Early Paleontology and Mormonism - Cureloms and Cumoms

A controversial Book of Mormon verse is found in Ether.

And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms.^[1]

Since the printing of the Book of Mormon, apologists tried to explain this verse in a number of ways^[3]. Some suggest that cureloms and cumoms were llamas and alpacas--useful animals that were naturally found in America. Some have even suggest that tapirs could have been mistaken for horses.

But assuming that the Book of Mormon was a 19th century creation, how can we explain this verse? Horses and asses are easy enough as the history of those animals' existence in America might have been overlooked, but what about elephants, cureloms, and cumoms?

At the time the Book of Mormon was first printed, paleontology was in its infancy. The word itself was only invented in 1822, and On the Origin of Species wouldn't be published for almost 30 years. There was still much debate on whether extinction was even possible.

Still many fossil bones were being found and examined. A large ground sloth called "Megatherium" was discovered in 1788. In 1797, in a letter to the American Philosophical Society, Thomas Jefferson described some bones he had received theorizing that they came from a lion-like beast, calling the creature "Megalonyx" (later found to be another giant sloth). Mammoths and mastodons were being described in the scientific literature as early as 1796. Could some of these animals be the inspiration for the aforementioned curleoms and cumoms? Orson Pratt seemed to think so. In the Journal of Discourses, he suggested that cumoms were mammoths^[2].

Early church leaders loved paleontology. Orson Pratt mentions mammoths when talking about the Jaredites ^[3]. Early paleontologists exploring the west often stopped in Salt Lake City and talked with Brigham Young, who was very interested in what they had to say.

"Brigham Young questioned [them] about [their] horse fossils, explaining that the Latter-day Saints' foes had used mention of prehistoric North American horses in the Book of Mormon as evidence that it was not divine revelation. 'So it seems that while most theologians were regarding the developments of science with fear and trembling, ... the chiefs of the Mormon religion are prepared to hail the discoveries of paleontology as an aid in establishing their peculiar beliefs.'"^[4]

Unfortunately, as we've come to understand paleontology better, these fossils have become highly unlikely to be Book of Mormon animals. Most of the animals mentioned above (including the prehistoric horses) died out long before the Jaredites would have arrived (most around 10,000 BC).

As for the names "Curelom" and "Cumom", it's anyone's guess as to why those particular ones were chosen. They both end in an "um" sound, as does Megatherium, but that's probably a bit of a stretch.

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[1] Ether 9:19
[2] Journal of Discourses (12:420)
[3] I found a random YouTube comment that suggested Uintatherium (extinct 37 million years ago) or Paraceratherium (extinct 23 million years ago).
[4] The Bonehunters' Revenge Wallace, p.92

The Book of Jareneck - Part 1 - Summary and Impressions

I recently read the Book of Jeraneck, a book claimed to have been written by the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles, and translated through divine means.  I'll get into the details of how it came to be in part 2.  For now, here's a summary of the book, and my impressions of it.

Summary:
The record starts with the Tower of Babel.  The People of Light escape from there and journey northward. A splinter group (the People of Lioneck) breaks off from the main group. They reach a sea, build boats, and cross to a sacred island.
After a few years on the island, three brothers head northward on a mission.  They find another group of people, The People of Rimdon, live among them for a while, then work to unite the two peoples.

Six hundred years later, war breaks out between the two peoples.  The war is ended by someone making a passionate speech.

One hundred years after the war, a new prophet, Raynon is chosen.  During Raynon's time, a new set of people are found, the people of Morion. Morion and Raynon get married, uniting the two peoples and issuing in a golden age which lasts for many generations.

A wicked prophet arises, and ends up started another great war. The sides are divided along ideological (religious) lines.  After a number of bloody setbacks, the army of Christ prevails.

Now we reach the time of the narrator, Jeraneck.  During his life, the people of Lioneck return and wipe out the People of Light.

My random impressions of the book:

• Role of women and marriage. Both are mentioned in this record far more than in the Book of Mormon. There are a few tender passages about Jeraneck's love for his wife.  There are prophetesses and priestesses and women leaders.
• Book of Mormon cameos. Jared and his brother (called by name here "Mahonri") make an appearance.  Lehi and his family are also mentioned as part of a prophecy. 
• Not much doctrine. While the Book of Mormon seems to be written specifically as a vehicle for doctrine, this book is mostly story, and in the little doctrine that's mentioned, there's nothing new.
• Many interactions with Christ/God. Although there is little doctrine, there is plenty of interactions between God, Christ, and these people.  Christ/God doesn't make a general visit, but speaks openly to the prophets, and even sometimes the entire people.[1]
• Spelling errors: Most of the spelling errors were mixed up homophones (i.e., weather/whether, there/their) but there were some genuine errors too (like "fro" instead of "for").  Also missing punctuation, run-on sentences, and sloppy sentence construction.
• Stonehenge: I should mention that followers of this church believe that Stonehenge is the remains of the last temple of the People of Light.
• Jeraneck's promise: This book also contains a challenge to pray about it to gain a testimony of its truthfulness.
• War: Lot's of war. If a Mormon asks me what the book was like I'll probably say, "It's like a Book of Mormon that's mostly war chapters."

All in all, it wasn't a very good book. I think it's main importance is to serve as a mirror for Mormons to show them the strangeness of their own sacred text, especially in light of how it was brought forth.  I'll discuss this in more detail in part 2.

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[1] After complaining about being commanded to gather one thousand logs from the forest for an as-yet-unknown reason, the people are rebuked by a voice from heaven saying, "[W]hen my Prophet speaks it is as if I have spoken and if he commands that one thousand logs be cut, it is as if I have commanded it.  Now because of your wickedness...you will cut two thousand logs." The people pray for forgiveness and the voice comes again and says, "Why are you kneeling and asking for forgiveness? Have I not already commanded you to go about your business and then I will forgive you."

Constructing the Doctrine

As of the time of this writing, there are less than two months left until the end of the world.

Well, the beginning of the end anyway. According to the EBible Fellowship the rapture will happen on May 21st, 2011. This date comes from following a number of assumptions:

1. The flood of Noah happened in 4990 BC (apparently this is calculated by using dates in the bible)
2. The flood started on "the second month, the seventeenth day of the month." (Genesis 7:11)
3. The seventeenth day of the second month in the Hebrew calendar is equal to May 21st in the Gregorian calendar (no source given)
4. The Lord tells Noah, "For yet seven days, and I will ... destroy [all things] from the face of the earth" (Genesis 7:4) This has both a literal and "spiritual" meaining
5. "A day is with the Lord as a thousand years" (2 Peter 3:8)
6. Exactly 7000 years (7 days in God's time) from the flood is May 21st, 2011.

Amazing isn't it? But lest Mormons get comfortable thinking that such strange conclusions wouldn't come from their religion, let me give another example.

Cleon Skousen gave a famous (infamous?) talk on the necessity of the atonement[1].  He presents his case through a series of scripture references. I'll summarize his points here:

1. There are two types of matter in the universe, things to act and things to be acted upon (2 Nephi 2:14)
2. Things that act are called "intelligences" (D&C 93:29)
3. Intelligence is independent of God (D&C 93:30)
4. There are gradations of intelligences (Abraham 3:19)
5. Things that are acted upon are called "matter" (D&C 93:33) 
6. The elements obey God (Abraham 4:18, 12, 10; Helaman 12:8, 9)
7. The power to control the elements comes from God's honor (D&C 29:36, Moses 4:1,4)
8. If God were to not follow his own rules, he would cease to be God, and presumably lose his power to control the elements (Alma 42:13, 22, 25 Mormon 9:19)
9. God cannot save us without breaking his rules (Alma 34:9)
10. Thus, we need the Atonement.

In a way, this is a beautiful piece of logic, powerful in its explanatory power. But again, the sources for this are disparate and unrelated. I find it very difficult to believe that the authors of each source intended them to be combined in these ways.

The primary assumption behind these lines of reasoning is that the scriptures are some kind of set of cohesive code books that must be picked apart, parsed, and pieced together in order to get a full picture.

In fact, this exact reasoning is expressed by Boyd K. Packer.

"Individual doctrines of the gospel are not fully explained in one place in the scriptures, nor presented in order or sequence. They must be assembled from pieces here and there. They are sometimes found in large segments, but mostly they are in small bits scattered through the chapters and verses"[2]

The problem with this is that with a body of work as varied in scope and subject as the scriptures, it's easy to find bits and pieces that can be reconstructed to justify nearly anything.

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[1] Officially, you can purchase it here, but if you search for "Atonement Cleon Skousen" you can read the full text on other sites.
[2] This was originally from a talk given to CES instructors, but in trying to locate the source, I found it in a lot of other places, including some of the student guides for scripture study.

Boyd K. Packer - Cleansing the Inner Vessel

In the October 2010 General Conference, Boyd K. Packer gave a talk entitled "Cleansing the Inner Vessel".  This talk generated a lot of controversy, which I may go into later, but for this post I want to focus on one specific analogy that he used.

Years ago I visited a school ... the teacher told me about a youngster who brought a kitten to class. ... It went well until one of the children asked, "Is it a boy kitty or a a girl kitty?" ... Finally, one boy raised his hand and said, "I know how you can tell ... You can vote on it!"

There are those today who ... advocate voting to change laws that would legalize immorality, as if a vote would somehow alter the designs of God's laws and nature.  A law against nature would be impossible to enforce.  For instance, what good would a vote against the law of gravity do?

Although he doesn't come right out and say it, he's likely referring to legislation regarding rights for homosexuals, specifically the right to get married.

I have a couple of issues of this. To demonstrate the first one, I'll extend Packer's story about the children who were attempting to identify the gender of the kitten.

"I know how you can tell," said a young boy.  "You can vote on it!"

"Silly youngster," said the wise old man. "You can't determine the gender of that kitten by voting."

The children look at him, eager to hear the answer.

"You need to pray about it."

You can't vote against the facts of nature.  But you can't have revelation against them either.  The fact is, same-gender attraction seems to be something that has a genetic basis. If you're interesting in understanding this further, I recommend listening to a BYU Professor talk about the biological origin of homosexuality.

Homosexuality is also found in a number of other species. In a literal meaning, it's natural--it exists in nature. No amount of legislation or revelation will change that.

Jesus's Coolest Miracle

In reading the lesson for the Sunday School lesson this week, I came across a miracle Jesus performs that I hadn't every really noticed before.

In John 6, Jesus feeds the five thousand, then walks on water to his disciples' boat.  Then in verse 21:

Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went. (emphasis added)

So not only can Jesus make food out of nothing, and walk on water, but he can teleport an entire boat across the sea!  Why don't we talk more about this?!  This is the coolest miracle in the Bible!