William Schryver’s presentation on the Kirtland Egyptian Papers received some press before the conference, and did not disappoint. You can view it here. (A browser plug-in may be required.)

There have been articles about many of the presentations published in Mormon Times, Deseret News, and LDS Church News:

• FAIR conference: Same-sex marriage and the role of religion
• FAIR conference: Secret Mormon codes and Egyptian papers
• FAIR conference: LDS doctrine clear on divinity of one God
• FAIR conference: ‘Gender equality is the brick of Zion,’ speaker says
• FAIR conference: What if the U.S. president were a Mormon?
• FAIR conference: Joseph Smith’s discovery of ancient patterns
• FAIR Conference: Roper’s take on Book of Mormon geography
• Mormons need to work to increase favor
• FAIR conference: Defend the Book of Mormon by studying names, origins
• Nibley editor says scholar was bolstered by research
• ‘Be Ready’ to Defend Faith

Transcripts will be posted at http://www.fairlds.org when they are ready. MP3s and DVDs will be made available for purchase at the FAIR bookstore.

JetBlue chairman David Neeleman said the opportunity is clear: Latin America’s largest nation has a growing passenger travel market dominated by two airlines that face little domestic competition and charge high prices.

“The prices that people pay here in Brazil are 50 percent higher than the prices people pay in the United States. … Brazil is a country that needs more competition and a different kind of competition.”

2009 Spring Founders’ Conference

April 2-3, 2009

REGISTER NOW!

CLICK HERE

Keynote Speaker: David Neeleman

“Connecting Founders Event” – Hosted by Corporate Alliance

Spouses Luncheon & Event – More details coming soon

Business Plan Competition Final Event Judging and more!

Don’t miss this year’s conference with the new Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology

For a schedule of events visit www.foundersconference.com

All in all, it was a great conference and held many amazing insights and explanations. For me it was a powerful spiritual boost and increased my desire to improve in various ways including studying the gospel with more focus and dedication. I also found it very accessible. Some might think I’m something of a scholar because of this blog, but that’s not the case, I’m nowhere near the level of scholarship that many of these presenters are. Yet most seemed very accessible, even to those who don’t study the kinds of subjects they spoke of, on a regular basis. I’d like to share notes and some links from the conference.

Why Apologetics?

Before you stop reading because you don’t like apologetics, you should read some of my notes from Daniel C. Peterson’s closing presentation on Friday:

Apologetics goes back to greek term “apologeto” which means “defense.” Such as the famous “Plato’s Apology.” The meaning is “Plato’s Defense.” In English the “defense” definition is older than the “sorry” definition.

1 Peter 3:15 the word translated as “answer” has the same Greek root, thus it could be rendered “be ready always to give an apology (or defense) to every man that asketh you….”

Argument does not create conviction. But, if they people think you have no reason to back up your stance, they’ll never become convinced either.

Apologetics is the process of giving reasons for your opinion or stance on something. To disdain apologetics is a way of saying “I’m a blithering idiot.” This is because if you give reason for hating apologetics, you’re participating in apologetics. Therefore everyone participates in apologetics, its just a matter of whether you do it well or not. Missionaries supplying reasons why people should accept the gospel is apologetics. “You can’t not do it.”

The Kirtland Egyptian Papers by William Schryver

The organizers for FAIR said the audio of this presentation will be released within the week. So I’ll put a link to it here, when they get that done. But this was one of the big presentations of the conference, so I’ll give a brief overview of its important points.

The Kirtland Egyptian Papers are a collection of notebooks and other documents from the leaders of the Church around the time of the publication of the Book of Commandments (original D&C) and the revelation/translation of the Book of Abraham (Pearl of Great Price). They contain various “Egyptian” characters, with sound translations, as well as explanations of meaning.

Anti-Mormon’s have claimed since the 1950′s that these were being used to translate the Book of Abraham, and because the meanings of the symbols are incorrect, prove that Joseph Smith was faking the translation.

"The Freemason Cipher" from TheMasonicTrowel.com

In spite of all these claims, as well as counter-arguments by the likes of Hugh Nibley, the Kirtland Egyptian Papers have never been studied with any depth. Schryver is a computer programmer and a statistician, and therefore approached his study from that background. He created tables and charts, breaking down the characters, their meanings, and sounds. He also ran statistical analysis on the vocabulary used throughout the explanations or meanings of the characters and found several important things:

• W. W. Phelps is the primary author and refers to the project in some letters.
• Many of the characters on not Egyptian at all, but Arabic, Sanskrit, and even from a Masonic cipher.
• The explanations refer to, and are dependent upon the first 3 chapters of the Book of Abraham and several revelations now in the D&C. In other words, those texts must have existed in English first, before these were created.
• The papers are a form of cipher key, to encode the previously mentioned English revelations, into something unrecognizable to most people, and thereby keep these sacred writings from public scrutiny and possibly destruction at the hands of persecutors.

Schryver’s scholarship and analysis is apparently pretty air-tight and lays to rest any of those accusations of it proving Joseph’s supposed fraud. It’s because these documents depend on the Book of Abraham existing already in English, that there’s no way to use them to say the reverse: that Joseph was fraudulently using them to translate Egyptian papyri into the Book of Abraham.

At the end of his presentation, he laid the subject open to other scholars, stating that he was no expert to fully understand the implications of the papers, but had now opened the door for much more scholarship. He said he’d write-up a paper on it all, then go back to his regular work and leave all the in-depth analysis for real scholars. Daniel Peterson, in his presentation that closed the conference Fri. evening, said he’d been looking on some message boards where anti-Mormon’s were commenting on the FAIR conference. One anti’s comment after Schryver’s presentation was “who ever cared about the Kirtland Egyptian Papers anyway?” A sure sign that this standard weapon in their arsenal had been effectively neutralized by Bro. Schryver’s analysis.

Articles at MormonTimes.com

Next, you can read a semi-brief reviews of some of the very interesting presentations at the Mormon Times website:

• Peter Watkins – A Mormon in the White House
• Matthew Roper – Joseph Smith & the Question of Book of Mormon Geography (seems to have solved question authorship of Times & Seasons articles naming Mesoamerica as the location of BoM – also suggests location was never actually revealed to Joseph Smith)
• Stephen Ricks – ‘What’s in a Name?’ Proper Names in the Book of Mormon (very interesting – meaning behind people’s/place’s names in the BoM)
• Jeffrey Bradshaw – The Apocalypse of Abraham: An Ancient Witness for the Book of Moses (comparison of ancient “Apocalypse of Abraham” text that existed only in Russian during Joseph Smith’s times, with Book of Abraham)

More to Come

I’d like to share more notes and thoughts on at least 2 of the presentations, and will do so in future posts. The first is David Bokovoy’s presentation on “Joseph Smith and the Biblical Council of Gods,” and the 2nd was my surprise favorite of the entire conference: Valerie Hudson “The Two Trees.” Valerie was previously unknown to me, and her presentation was so powerful and meaningful, that it helped me better understand some things I’ve been pondering for some time, as well as opened my mind to many completely new ideas. I can hardly wait to share what I’ve learned.

Audio file of this talk
Video link (Video is also embedded below)

We’ll be sharing more of these talks over the next couple of weeks. You can also find available archives at the BYU-TV page.

As it turns out, we have a solution for people in just such a situation. We will be providing online streaming of the conference, so you can listen to it anywhere that you have a computer and an Internet connection – it may even work on your iPhone or Android phone, although we have had limited success in testing (please have a computer available to use as a backup in case it doesn’t work for you).

This service will cost $15 for both days combined. We will be providing audio, and if all goes well there may also be some video and/or slideshows available. You can order the service at http://bookstore.fairlds.org/product.php?id_product=1085

Instructions regarding access and feedback will be emailed to all participants shortly before the conference begins. A high-speed Internet connection and PC or Mac are recommended.

Now think about that in the context of church… I did all of my EQ presidency meetings virtually because I worked with a group of tech saavy brethren, but we just used a conference call number and collaborated on google docs… imagine if we could actually see each other in a video conference. I think we are a while away, but maybe meetings could actually be virtual.

Now imagine that shut-in member who can’t make it to work, but has a video conference phone. A loving home teacher at church could easily record church and stream it to them… I imagine it won’t be long before they can hook the video chat up to a multi-streaming app like UStream. Sure there will be concerns from folks before that is allowed, but there is some possibility there.

I got rid of my iPhone about 6 months ago for the Droid and am very happy with it… but today I just a little jealous… but I’m sure it won’t be long…

More Information

• Elaine S. Dalton Arise and Shine Forth: A Return to Virtue
• Renata Forste Coming Together and Sustaining Each Other in Righteous Choices
• Ann M. Dibb Building Our Fences of Protection
• Mary N. Cook Our Body is a Temple: Representation, Respect, and Reverence

BYU-TV is continuing to replay some videos of talks as well.

The 2010 Virtual Sharing Stations are also available online.

1. The Black and White of Blogging
2. To Thrive, Not Just Survive the Difficult Times
3. TUNE-ing into the Spirit
4. Let us “Pump you Up!” to a “Healthy Balance”
5. Monson’s School of Primary 101
6. HANDS of Service—A Lifelong Journey
7. Tradition: Don’t Leave Home Without It
8. Cheer and Bless and Brighten—Serving with your kids
9. Baby Bliss—It’s a Sling Thing
10. ITY Spa—Seeking After True Beauty
11. Simplify Life—Magnify Living
12. Got Grandkids?
13. “The Work of Creating Something Beautiful”
14. Homemade by Mom
15. “When you teach it to one, you teach generations to come”
16. Creating a Heavenly Home
17. It’s About TIME
18. Nurture the Rising Generation
19. Sprouting Simple Seeds of Faith
20. My Sister’s Keeper
21. FHE2MTC
22. Get a Grip!
23. SATURDAY is a Special Day
24. Life is Marathon…NOT a Sprint! Pace Yourself
25. Blended Family: Getting the Recipe Just Right
26. Follow the Prophet—Prepare Every Needful Thing
27. Cultivating the Love of God: A Relief Society Heritage
28. Celebrating Sisterhood Through Service
29. All Stressed Out and No One to Choke…
30. “Winding up Our Spiritual Clocks”
31. Prayer…Don’t Leave Home Without it!
32. Early Childhood Literacy
33. How to Tame your TEENAGE Dragon
34. Delighting in God’s Will…Makes Life a Thrill!
35. Small and Simple Things
36. Which Wolf Will You Feed?
37. The Kids Are Gone! Now What?
38. Let’s Go Fly a Kit…and Send it SOARING
39. Celestial Garden Shop—Landscaping for your Life
40. Reaching Out—Helping Converts Grow
41. Whistle While You Work!
42. Have Miracles Ceased?
43. Addiction Recovery Program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
44. Dating on a Dime
45. Turn Down the Volume…
46. Be all YOU can Be
47. Reach Out and Touch Someone
48. “Super Hero Sisters” – A Young Women’s Camp
49. Creaing a Support System for Special Needs Kids
50. Jump Club=Fitness + Friends + Fun
51. A Message from the Nest
52. Utah Refugee Program
53. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint’s Humanitarian Center
54. Little Women
55. The Bag Lady
56. I have to do WHAT…for HOW MANY???
57. Guilt Free Genealogy in 30 Minutes—Indexing