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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church/Chapter 2: Difference between revisions
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|title=Losing a Lost Tribe | |||
|claim= | |claim= | ||
Scholars have "concluded" that Joseph Smith was inspired by ''View of the Hebrews''. | |||
|authorsources= | |authorsources= | ||
Persuitte, 2000. | |||
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{{:Question: Was the View of the Hebrews theory of Book of Mormon origin advanced during the lifetime of Joseph Smith?}} | |||
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Revision as of 18:17, 2 November 2014
Response to claims made in "Chapter 2: Race Relations in Colonial America"
| Chapter 1 | A work by author: Simon G. Southerton
|
Chapter 3 |
17
Claim
- A similarity exists between the degraded Lamanites and the Native Americans of the 19th Century.
Author's source(s) - Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), no pages given. ( Index of claims )
- Note again only a dated anti-Mormon work is cited for this claim. No engagement with the large body of work done in response to Brodie is cited or engaged.
- Book of Mormon/Lamanites/Relationship to Amerindians
22
Claim
- The Book of Mormon portrays the Lamanites as naked, head shaven, tent dwelling, arrow wielding and idle, similar to stereotypical perceptions of the Native Americans at the time.
Author's source(s) - No source given.
22
Claim
- Joseph Smith may have woven "frontier prejudices" into the Book of Mormon.
Author's source(s) - No source given.
- Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
- The author needs to present actual evidence. In fact, the Book of Mormon sees the Lamanites as the equals of others, descendants of Israel, and blessed by God. This is a far cry from the frontier prejudice, where often "the only good Indian was a dead Indian."
27
Claim
- Joseph Smith "fell under the spell of the mounds and could not resist the lure of buried riches."
Author's source(s) - Silverberg, The Mound Builders, 1968.
- Dan Vogel, Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon: Religious Solutions from Columbus to Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Book, 1986), no pages cited.
- Brodie, No Man Knows My History, 1971.
- Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
- Book of Mormon/Geography/New World/Great Lakes geography/Mound Builders
27
Claim
- Joseph Smith used a "seer stone" or "peep stone" to search for buried treasure.
Author's source(s) - No source given.
27
Claim
- Joseph Smith was charged with being "disorderly" for his money digging activities in 1826.
Author's source(s) - No source given.
28 - Scholars have "concluded" that Joseph Smith was inspired by View of the Hebrews
The author(s) of Losing a Lost Tribe make(s) the following claim:
Scholars have "concluded" that Joseph Smith was inspired by View of the Hebrews.
Author's sources: Persuitte, 2000.
FAIR's Response
28
Author's source(s)
- Ethan Smith, View of the Hebrews, 1825.
- Quotes another author's opinion as if it were fact: the author cites only Ethan Smith's book, who says nothing about whether his book matches the Book of Mormon.
- "Unparallels" with View of the Hebrews
- Book of Mormon and View of the Hebrews
29
Claim
- Joseph Smith was inspired by the myths surrounding the Moundbuilders in writing the Book of Mormon.
Author's source(s) - Brodie, No Man Knows My History, 1971.
- Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
- Book of Mormon/Geography/New World/Great Lakes geography/Mound Builders
30
Claim
- The author claims that Joseph "likely" added the story of the Jaredites to account for the speculation about the diversity of Indian cultures and languages.
Author's source(s) Response
- Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
- We are told earlier that Joseph mirrored frontier prejudices. Yet, Vogel's book demonstrates that early settlers had little appreciation of the diversity of Amerindian culture. They regarded Amerindians as a monolithic group. These two claims do not mesh.
- Book of Mormon/Anachronisms/Story of Jaredites added to explain presence of animals in New World [needs work]
30
Claim
- Joseph "likely" added the story of the Jaredites to account for how animals arrived in the New World after the Flood.
Author's source(s) - Ether 2꞉1-3
- No additional source is given by the author for this claim.
- The same exact claim is made by Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 70–72. ( Index of claims )
- Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
- Book of Mormon/Anachronisms/Story of Jaredites added to explain presence of animals in New World