Warren Aston, the man who brought you Lehi's trail

Is evidently also a UFO Researcher.

2006 Book of Mormon Roundtable

In case you were unaware of the Roundtable, here are some reports from the Bloggernacle:

From Motley Vision:2006 Book of Mormon Roundtable

Posted using ShareThis

From Messenger & Advocate.

A report from The Daily Herald.

A neat quote from Mark Thomas:

"Mormonism was born in a fortress," he said. "Mormonism is at the point where it needs to get out of the fortress, stop throwing rocks and get to the crossroads. We don't need to defend ourselves."

Why is the Roundtable no longer meeting? My last post may shed some light on that.

Grant Hardy and the Book of Mormon Roundtable

Grant Hardy is a Yale trained historian and Sinologist who holds the rank of associate professor in the History Department at the University of North Carolina Asheville. He has published books in the field of Chinese Studies and about the Book of Mormon.

Grant used to be a regular participant in the Book of Mormon Roundtable. The Book of Mormon Roundtable brought scholars from around the country who were interested in the Book of Mormon. Other participants included the likes of Elaine H. Pagels, Robert M. Price, and Richard L. Bushman. The conference was organized primarily by Mark Thomas, a professor at BYU. The Roundtable was in the verge of securing the publication of proceedings from their meeting with Oxford University Press, when Grant Hardy, objecting to the perspectives of some of the other participants, almost singlehandedly brought the book and the Roundtable itself to a screeching halt. His objections? That some people were not treating the Book of Mormon as an ancient text.

Interestingly, Richard Bushman was not threatened by the fact that non-LDS participants in the Roundtable should treat the Book of Mormon as a 19th century text. He was happy to see as many perspectives being brought to the table as possible. Bushman is comfortable with his faith; he is not ashamed of it. He is confident enough not to fear others seeing the Book of Mormon differently. He welcomes whatever legitimate insights these non-believing others might bring to the table, and arguably such minds as Elaine Pagels and Robert Price will find interesting, worthwhile things to say.

Well, Grant Hardy, Sinologist and specialist in Buddhism, was having none of it. And, to offer you a taste of some of the interesting insights he brings to bear on the Book of Mormon, I quote a piece he contributed to Rediscovering the Book of Mormon, three years after he earned his doctorate in history from Yale. In "Mormon as Editor," he writes,

"The Book of Mormon, to the dismay of critics and believers alike, is a very complex book. This complexity disturbs critics because it makes it hard for them to believe that anyone in the nineteenth century could have written the book."

I am guessing that Grant now understands how wrong he was, given the fact that this was the very viewpoint he could not tolerate in his fellow scholars (not critics) during the Roundtable. Somehow they found it easy to imagine the Book of Mormon is a 19th century text.

Seer

Here is neat little film by Lucas Dimick called "Seer," which plays around with elements of the Joseph Smith story. I like it partly because it features a peep stone.

Kiss Hank's Butt

This irreverent little piece was written by Jim Huber, and it is one of the best send-ups of religion I have ever read. Enjoy.

And now for something comletely different...

Welcome

This is the inaugural post--a sort of warm up. I'll probably edit it later. I decided to start this new blog because I felt that The Peep Stone had served its purpose and because I wanted to chart a new course. When I started Peep Stone, I was still attending the LDS Church, and I was very upset about my experience there.

Now I have quit attending. I have not asked that my name be removed from the Church's records. And, while I wouldn't say that I am "over" my experience as a Mormon (I doubt that will ever be possible), I really don't want to comment on the day-to-day news of Mormonism any longer. I'll leave that task to others. There continues to be wonderful fodder for humor and rants up to the date of this writing.

What I am interested in is the Mormon worldview. I am also interested in the workings of Mormon apologetics and apologists' attempts at defending the Church against criticism. In other words, I am not interested in fighting Mormonism; I am interested in thinking about its apologetics out loud. And, damn it, I can't promise I won't indulge in humor... a lot.