The Arrogance of Theorists

“Arrogance” is defined as “the quality of being arrogant,” and “arrogant” is described as conceit, pride, self-importance, egotism, pompousness, pomposity, imperiousness, hubris (foolish amount of pride), big-headedness, superiority—well, you get the idea. 
    There are, evidently, two kinds of pride, both good and bad—Good Pride represents our dignity and self-respect, while Bad Pride is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance. It has been said that “the truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.” It was Mikhail Gorbachev who said, “Sometimes it’s difficult to accept, to recognize one’s own mistakes, but one must do it. I was guilty of overconfidence and arrogance, and I was punished for it.” 
    Actually, arrogance is being full of yourself, feeling you're always right, and believing your accomplishments or abilities make you better, more knowledgeable, more accurate, than other people.
    It is interesting that the person who is considered the “guru” of Mesoamerica being the Land of Promise, has said, “Ingenious and impassioned arguments have been mustered in support of other theorized areas (from the Great Lakes to Peru or encompassing the entire hemisphere) as the scene for Nephite history. But every proposed geographical setting other than Mesoamerica fails to meet the criteria established by the text of Mormon's account.”
    Now, let’s see about that: Mormon purposely inserted a 34-line, 568-word description into the abridgement of Alma’s writing (Alma 22:27-34), to give his future readers an understanding of the Land of Promise, in which he used the word “north” or “northward” nine times, and he used the word “south” or “southward” four times, in aligning the various lands mentioned along a north-south line—which, when read, seems pretty clear. So with Mormon telling us the Land of Promise runs north and south, how does the guru show it on his map?

Sorenson’s map is oriented east and west, as Mesoamerican lies geographically in “middle” America, completely opposite of how Mormon describes it
    Mormon said, “the king sent a proclamation throughout all the land, amongst all his people who were in all his land, who were in all the regions round about, which was bordering even to the sea, on the east and on the west, and which was divided from the land of Zarahemla by a narrow strip of wilderness, which ran from the sea east even to the sea west…and thus were the Lamanites and the Nephites divided” (Alma 22:27). So despite a clear description of the Land of Nephi and the Land of Zarahemla, and the narrow strip of wilderness in between all ran from the East Sea to the West Sea, Sorenson has as his model of this a land than runs from north to south, with an East Sea in the north (Gulf of Mexico) and a West Sea in the south (Pacific Ocean)

Red Arrows point to East Sea (top) and West Sea (bottom); Blue Arrow: Zarahemla; Yellow Arrow: Nephi; Green Arrow: First Landing
    Again, for clarification, the East Sea is really in the north on Sorenson’s map, the West Sea is in the south; Zarahemla is to the west of Nephi, with the area of First Landing on the south coast, though clearly Mormon said it was “on the west in the land of Nephi, in the place of their fathers' first inheritance, and thus bordering along by the seashore” (Alma 22:28).

Red Arrow: Land of Many Waters; Yellow Arrow: Land of Cumorah/hill Cumorah; Blue Arrow: Land Northward; Green Arrow: Land Southward; Brown Arrow: Desolation; White Arrow: Bountiful
    As can be seen from the map above, while Mormon tells us that when they went to have their final  battle with the Lamanites, they gathered their people to the hill, which was called Cumorah (Mormon 6:2), and that they “did march forth to the land of Cumorah, and we did pitch our tents around about the hill Cumorah; and it was in a land of many waters, rivers, and fountains; and here we had hope to gain advantage over the Lamanites” (Ether 6:4). Thus, while Mormon tells us that the land of Cumorah was in the land of many waters, Sorenson arrogantly places these two lands almost 400 miles apart, one on the coast, and the other in the center of the land. He also, as can be seen places the Land Southward to the west of the Land Northward; he also places Desolation to the west (White Arrow) of Bountiful.
    Consider, that in describing this land, Mormon wrote: “on the north, even until they came to the land which they called Bountiful, and it bordered upon the land which they called Desolation, it being so far northward that it came into the land which had been peopled and been destroyed, of whose bones we have spoken” (Alma 22:29-30)
    Despite all these obvious errors, glaringly noticeable on his map, this guru has also written: “So while it is theoretically possible that another area of the New World could meet the criteria to be the historical Nephite and Lamanite lands, it has proved impossible to identify any such territory. All proposed locations other than Mesoamerica suffer from fatal flaws.”
    The arrogance of claiming your model is the only possible location when it does not meet very many of the criteria set forth by Mormon in the scriptural record and so glaringly inaccurate and in opposition to Mormon’s descriptions, is beyond belief--and so is the acceptance of so many people that it is correct when it flies in opposition to the scriptural record!
    With all of this, one can only wonder how anyone can honestly say, “But every proposed geographical setting other than Mesoamerica fails to meet the criteria established by the text of Mormon's account” and “All proposed locations other than Mesoamerica suffer from fatal flaws.”
    One can also only wonder how any scholar can say that his model is the only one that does not have fatal flaws when so far, the key issues of Mormon’s descriptions all fail to match any map description Sorenson uses.
    In addition, the following is a list of 17 scriptural descriptions that do not exist in Mesoamerica but do in the area of Andean South America—a location which Sorenson completely ignores with a quick dismissal.
1. The cureloms and cumoms (Ether 9:19)
2. Neas and Sheum (Mosiah 9:9)
3. Ziff (Mosiah 11:3)
4. Gold, silver and copper as a single ore (1 Nephi 18:25)
5. Growing of wheat and barley (Mosiah 9:9)
6. Working in metal and precious metals (2 Nephi 5:15)
7. Coins (Alma 11:3-20)
8. Forts or resorts (Alma 48:5, 8)
9. Plants and herbs to cure fever (Alma 46:40)
10. The Land of Promise was an island (2 Nephi 10:20)
11. Climate to grow seeds from Jerusalem (1 Nephi 18:24)
12. The great defensive wall built by the Nephites (Helaman 4:7)
13. Circumcision (Helaman 9:21)
14. Mountains whose height is great (Helaman 14:23)
15. Four seas (Helaman 3:8)
16. Winds and currents leading to their land (1 Nephi 18:8-9)
17. A narrow neck that is really narrow (Alma 22:32)
    For a brief explanation of these 17 points, see the posts: “Lands of Appropriate Scale—Part IX and X,” October 1 and 2, 2011.
    And finally, though Sorenson says: “while it is theoretically possible that another area of the New World could meet the criteria to be the historical Nephite and Lamanite lands, it has proved impossible to identify any such territory…every proposed geographical setting other than Mesoamerica fails to meet the criteria established by the text of Mormon's account.” Despite this rather arrogant attitude and belief, the following chart shows that Andean Peru meets all 31 scriptural references that can be listed.