Of Ancient Pyramids In East St. Louis, The Heartland, And Educational Levels In Provo/Orem

The main mound at Cahokia — Monk’s Mound, at Cahokia (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

I was recently sent the following link that I think some will find of interest:

“East St. Louis, IL Used to Be an Ancient City with Pyramids”

It’s not an academic article, of course, and it certainly wasn’t published in a scholarly journal. Still, it’s fun.

Palisade at Cahokia, reconstructed — A reconstructed Mississippian palisade at the Cahokia mound complex in western Illinois, near St. Louis

(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Does it prove the Book of Mormon true? Does it demonstrate that the “Heartland” model of Book of Mormon geography is correct? No. The narrative of the Book of Mormon closes in AD 421. In fact, one could easily argue that the story of the Nephites comes to an end even earlier, in AD 387. But note the dates given for Cahokia. If there is any relevance in the site to the Book of Mormon, that relevance is at most indirect.

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Speaking of which, it’s probably time to revisit an ongoing critique of one of the most vocal advocates of the “Heartland” model. Here are some recent links:

“Those who live in glass houses … “

“How much does Jonathan Neville really believe the prophets?”

“Jonathan Neville persists in telling untruths”

“Misrepresenting Moroni”

“Whom should we believe—Jonathan Neville or the prophets?”

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In my judgment, although it’s obviously about a very different topic, this piece (and the worry that it expresses) is perhaps not entirely irrelevant to Jonathan Neville’s attacks on what he likes to term “M2C intellectuals” and the “M2C citation cartel,” a cabal of dishonest, prophet-denying, academic conspirators among whom he has explicitly placed me:

“The Dark Side of Social Media Activism in Science: Scientists are targeted when results do not align with activist views.”

However, this one probably is completely irrelevant:

“The Brain-Eating Amoeba Is a Nearly Perfect Killer: The single-celled menace rarely infects humans. That’s what makes it so hard to treat.”

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And these miscellaneous science-related links don’t possess even a tenuous connection to the “Heartland” model:

“Debate over the universe’s expansion rate may unravel physics. Is it a crisis? Scientists tackle disagreements about the Hubble constant”

“TESS has found the first-ever ‘ultrahot Neptune: The exoplanet may be shifting from a hot Jupiter to a scorched Earth”

Well, on second thought, I take it back. Maybe the idea of a “scorched earth” is relevant to Mr. Neville’s posts about those with whom he disagrees.

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Finally, I was reasonably pleased to see where my adopted home territory of Provo-Orem ranks among the places mentioned in this list of

“2019’s Most & Least Educated Cities in America”

(Thanks to Steven Butala for bringing this to my attention.)