the Baja 1000 off-road race where people take lots of vehicles and cross the deserts in all sorts of vehicles.  However, the father-son team of David and Lynn Rosenvall believe the Baja Peninsula (south of California in Mexico–its most famous city you may recognize is Tijuana) could be the location of Book of Mormon lands.  I’ve been promising to do a post on this theory, and it is time to review it in more detail.

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Peruvian Setting for the Book of Mormon

December 3, 2009
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Peruvian Setting for the Book of Mormon

It’s been some time since we talked about alternative Book of Mormon geography theories.  For those new to the site, you may want to see some of these other theories I mentioned:  Malay, and South America. From time to time, I get an email from George Potter.  He has a website called the Nephi Project.  I heard him speak a few years ago on research he has done in Yemen.  His research is pretty well-respected, and it appears he has a very good candidate for Nephi’s Harbor, and he may have found the River Laman in Saudi Arabia that...

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Similarities between Lehi and the Lemba

November 4, 2009
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Similarities between Lehi and the Lemba

The History Channel has a show called “Digging for the Truth.” In season 1, they did an episode called “The Lost Tribe of Israel”, which highlighted the Lemba Tribe in South Africa.  This group claims to be a Hebrew people who were displaced around 700 BC, about 100 years before Lehi left Jerusalem.  I couldn’t help but notice many similarities between their story, and the story of Lehi.  (This is a short version of my post.  The longer version can be found here.)

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A South American Setting for Book of Mormon

June 1, 2009
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A South American Setting for Book of Mormon

A few weeks ago, we had quite a discussion on the Malay Theory.  While I heartily acknowledge that Mesoamerica is the most widely believed setting, there are many other theories out there. A little more than 10 years ago, I was vacationing in Hawaii with a few friends.  While there, we attended a small branch and became good friends with one of the members there.  The member invited us over for family home evening, and introduced us to the idea that the Book of Mormon happened in South America.  I had never heard of this before, and became quite...

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Unconventional Book of Mormon Geography Theories

April 20, 2009
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Unconventional Book of Mormon Geography Theories

It’s been over a year since someone posted something on Book of Mormon geography, so I think it’s about time.  Most of you believe that the Book of Mormon occurred in Central America, right?  Well it turns out there are over 100 theories.  Check out this big list, which is incomplete. In 1991, John Sorenson of BYU, the “dean” of Book of Mormon geography, created a book called “The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book“.  (It is hard to find because it has no ISBN #, but can be purchased at the BYU Bookstore as well...

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Why aren’t Mormons Green?

February 23, 2009
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Why aren’t Mormons Green?

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The Problem with Authority

January 20, 2009
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Mormons are sometimes criticized for their unquestioning obedience to authority.  Statements like “When the prophet has spoken, the thinking is done,” and the Primary song “Follow the prophet” come to mind as well as the belief that even if leaders are mistaken, we should follow them.  Do Mormons have an unhealthy respect for authority?

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The Gospel and Gasoline

October 10, 2008
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The Gospel and Gasoline

So in case you haven’t heard, we are at the tail end of a gasoline shortage in Atlanta. Stations were empty for days at a time. The few that received a shipment would be out within an hour or two. People were watching traffic cameras on the internet to spot tanker trucks. I personally spent up to 2 hours one day trying to find gasoline at any price. I almost ran out a couple times.

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What If They’d Put Nauvoo in Iowa?

March 25, 2008
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What If They’d Put Nauvoo in Iowa?

Nauvoo was a mistake. At the close of the Missouri Mormon War in the winter of 1838-39, the Saints crossed the icy Mississippi. The people of Quincy, Illinois, were aghast at their condition and opened their hearts and their homes to the refugees. A new gathering place needed to be planted and the church soon found a hopeful location upriver from Quincy — approximately at the border between Illinois, Missouri and the Iowa Territory.

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Lost Hemisphere: A Traditional Book of Mormon Geography

February 18, 2008
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Lost Hemisphere: A Traditional Book of Mormon Geography

When I was 6 and my sisters were 5 and 3, we read the Book of Mormon with my parents as a family. I was already very geographically minded and the book cries out for a map. So make a map we did.

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