{"id":35709,"date":"2016-08-08T12:43:33","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T18:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=35709"},"modified":"2016-08-08T12:43:33","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T18:43:33","slug":"in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html","title":{"rendered":"In which I issue a direct personal challenge to certain critics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ghost<\/a>
Is this the real translator of the Book of Mormon, in the view of Royal Skousen, Stanford Carmack, and the Interpreter Foundation? \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every time Dr. Royal Skousen and\/or Dr. Stanford Carmack makes a presentation or publishes something arguing for\u00a0the presence of Early Modern English in the Book of Mormon, some critics instantly begin to mock them for advocating a wacky ghost-committee translation theory, a theory that is usually said to involve William Tyndale.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is, say these critics, utterly astonishing that anybody would propound or believe so stupid and so desperate a theory. \u00a0Mind-boggling. Absurd. \u00a0Ridiculous. \u00a0Indeed, some hyperventilating critics actually seem to have been driven to their thesauruses, vying with one another to find ever more dramatic ways of expressing their amazement at the silliness of such Mormon pseudo-scholarship.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

During his presentation at the 2016 FairMormon conference on Thursday morning, Professor Skousen expressly denied believing in the theory that such critics jeer at. \u00a0But the jeering and sneering continues, nonetheless.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why? \u00a0Because the critics who bemoan this supposed crackpot theory can\u2019t be bothered to read or to listen to what Drs. Skousen and Carmack actually say<\/em>. \u00a0They don\u2019t engage the actual scholarship. \u00a0Instead, they deride a straw man largely of their own creation, jumping and dancing around it but never really noting what it really says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I say that it\u2019s largely<\/em> of their own creation. \u00a0By which I mean almost entirely<\/em>. \u00a0But not quite totally.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think I may, in a few\u00a0firesides some\u00a0years back, have helped this nonsense along by relating a humorous anecdote about a conversation I had with Professor Skousen. \u00a0When he first began to tell me about the evidence he was finding for the unexpected presence of Early Modern English in the Book of Mormon, I was mystified. \u00a0\u201cWhat does this mean?<\/em>\u201d I asked him. \u00a0\u201cHow do you explain<\/em> it? \u00a0What would account<\/em> for it? \u00a0Where did it come from?\u201d \u00a0He responded, with a smile, that maybe William Tyndale was on some sort of committee in the spirit world. \u00a0\u201cAre you serious?<\/em>\u201d I asked? \u00a0\u201cOh, I don\u2019t know,\u201d he answered. \u00a0\u201cMaybe half-way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s never actually tried<\/em> to account for the puzzling linguistic phenomena that he and Dr. Carmack have been identifying. \u00a0He simply reports what they\u2019re finding.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I hereby offer a personal check of $100 to anybody who can locate any passage in any published writing by either Dr. Skousen or Dr. Carmack in which either of them seriously advocates the proposition\u00a0that the Book of Mormon was rendered into English by a mysterious spirit-world committee of translators, with or without the leadership of William Tyndale.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of material in which to search for this crazy notion, which should, if there\u2019s any truth to the critics\u2019 allegations at all, offer plenty of rope with which to hang Dr. Skousen and\/or Dr. Carmack:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.mormoninterpreter.com\/author\/royals\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.mormoninterpreter.com\/author\/stanfordc\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/yalebooks.com\/book\/9780300142181\/book-mormon<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Royal-Skousen\/e\/B001JXJD9G<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m curious to see whether these critics care, even slightly, for the truth.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Every time Dr. Royal Skousen and\/or Dr. Stanford Carmack makes a presentation or publishes something arguing for\u00a0the presence of Early Modern English in the Book of Mormon, some critics instantly begin to mock them for advocating a wacky ghost-committee translation theory, a theory that is usually said to involve William Tyndale. \u00a0 It […]<\/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-35709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIn which I issue a direct personal challenge to certain critics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Every time Dr. Royal Skousen and\/or Dr. Stanford Carmack makes a presentation or publishes something arguing for\u00a0the presence of Early\" \/>\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\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In which I issue a direct personal challenge to certain critics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"    Every time Dr. Royal Skousen and\/or Dr. Stanford Carmack makes a presentation or publishes something arguing for\u00a0the presence of Early\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-08T18:43:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2016\/08\/594px-Medieval_ghost.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=\"3 minutes\" \/>\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\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html\",\"name\":\"In which I issue a direct personal challenge to certain critics\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-08T18:43:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-08T18:43:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"    Every time Dr. Royal Skousen and\/or Dr. Stanford Carmack makes a presentation or publishes something arguing for\u00a0the presence of Early\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"In which I issue a direct personal challenge to certain critics\"}]},{\"@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":"In which I issue a direct personal challenge to certain critics","description":"    Every time Dr. Royal Skousen and\/or Dr. Stanford Carmack makes a presentation or publishes something arguing for\u00a0the presence of Early","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\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"In which I issue a direct personal challenge to certain critics","og_description":"    Every time Dr. Royal Skousen and\/or Dr. Stanford Carmack makes a presentation or publishes something arguing for\u00a0the presence of Early","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2016-08-08T18:43:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2016\/08\/594px-Medieval_ghost.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html","name":"In which I issue a direct personal challenge to certain critics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-08-08T18:43:33+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-08T18:43:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"    Every time Dr. Royal Skousen and\/or Dr. Stanford Carmack makes a presentation or publishes something arguing for\u00a0the presence of Early","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/08\/in-which-i-issue-a-direct-personal-challenge-to-certain-critics.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"In which I issue a direct personal challenge to certain critics"}]},{"@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\/35709","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=35709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}