The comical search for Cumorah in Mexico

One obstacle to reaching consensus is absurdity.

For a good example, watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKwEeaQ_7gE

We have people wandering through Mesoamerica searching for Cumorah. Seriously. My favorite line in the presentation is, "We're doing all we can while waiting for the Lord to give us more."

These people are rejecting what the Lord already gave us. Why would they think the Lord would give more?

We have a few lines of ambiguous text from the Book of Mormon, granted. It's possible to concoct any number of "requirements" for Cumorah depending on what assumptions we want to make and how far we are willing to "expand" the text.

But we also have the declaration by Joseph and Oliver that it was a fact that the final battles took place in the mile-wide valley west of the hill Cumorah in New York. We have the repository in that same hill.

There is (or should be) no ambiguity about the location of Cumorah in New York.

And yet we have serious people traipsing (to use John Sorenson's term) through the jungles of Mesoamerica searching for a mountain that can "qualify" as the Hill Cumorah. They come up with their list of imaginary criteria or requirements based on a few vague passages and a whole lot of speculation. The most fun speculation is that Cumorah has to be near volcanoes, but not active ones that might have buried the site in ash. Plus, they need 2,000 hectares of land, and the hill Cumorah has to be smaller than the hill Riplah because of what the Onomasticon says about the word Riplah, etc. This sort of cascading series of assumptions moves the endeavor beyond absurdity.

There is also a "Hill Cumorah Expedition Team" from the Community of Christ, competing with LDS scholars to be the first to locate the hill Cumorah.

It is difficult to conceive of a more absurd pursuit than this.

Here is Team B's website.

http://www.hillcumorahexpeditionteam.com/

Here is Team A's website (with links to all its affiliates):

https://bookofmormoncentral.org/
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One thing they don't explain is why they are looking in Mesoamerica. If it's not because of the anonymous Times and Seasons articles, why limit the search to Mesoamerica? Why exclude Peru, Chile, Panama, Baja?

For that matter, why exclude the actual Hill Cumorah in New York?
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For bonus laughs, check out the comments.

Didn't everything Joseph Smith show through vision, personal walkabouts and such reveal everything happening in America.  Adam Andi Amon, Zelf, mounds, and now many artifacts seem to indicate a relationship with those in Central and South America but the nations they set up were not anywhere else accept the North American Continent.

  

 

Fair Mormon1 week ago

While he did make the above references you cited, he also made many other statements that placed The Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica, South America, Canada and the western US. This video we put together may help answer your question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rsyAExrNNc&t=813s

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That FairMormon video is every bit as ridiculous as the comical search for Cumorah in Mesoamerica.