We are continuing with John
L. Sorenson’s book An Ancient American
Setting for the Book of Mormon, which is so extensively hyped by
Mesoamericanists and Land of Promise Theorists, especially because of
Sorenson’s reputation as the one-time Dean of Anthropology at BYU, and current
status as Professor Emeritus, and referred to as the “Guru of Book of Mormon
Archaeology,” that it needs a reality check every so often to remind everyone of what this Theorist believes and describes that is in such conflict with Mormon's descriptions and the scriptural record.
Continuing with Sorenson’s
comments as to why he is 100 percent correct in stating that the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec is the narrow neck of land, along with our counter responses:
Reasons 1: Sorenson: “As noted, when readers of the Book of Mormon
use critical criteria associated with language, high civilizations,
archaeological evidence, historical evidence, radiocarbon dating, and the
geographic configuration of Book of Mormon lands in identifying the New World
setting for the Book of Mormon, Mesoamerica turns out to be the only tenable New World setting for
the Book of Mormon.”
Response: Let’s get to the point
here. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is 120 miles across as the crow flies, closer to 144 miles on foot
according to the Mexican government figures, which seems, in and of itself,
enough cause to disqualify it as Mormon’s “narrow neck of land” (Alma 22:32;
63:5), since he tells us that a Nephite could cross that narrow neck in “a day
and a half’s journey” (Alma 22:32). At 120 miles for 12 hours of constant
walking, then another six straight hours later, would equal a pace of 6.67
miles per hour. If the trip was 144 miles, that would be maintaining an 8
mile-per-hour pace without a stop for 12 hours, then six more hours.
Boston Marathon where
35,671 entered, with the fastest pace for just over two hours was 12.6 miles
per hour, but the average pace was just over five hours in just under five
miles per hour
To put this in perspective,
Olympian Ryan Hall’s best marathon (26.2 miles) pace of 12.6 mph for 2 hours,
four minutes, fifty-eight seconds, which he ran in the 2011 Boston Marathon. At
the Cleveland Marathon, which will be run next year, pace charts show a pace of
12 mph will finish in 2 hours eleven minutes, while a pace of 8 mph will finish
in 3 hours 16 minutes and 30 seconds, and a pace of 6.67 mph will finish in 3
hours 55 minutes and forty eight seconds.
As one runner, who had spent
over five straight months working out and getting reading for the Marine Corps
Marathon in 2013, said after the race: “By mile 17, I’d added a little bit of walking
into the mix, hoping it would alleviate the nausea and foot pain. My quads and
calves started to feel tight and I occasionally joined the people attempting to
stretch a little by the sidelines. At mile 19 my knee started to be a real
problem, the aching in my feet had been going on so long that I’d pretty much
tuned it out. I limped along to mile 20, still
jogging more than walking. I slowed to a walk to take a quick break, but
when I went to switch back to a jog my knee collapsed under me. I walked from
there to mile 25, then half jogged to the end, finishing the marathon in 5
hours 33 minutes.” Her pace for only 5 ½ hours was 4.73 mph, and after that effort, was "more than ready to quit."
Sorenson’s 120 miles would be
6.67 mph for 12 straight hours and then another 6 straight hours—and marathons
are run on smooth streets without obstacles; the narrow neck of land would be
up and down hills, through forests, swamps, etc. Could anyone do that? Of
course. Certainly individuals, perhaps one in ten thousand, could do so. But
when Mormon said “a Nephite,” he is not singling out a special individual,
but a common man.
Reason 2: Sorenson: “A careful reading of the Book of Mormon in
an attempt to discern the general “shape” of the overall land of the Book of
Mormon confirms that an hourglass image results from content about the land
northward, narrow neck of land, and land southward. The mental image that comes
from these three components is first, that of an hourglass, and second, that of
the corresponding “shape” of Mesoamerica, although the hourglass image
reflected in Mesoamerica is of an hourglass lying on its side—or in a
horizontal rather than a vertical position—to justify the Nephite directions of
“northward” and “southward.”
Response: We have talked about
this in the last post.
Left: While this example map satisfies the
descriptions Mormon give us of the Land of Promise, it is not shaped like an
hourglass, though it has a narrow neck of land between two larger land masses. Right:
A map of Mesoamerica. Obviously, Sorenson’s idea of matching a Book of Mormon
shape to Mesoamerica is not valid as he claims
However, some additional
comments might be in order. First, Sorenson insists on using the hourglass
image since it reflects the Mesoamerican shape of his model. Second, one can
lay a map in any direction one wants, but when you skew the directions from
those listed, you get errors. Sorenson ignores his errors, by explaining them
away under the guise the Nephites did not use our cardinal directions, though
Nephi’s own writing says otherwise.
Reason 3: Sorenson: “Under the assumption that Mesoamerica is,
indeed, the New World setting for the Book of Mormon, the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec is the only isthmus
that matches the content of the Book of Mormon and that reflects findings from
the archaeological and historical records of Mesoamerica.”
Response: A more accurate
statement would be that the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is the only isthmus in
Mesoamerica that could be singled out for a narrow neck, and that is by
stretching the facts considerably. And an even more accurate statement would be
that Mesoamerica does not match the scriptural record at all as being the Land
of Promise.
In order to make it appear that
it does, Sorenson fallaciously alters his own maps (Map 1 p7, Map 2 p11, Map 3
p20, and Map 4 p24) from his tilted hourglass that runs northward and southward
in a more closely associated directional configuration with Mormon’s simple,
but clear descriptions, to a horizontal map of Mesoamerica, which runs directly
east and west along the line of the narrow neck of land.
Sorenson’s deception.
Take a look at the five easily discerned points of error: Yellow Arrow: Land
Northward (left map in the north, right map in the west); Red Arrow: East Sea
or Sea East (left map in the east, right map in the north); Blue Arrow: West
Sea or Sea West (left map in the west, right map in the south); Dark Green
Arrow: Land Southward (left map in the south, right map in the east); and Light
Green Arrow: Narrow Neck of Land (left map runs basically north and south, right
map runs due east and west)
This is not scholarly work. It
is deceptive and outright fallacious. There is obviously an intent to mislead
and confuse in trying to show that his Mesoamerica model matches Mormon’s
descriptions by using four maps that more or less match Mormon’s descriptions,
then inserts a map that clearly does not match Mormon’s descriptions or even
the earlier descriptions or even his earlier four maps.
When Sorenson alters his map
from a northward-southward orientation to his Mesoamerica west-east
orientation, he writes on p36 “More
detail is not necessary at this point. The general agreement between
Mesoamerican and Book of Mormon geography can be grasped directly by studying map
5 carefully.”
Why is not more detail needed
when the simplest five points of his two maps are so in error and inconsistent?
It would seem prudent to provide far more detail that these two simple maps. In
addition, as shown by these two maps above, there simply is no “general
agreement between Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon.”
In fact, the more information we
get into, especially that which is based on the scriptural record, such as
Mormon’s description, directions, distances, etc., we find there is little or
no agreement whatsoever. In the next post we will cover this.
(See
the next post, “More on Sorenson’s Land of Promise – Part IV,” for a better understanding
of the “Liahona” and how it operated)
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