{"id":30949,"date":"2016-02-14T22:00:48","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T05:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=30949"},"modified":"2016-02-14T23:10:20","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T06:10:20","slug":"mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html","title":{"rendered":"Mark Twain reveals the secret behind the persistence of some anti-Mormon theories!"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30950\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30950\" style=\"width: 320px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/02\/320px-John_White_Alexander_-_Samuel_L._Clemens_Mark_Twain_1912_or_1913_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30950\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/02\/320px-John_White_Alexander_-_Samuel_L._Clemens_Mark_Twain_1912_or_1913_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\" alt=\"Mark Twain or Samuel Clemens\" width=\"320\" height=\"664\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30950\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Posthumous portrait of Samuel L. Clemens (aka \u201cMark Twain\u201d done by John White Alexander ca. 1911-1913<br>(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been treated, over the past day or so, to\u00a0a previously unknown critic\u2019s speculations about the true origin of the Book of Mormon, and doing so has put me in mind of this remark from Samuel L. Clemens:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.<\/strong> \u00a0(Mark Twain)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ignore actual historical facts and previous scholarly work on the subject, invent bogus historical \u201cfacts\u201d to taste, and present your theory with confidence!<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve been treated, over the past day or so, to\u00a0a previously unknown critic\u2019s speculations about the true origin of the Book of Mormon, and doing so has put me in mind of this remark from Samuel L. Clemens: \u00a0 All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mark Twain reveals the secret behind the persistence of some anti-Mormon theories!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; I&#039;ve been treated, over the past day or so, to\u00a0a previously unknown critic&#039;s speculations about the true origin of the Book of Mormon, and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mark Twain reveals the secret behind the persistence of some anti-Mormon theories!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; I&#039;ve been treated, over the past day or so, to\u00a0a previously unknown critic&#039;s speculations about the true origin of the Book of Mormon, and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-15T05:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-15T06:10:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2016\/02\/320px-John_White_Alexander_-_Samuel_L._Clemens_Mark_Twain_1912_or_1913_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html\",\"name\":\"Mark Twain reveals the secret behind the persistence of some anti-Mormon theories!\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-15T05:00:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-15T06:10:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"&nbsp; &nbsp; I've been treated, over the past day or so, to\u00a0a previously unknown critic's speculations about the true origin of the Book of Mormon, and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mark Twain reveals the secret behind the persistence of some anti-Mormon theories!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mark Twain reveals the secret behind the persistence of some anti-Mormon theories!","description":"&nbsp; &nbsp; I've been treated, over the past day or so, to\u00a0a previously unknown critic's speculations about the true origin of the Book of Mormon, and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mark Twain reveals the secret behind the persistence of some anti-Mormon theories!","og_description":"&nbsp; &nbsp; I've been treated, over the past day or so, to\u00a0a previously unknown critic's speculations about the true origin of the Book of Mormon, and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2016-02-15T05:00:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-02-15T06:10:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2016\/02\/320px-John_White_Alexander_-_Samuel_L._Clemens_Mark_Twain_1912_or_1913_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html","name":"Mark Twain reveals the secret behind the persistence of some anti-Mormon theories!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-02-15T05:00:48+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-15T06:10:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"&nbsp; &nbsp; I've been treated, over the past day or so, to\u00a0a previously unknown critic's speculations about the true origin of the Book of Mormon, and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/mark-twain-reveals-the-secret-behind-the-persistence-of-some-anti-mormon-theories.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mark Twain reveals the secret behind the persistence of some anti-Mormon theories!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}