Daniel C. Peterson – Reflections on “Letter to a CES Director”

Opening Remarks (Stephen Smoot)

• Speaker ID & context
  • Stephen Smoot, manager of FairMormon Blog
  • URL: blog.fairmormon.org
  • Blog carries: posts, essays, podcasts, videos, news, cross-posts of faith–promoting material
  • Invitation to scholars/bloggers to contribute cross-posts
• Introduction of Daniel C. Peterson
  • Internet persona: simultaneously “famous & infamous” – polarizing on message boards
  • Anecdote: filming Peterson on Book-of-Mormon (BoM) evidences; Peterson joked “That’s terrible – I’ll be held accountable for what I say.”
  • Academic résumé
  • Native of Southern California
  • BA in Greek & Philosophy – Brigham Young University (BYU)
  • Graduate work in Jerusalem & Cairo
  • PhD in Near Eastern Languages & Cultures – UCLA
  • BYU professor of Islamic studies & Arabic; courses in Arabic language/literature, Islamic philosophy, civilization, religion, the Qurʾān, Middle-East studies capstones
  • Author of multiple LDS & Islamic works; e.g., Muhammad, Prophet of God ($2007$, Eerdmans)
  • Lectured in $ext{US}$, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Near-East & Asian Islamic universities
  • Church service: Zurich Mission $1972$–$1974$, Gospel Doctrine writing committee $ext{(8 yrs)}$, singles-ward bishop, Chair – Interpreter Foundation
  • Married to Deborah Stevens; $3$ sons

Purpose & Nature of the Talk

• Peterson was asked (not self-chosen) to address the internet document “Letter to a CES Director – Why I Lost My Testimony.”
• Letter ≈ $90$ pages; rapid-fire catalogue (“rat-a-tat-tat”) of critical arguments vs. LDS truth claims
• A normal reader would need ≈ $500$ pages to rebut adequately; hence CES director reportedly never answered
• Peterson’s own reading provoked “pain, sadness & frustration”
  • Author appears to have held a more fundamentalist LDS paradigm, felt blindsided by new historical info, concluded the Church had deceived him, thus now distrusts all LDS apologists
  • Peterson aims his remarks not at the letter’s author but at those perplexed by its claims

The “Big-List / Gish-Gallop” Method

• Jeff Lindsay’s description
  • Critics unleash an overwhelming list of questions/objections so voluminous defenders can’t respond quickly; any “I don’t know” is counted as surrender
• P.Z. Myers (atheist biologist) on creationist tactics
  • Analogous tactic: barrage with miscellaneous claims until an evolutionist must say “I don’t know,” then declare victory
• Consequence: volume ≠ validity; having many questions does not equal having decisive evidence
• FairMormon Wiki & papers (e.g., Roger Nicholson, Gregory L. Smith) provide organized, concise answers; readers should consult them before despairing

Issue-by-Issue Responses

$1$ DNA & the Book of Mormon

• Letter’s claim: “DNA proves Native Americans come from Asia, not Israel.”
• Oversimplification:
  • Genetic evidence ≈ Asian majority ancestry, does not preclude a small Lehite-size founding group in $600$ B.C.
  • Heading change in $2006$ BoM edition (“principal ancestors” → “among the ancestors”)
  • Change was NOT a response to DNA; scholars had objected decades earlier because the BoM text itself never claims all Natives descend from Lamanites

$2$ Alleged Anachronisms (horses, steel, wheat …)

• Letter simply lists items “unknown in pre-Columbian America.”
• LDS scholarship (esp. John L. Sorenson – Mormon’s Codex, Brant Gardner, Mark Wright)
  • Shows candidate evidence / plausible terminology shifts (e.g., linguistic loan-shifts, extinction events, translation equivalents)
  • Author provides no engagement with the literature

$3$ Archaeology & Limited Geography

• Claim: “No direct archaeological proof of Nephites/Lamanites numbering in the millions.”
• Archaeology rarely supplies “name-tags.” One infers cultures via indirect correspondences (architecture, settlement patterns, texts, etc.).
• Limited-geography model (Mesoamerica) arose long before DNA debates; forced by internal travel distances in the BoM, not by modern crises.
• Thomas Stuart Ferguson myth
  • Lawyer, amateur; not BYU archaeology chair; NWAF board mostly non-LDS; explicitly forbidden to do BoM-explicit digs
  • His alleged loss of faith = irrelevant anecdote; contrast with professional LDS archaeologist N. Wells Jakeman, who remained a believer

$4$ Arabian Geography – Positive Evidence Ignored

• Wādī Sayq/Khor Kharfōt (south-Oman coast) as candidate for Old-World “Bountiful.”
  • Unexpected fertile inlet; matches travel directions “nearly eastward” from NHM/Nahom
  • Altars bearing root NHM dated to Lehi’s era found at nearby Marib, Yemen
• Letter omits all positive geographic correspondences

$5$ View of the Hebrews, The Late War, Solomon Spaulding, Vernal Holley Maps

• Spaulding theory repeatedly refuted; still resurrected (Peterson’s “zombie” metaphor)
• Vernal Holley map parallels
  • Relies on loose phonetic resemblances (e.g., Cherbrooke→Shur, Antioch→*Anti-)
  • Relative geographic positions don’t match BoM internal distances
• “Late War” (early-$19^{th}$-cent. biblical-style history of $1812$)
  • Ben Maguire & recent statistical studies demonstrate weak stylometric overlap

$6$ Translation Process – “Stone in the Hat” vs. Plates on Table

• Letter: Church “deceives” by showing Joseph studying plates directly; ignores seer-stone usage.
• Art ≠ Doctrine. Historical art (e.g., Freeburg’s Nephite walls) frequently inaccurate across all religions (cf. medieval Nativity paintings of Egypt as Flanders).
• Royal Skousen – Book of Mormon Critical Text
  • Manuscript evidence proves oral dictation; Joseph produced blocks ≈ $30$ words, corrected spelling of names read in the stone
  • Scribal errors are aural (mis-hearing), not visual copying
  • Translation stopped when Joseph wasn’t spiritually ready (e.g., quarrel with Emma) – incompatible with memorized fraud
  • He did not know upcoming chapter breaks; surprised by content (e.g., walls of Jerusalem)
• Emma, David Whitmer, others: no hidden books/manuscripts; curtain used only to block door traffic, not to separate Joseph & scribe

$7$ First Vision Accounts

• Letter cites differing accounts as contradiction.
• Ignores major LDS scholarship: Milton V. Backman, Richard L. Anderson, Jack Welch, Richard Bushman.

$8$ Book of Abraham – “Smoking Gun” Claim

• Letter: Joseph misidentified gods; cosmology is discredited Newtonian model.
• Rebuttal highlights
  • Guy–Hamblin–Peterson article: BoA portrays ancient geocentric worldview, NOT $17^{th}$-cent. Newtonian physics.
  • Names/titles (Elkenah, Libnah, Korash, etc.) have plausible West-Semitic or Egyptian correlates.
  • Sobek (crocodile) cult in Fayum; several pharaohs adopt “Sobek” in throne names – matches “idolatrous god of Pharaoh” under lion couch in Facsimile $1$.

$9$ Plural Marriage & Nauvoo Issues

• Letter repeats popular web allegations.
• Fails to consult recent specialist works:
  • Newell Bringhurst & Craig Foster – Persistence of Polygamy (multi-essay series)
  • Brian & Laura Hales – Joseph Smith’s Polygamy (Vols $1$–$3$) and companion website

$10$ The Witnesses to the Plates

• Letter’s tactic: dismiss as “magical-thinking $19^{th}$-century” peasants.
• Richard L. Anderson – Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (and later papers)
  • Demonstrates witnesses were sober, consistent, reputable; most stayed loyal despite persecution
• Material vs. Vision
  • Eight Witnesses: hefted, turned pages, saw engravings, described metal weight (≈$60$ lbs).
  • Tactics to redefine their words rely on late third-hand quotes, ignoring first-hand declarations (“with these eyes/hands”).
• Strangite plates counter-example
  • Plates displayed publicly for $10$ years later; witnesses later recanted/doubted; stylistic & production differences undercut parallel

$11$ Miscellaneous Items Rapid-Fired in Letter

• Examples: Paul H. Dunn stories, Salamander letter, Church finances, September Six, temple ceremony ridicule
• Peterson: letter “throws in everything,” but such scattershot does not equal conclusive case

Constructive / Offensive Apologetics – Building Faith, not only Defending

• Metaphors
  • Defense-only football team eventually loses; constant “fire-putting-out” leaves landscape barren
• Recommended “core reading packet”
  1. Richard L. Anderson – Investigating the BoM Witnesses
  2. John W. Welch (ed.) – Opening the Heavens (doc. history of major revelations)
  3. Susan Easton Black & Andrew Hedges (eds.) / Mark McConkie – Remembering Joseph ($2000$ pp. source CD included)
  4. Grant Hardy – Understanding the Book of Mormon (Oxford; literary analysis of narrators)
  5. Representative volume of FARMS/Maxwell Institute evidences (e.g., Echoes & Evidences)
• Purpose: Front-load positive data so future anti-LDS claims land on well-prepared soil

Role of Prior Attitude

• Analogy: hearing an unverified rumor about a lifelong trusted friend vs. a stranger
• Strong, nuanced acquaintance with Joseph Smith & Restoration evidence changes how one weighs new negative reports

External Scholarly Admiration of Joseph Smith & LDS Thought

• Max Weber: Joseph mirrors ancient prophets & Muḥammad
• Lester Grabbe (OT scholar): Smith’s insights illuminate Israelite prophecy
• Heikki Räisänen (Finnish Lutheran): uncanny grasp of scriptural problems
• Stephen H. Webb (Catholic): Mormon material metaphysics benefits broader Christianity
• Ernst Benz (German historian): LDS divinization theology closest to early church
• Harold Bloom (Yale literary critic): Joseph Smith = powerful American religious imagination
• Catholic priest Jordan Vader: Accepting early-church deification logically pushes seekers toward LDS restoration claims

Final Conclusions

• Letter to CES Director provides a big list but shallow treatment; omits extensive LDS and non-LDS scholarship.
• Many crisis-of-faith cases trace to jumping ship too soon, not to absence of solid answers.
• Peterson urges doubters to engage serious literature & consider positive, cumulative case for Restoration.
• Bottom line: “They simply haven’t studied enough.”