Continuing with David McKane’s
comments on our blog and his maps and claimed area for the Land of Promise in
the Great Lakes area. Over the past few weeks McKane has tried to dominate our
blog with his comments, most of which are both erroneous and clear
misunderstandings of the scriptural record, and the events that have and are
taking place in South America as well as in his model area of the United
States.
McKane writes: “The nephites migrated north because they
were being overrun by lamanites.”
Response: Again, he
errs in understanding what was taking place in the Land of Promise. The Nephites,
fed up with war, left for the north and knowing there was open land in the Land
Northward, headed that way.
1.
“And it came to pass in the forty and
sixth, yea[r], there was much
contention and many dissensions; in the which there were an exceedingly great
many who departed out of the land of Zarahemla, and went forth unto the land
northward to inherit the land” (Helaman 3:3).
These individuals were not driven
north by the Lamanites, but were fed up with the government, the argument and conflict, and
were looking for other land further away from everything that was going on. In
the following verses 4-11 it shows they were not running from the Lamanites,
but were moving into new lands and building cities of both wood and cement. And
in verses 12-32 we find a great amount of peace that was established over the
land—all of this was done without Lamanite aggression causing it. In fact, it
was the dissenting Nephites who caused an end to this peace, not the Lamanites
(Helaman 4:1-4) until they were stirred up by the Nephite dissenters (Helaman
4:5).
2. “And it came to pass that in the
thirty and seventh year of the reign of the judges, there was a large company
of men, even to the amount of five thousand and four hundred men, with their
wives and their children, departed out of the land of Zarahemla into the land
which was northward…there were many of the Nephites who did enter therein and
did sail forth with much provisions, and also many women and children; and they
took their course northward… And the first ship did also return, and many more
people did enter into it; and they also took much provisions, and set out again
to the land northward” (Alma 63:4,6-7). These individuals were migrating
northward, but not being driven by the Lamanites or did the Lamanites cause
them to go northward, but evidently the movement was part of an economic
shipping program, with Hagoth’s ships supplying the means of transport.
3. “And it came to pass that in this
year there were many people who went forth into the land northward. And thus
ended the thirty and eighth year” (Alma 63:9). Again, though a war with the
Lamanites followed this event, the event itself was not driven by the war or
the Lamanites, but of a mass exodus of Nephites from the Land Southward into
the Land Northward.
Thus, these three incidents of mass
movement into the Land Northward, the basic migration of the Nephites as listed
in the scriptural record, did not move northward because “they were being overrun
by the Lamanites,” as McKane claims. However, there are two other mass exodus
movements that were more-or-less caused by the Lamanites, the first was Nephi
being told by the Lord to take those who would go with him and flee the Land of
First Inheritance (1 Nephi 5:5), and the second, after the more wicked part of the Nephites
had been destroyed (Omni 1:5), sparing the righteous (Omni 1:7), and many wars
with the Lamanites (Omni 1:10), Mosiah was told to flee out of the Land of
Nephi with as many as would go with him (Omni 1:12).
So we see that while early on,
before the Nephites had entered the Land of Zarahemla, they were driven
northward by the Lamanites—and then Mosiah into the Land of Zarahemla—but from
that point onward, the Lamanites had nothing to do with their movement
northward and into the larger portion of the Land of Promise. Nor were the
extremely large migrations caused by the Lamanites as shown above.
McKane writes: “The Book
of Mormon mentions tornadoes. North America has tornado alley the place that
Del mentions nope. “And there were some who were carried away in the whirlwind;
and whither they went no man knoweth, save they know that they were carried
away” (3 Nephi 8:16).”
Response:
These
are some notable tornadoes, tornado outbreaks, and tornado outbreak sequences
that have occurred in the Southern Hemisphere including Oceania, all of South
America, and Africa. In addition, the
region in South America named “Tornado Corridor” is considered as the second
largest in the world in terms of the formation of extreme weather events.”
There have been significant tornadoes registered in this area of South America
since 1816, including the longest tornadoes and the most multi-vortexed in the
Southern Hemisphere. In one 24-hour period, as an example, more than 300
tornadoes hit along the Pampas Plain.
In
the U.S., where the most tornadoes hit, besides tornado alley, which is
generally considered to be Oklahoma, Kansas, the Texas Panhandle, Nebraska,
eastern South Dakota, and eastern Colorado, there are other areas that have
tornadoes, such as northern Alabama
and northern Mississippi, and Florida (part of the Dixie Tornado Belt).
Likewise, in South America, there are other areas that have significant
tornadoes than just the Tornado Corridor.
Tornadoes can occur in Northern
South America according to the U.S. Weather (New York), “However, it is widely
agreed upon that more than one location on the globe contains the selective
environment to produce these violent storms. Besides areas in North America, South America particularly receives a great deal of hail and tornadoes
annually.”
In comparing tornado frequency of South America to
that of North America, there are similarities but the differences lie in how
the tornadoes form in the two very different locations. For example, the
infamous "tornado alley" gets a large source of its moisture from the
Gulf of Mexico, whereas other locations pull much-needed moisture from a number
of different sources.
“You bring air over the Andes and the drawback
you have there is that the Andes are taller than the Rockies. They're [the
Andes] not as wide so the air doesn't spend as much time over that range of
mountains. The Amazon is a source of moisture and even though it's really
moist, it's not nearly as good as having a body of water near it—like the Gulf
of Mexico in the United States Great Plains, for example,” Harold E. Brooks
said at the International Conference on Storms in Brisbane, Queensland,
Australia.
Under tornado myths: “some people believe that tornadoes
only occur in North America…or that some areas are protected from tornadoes by
rivers, mountains, valleys, tall buildings or other geographical or man-made
features; the truth is that tornadoes can occur almost anywhere at any time if
the conditions are right. Some geographic areas are simply more prone to these
conditions than others.”
(See the next post, ”Answering a
Reader – Part XIII,” for more information on David Mckane’s model around the
Great Lakes of his Land of Promise and our responses to his comments on our
blog)
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