rtc

Greetings,

I've recently purchased, and have almost concluded reading the book "An


active in the Mormon History Association... In his local LDS ward, he
is the high priest group instructor."

If you have read all or some of this book, I would be interested in your
thoughts of the book...

Regards,

RTC

sam kitterman jr.

Never heard of the book and thus, would like some more details, e.g.,
publisher, whether such was available in main stream stores or through
publisher, etc. Would be interesting to read.

jamesb

There has been discussion of this book at ZLMB (a message board for faithful
members/ apologists, anti's, and everything in between).

http://pub26.ezboard.com/fpa***enispagesfrm64.showMessage?topicID=263.topic

http://pub26.ezboard.com/fpa***enispagesfrm64.showMessage?topicID=156.topic

http://pub26.ezboard.com/fpa***enispagesfrm56.showMessage?topicID=460.topic

Two pertinent quotes from the threads:

"I've been reading Grant H. Palmers book, "An Insiders View of Mormon
Origins" over the holidays. It is the clearest, most to the point, book I've
read on the early events in the church: BOM origins, First Vision,
Priesthood restoration, BOA, etc. I agree with the reviewer at amazon.com
that this book will be great to help member family or friends understand
these issues. Palmer obviously isn't trying to drag people out of the
church, but is making a pretty strong call for the church (and members) to
shed the history that is no longer credible (an approach I agree with).
Palmers 34 year career (as a teacher and administrator) with the CES brings
credibilty. Although a big order, I hope Palmers book will help the church
deal openly with these issues, and help prevent many of the testimony
casualties that occur when people learn about them, as well as associated
family strains that too often accompany (myself included). It will be
interesting to see how the church reacts to Palmer and this book."

And this one from a recent post, where Palmer's book was being discussed by
someone who had already looked into alternate theories for the origin of the
Book of Mormon:

"In my case, all of what I had read before Palmer was like little "battles
of Midway" or Pacific skirmishes. Palmer's book was Hiroshima for me. It has
effectively ended 29 years of struggle and doubt. I am sure that FARMS will
try, and in the eyes of many LDS succeed in "demolishing" Palmer. But for me
the sun still shines - and all of the many evidences I have read and
collated over the years were articulated by Palmer and coalesced to form a
very clear picture for me. What really made it effective is that he is not
an anti-Mormon. I could see through the Tanners and their forced conclusions
too easily. Palmer doesn't have to force anything, the truth about the BoM
just flows naturally. "

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I have read the book, and recommend it very highly. I still go to Church,
and hold a calling as a teacher, and have my temple recommend, but after
finishing Palmer's book I had to finally admit that I no longer believed in
an ancient origin of the Book of Mormon. I had doubts for a while, but it
wasn't until I saw it all in one place that I realized how strong the
evidence was against the Book of Mormon, compared to the evidence for it.

If you absolutely want to maintain your testimony above all else, you could
probably live without reading this book. It won't do anything for you. But
if you want to know the best evidences against many of the incidences in
Church history that we take for granted as having happened, this book is a
great place to start.

rtc

You can purchase it at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1560851570

RTC

millerjamesc

I highly recommend it. It's really well written, very complete,
surprisingly concise and pithy, and the evidence and discussion are
rock-solid. He's really done his homework. And the extremely
thoughtful, in-depth discussion of each topic struck me as evidence
that he has struggled with those issues for years and years and has
researched them exhaustively. As an atheist exmormon, I find myself
agreeing with many of his conclusions (though certainly not with his
decision to stay in the church).

It's also interesting to see how a very thoughtful, knowledgeable
person deals with the threat of cognitive dissonance. Palmer's
approach (assuming it's not the result of a deliberate voice to make
the unpleasant, non faith promoting message more palatable to TBMs and
actually represents what he thinks) is refreshingly honest and the
actions he takes as a result of his knowledge and conclusions
demonstrate real strength of character and principle. I can only hope
that my actions can demonstrate as much character and thoughtfulness
as his.

My guess would be the strength of his powerfully presuasive
presentation and unimpeachable data will give this book real "legs"
and that it will be increasingly used by friend and foe alike.

One thing I will watch carefully is whether or not the Church allows
his pension to continue as the book grows in notoriety. Perhaps this
will be a test for the character of the Church leaders who deal with
it.

James C. Miller
millerjamesc@earthlink.net

rtc

Has nobody here in soc.religion.mormon read this book? I'm amazed...

RTC

michael

Millions and millions of people use the internet, but there's only a
couple dozen people here :-)

Sincerely,
Michael

michael

Thanks, James, I value your recommendation ;-) but I must challenge any
living person's claim to have an Insider's View of Mormon Origins.

The Origins are done, gone, long time ago and beaten to death again and
again for the past 170 or so years and the farther we get from it the
less likely we will uncover new truth.

Being a high priest group instructor doesn't mean a lot, I'm one of those
and I can tell you what you already know; it is the opinionated trying to
teach the opinionated. A Low Priest may feel occasionally humbled by his
lack of knowledge, but seldom is a High Priest afflicted by either :-)

Which is no doubt one reason why HP's have their own quorum and room;
keep us and our conspiracy theories and war stories (WW2, Korea, Vietnam)
away from impressionable Low Priests.

Still, if there's money to be made, maybe I should write a book, spend
some time imagining if I were God and there existed a world-wide apostacy
using my name, what (if anything) would I do about it? Might I recognise
in a newly colonized continent an opportunity to start a seedling of a
religion, out from under the canopy of that opressive religion? Would
that seedling be exactly what I want, or would it be something capable of
growing in the soil that is available, with seeds that are available?
Would every person attracted by the fruit of that tree instantly become
perfect, or would they continue to be attracted to the fruit without
themselves perhaps contributing much to it?

So, I have insider views too 'cause I'm still "inside."

Sincerely,
Michael

jwtaber

I may have, I'm not sure. I read a lot of things and remember what
was in them, but not necessarily what I read.

wayne doust

Au contrare! All of us here read every single book that has ever been
published about our faith.

After all, none of us have a life and find it deeply moving to read
the opinions of other people about what we believe and then
immortalise ouselves on the net with our new found knowledge.

NB: Smiley's implied


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