Archeology and Paleontology

Archeology and Paleontology:

Hugh Nibley liked to warn us about the pitfalls of Archeology and Paleontology. They are inexact sciences. They are filled with tons of personal speculation, personal interpretation, and guesswork. The archeologists and paleontologists are presented with a few pieces of the puzzle, and then they proceed to fill in all the blanks. (Other people do the same thing with the Callings and Elections made Sure, touching upon only one piece of the elephant and each touching upon a different piece of the elephant.)

Hugh Nibley constantly said that even a first grader can tell you in great detail all about the cavemen, how they lived, what they ate, what they did, how they hunted, and so forth. They go ahead filling in all the blanks using their brilliant imaginations, all the while not knowing that there were no Neanderthal Cavemen actually living in those caves but descendants of Adam and Eve painting in those caves instead.

When it comes to personal speculation, you do NOT want to draw a line in the sand and then stand behind it for the rest of eternity defending it. You want to stay mobile and keep constantly adjusting as new information comes your way.

Last I heard, there were over 100 different Models or Maps for the Book of Mormon geography here on the American Continents. What does that tell you? It tells you that there is a whole pile of personal speculation going on. And, when it comes to personal speculation, no one person's guesswork is any better than any other person's guesswork. All of these different contradictory Models for Book of Mormon geography can be extremely interesting to look at and study – I have sampled pieces from many different LDS apologists, and it can be a great deal of fun; but, I'm not willing to bet my salvation on any one particular Model actually being complete or 100% true. I have noticed that they each have interesting things to contribute, things that I have never thought about before, and some of the things they present in different Models feel good or plausible or inspirational. These different geographical Models for the Book of Mormon make the Book of Mormon authors seem more real to me.

The only real sadness that I see to any of this is when we find one LDS apologist actively and openly fighting another LDS apologist, because he has made his personal speculation a religion and because he is unwilling to learn, grow, and change his mind as new information comes his way. When an LDS apologist draws a line in the sand and refuses to go any further, then that's when personal growth comes to a halt for the individual.

I have noticed that some of the LDS apologists have multiple editions of their major works. What does that tell you? It tells you that they are adjusting as further information comes their way.

So, it's always good to me whenever I see intelligent or brilliant Latter-day Saints refusing to attack and ridicule other LDS apologists, but choosing to keep an open mind instead. If I understand correctly, to be contrite means to be teachable, and it's a requirement for salvation and exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom, no matter how smart we might get as we travel along the path towards the Tree of Life. I run into geniuses all the time who seem to be completely blind to some of the simplest realities of life. If they can be completely blind to certain things, then we can too.