Some people, including my critics, forget that I, too, fell for the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs (M2C) theory for decades. I read all the stuff from FARMS, attended the conferences, etc. I trusted Jack Welch, John Sorenson, Dan Peterson, et al. At one time, I actually thought "two Cumorahs" made sense.
That's why I don't blame my critics for their opposition to the New York Cumorah and all that entails (although their animosity is less excusable...).
Eventually, I realized I had accepted M2C by default. I had fallen for M2C because the M2Cers never disclosed all the relevant information from Church history and the extrinsic evidence that corroborates the teachings of the prophets about the new York Cumorah. They were (and are still) more obsessed with proving M2C than with pursuing the truth.
Lately, the M2Cers keep posting the same "facts" about Mesoamerica that we've all seen for decades. While it's true that repetition can make ideas seem more plausible, it doesn't work on people who are well informed.
I used to think that scholars, like everyone else, sought to make (and help others make) informed decisions. My interactions with M2Cers (and SITH sayers) has shown me otherwise.
To be clear for the umpteenth time, I'm fine with people believing M2C if they want to. It doesn't matter to me in the least. Lots of people choose to repudiate the teachings of the prophets because of their personal ideas, values, preferences, and programming, so why should the M2Cers be any different? My problem is with the way they enforce M2C through misinformation and censorship.
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Now Dan Peterson ( the self-appointed "Interpreter" aka Slander Dan) is trying to justify his decades of promoting M2C. And that's fine. People can believe whatever they want, and it's helpful to see how they think.
In doing so, he offers yet another example of the way he "interprets" reality to rationalize the things he teaches.
Dan, writing from Israel (as if that matters) explains that the Bible is a limited geography, so John Sorenson was justified in claiming the Book of Mormon must be in the limited area of Mesoamerica.
It's an obvious non sequitur, but let's indulge his point for a moment.
Dan states, "Most of the stories of the Old Testament and the New Testament, after all, take place within a strikingly small area between Dan in the north and Be’er-Sheva (Beersheba), about 136 miles to the south, from the Great Sea (the Mediterranean) to the River Jordan. Israel is, as I can promise you from actual personal acquaintance with it, a rather tiny country. At its widest, it’s only about seventy-one miles across."
Notice first that Dan's "promise... from actual personal acquaintance" is a nonsense argument. Such a "promise" is condescending and serves no purpose other than to convey a faux aura of authority, as if by writing from Israel he has some relevant insight, making him and his "promise" a credible "Interpreter" for the rest of us.
Those of us who have visited Israel (like other Latter-day Saints, I've visited Israel many times, along with Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, and Italy) know that being there is useful for lots of reasons, but not for assessing the geographic reach of scripture. Whether you have visited in person or not, you can still read a map.
And you can read the Bible.
Contrary to what Dan the Interpreter wants his readers to believe, the Bible involves far more territory than the State of Israel. Ancient people were able to travel, and they did travel.
In the Book of Mormon as well as in the Bible.
While Dan qualified his claim by vaguely saying "most of the stories" take place within Israel, the M2C theory he promotes puts all of the events of the Book of Mormon in the promised land in the limited area of Mesoamerica.
Two maps from the Gospel Library inform us that the scope of the Bible is far greater than what Dan tries to persuade his followers to believe.
Now, compare the two realities. The purple area is what Dan the Interpreter dupes his followers into thinking by simply omitting relevant biblical information because it doesn't fit his narrative. The red area is what the Bible itself explains.
In the New World, we have a similar comparison. The purple area is what our M2C friends want everyone to believe is the setting for the Book of Mormon. The red area is what so-called Heartlanders generally think.
Many readers of the Book of Mormon find it difficult to believe that a civilization that started by crossing the Arabian peninsula and then the ocean would stick within a small area of Mesoamerica for 1,000 years. Those same readers wonder why the text never mentions volcanoes, pyramids, or the 3 Js: jade, jaguars, and jungles.
The M2Cers have answers for all of this, of course, but they use the same logical fallacies as Dan did in his discussion of the limited geography of Israel. They omit relevant information, retranslate the text (replacing horses with tapirs) and find "correspondences" with Mayan culture that are attributes of most human societies everywhere.
All in an effort to persuade Latter-day Saints that the prophets were wrong about Cumorah.
Although I have had many discussions with M2Cers over the years
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This topic reminds me that we've discussed before the irrationality of M2Cers looking in the Americas in the first place. I've asked them why they limit their analysis to the Americas. The conversation goes like this.
Me: You claim you rely on the text above all else when it comes to geography.
M2Cers: Correct.
Me: Why are you looking in the western hemisphere for Book of Mormon events? The text never mentions America, western hemisphere, or any other modern term for geography. The events could have taken place anywhere in the world.
M2Cers: Well, in this case we look beyond the text. We look at what the prophets have taught.
Me: Which prophets?
M2Cers: All of them, starting with Joseph Smith.
Me: When Moroni visited Joseph, he "gave a general account of the promises made to the fathers, and also gave a history of the aborigenes of this country."
M2Cers: We don't believe that part because Moroni really meant Mesoamerica. Joseph misunderstood, or else Moroni mean "hemisphere" when he said "country."
Me: Moroni "said this history was written and deposited not far from that place," referring to Joseph's home near Palmyra.
M2Cers: We don't believe that part, either. Joseph must have misunderstood because we know that Mormon and Moroni wrote their record in Mesoamerica, not western New York.
Me: How about when Moroni said "that it was our brother’s privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, to obtain and translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited for that purpose with the record."
M2Cers: Nope. That's false, too. We know Joseph didn't use the Urim and Thummim which were deposited with the record because he used a seer stone he found in a well. He didn't even use the plates, for that matter.
Me: You know I could go on with more examples.
M2Cers: Yes, but they're all wrong, because we know Cumorah is not in New York. The prophets have been wrong about that, just like they have been wrong about the translation of the Book of Mormon.
Me: That's been my point all along. Now, make sure your followers are all crystal clear about your position.
M2Cers: Never. We're the gatekeepers. Our followers don't need to know what the prophets have taught, just like they don't need to know about the extrinsic evidence that supports and corroborates what the prophets have taught.
After all, they'll all believe me when I tell them the Bible took place in a small area about the size of Mesoamerica.
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