The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues
Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues

Dr. Nibley

By [email protected]

Roger Carrier 795 Savannah DriveSandy, Utah 84094Tel: 571-2641Cel: 699-2165Email: [email protected] of U graduate 1969, U of U masters, 1974

Dear Editor, I was sorry to read about the troubles in BYU Professor Hugh Nibley’s family (Salt Lake Tribune, Feb. 5). Our common humanity requires that our hearts go out to the people involved. Dr. Nibley’s daughter (and I don’t believe all her charges) said that most of the footnotes in her father’s books were “made up.” Since I have attempted to verify a large number of his sources (and own many of the originals, in fact), I would say that the sources do exist but they are either misquoted or misrepresented. I can’t list all of the false citations-there are too many. But perhaps one example will suffice to illustrate the problem with his footnotes. In his book An Approach to the Book of Mormon (p. 371), Dr. Nibley quoted an authoritative source as saying, “archaeologists are always confusing” certain ruins in England. The article actually says that “the public” often confuses these ruins, and then it goes on to give examples of how archaeologists distinguish one ruin from another. In other words, the article actually refutes Dr. Nibley’s theory of the vanishing Nephites, who, he says, lived in “quickly-built wooden cities” (p. 370). Dr. Nibley’s quickly-disappearing cities and other claims are sometimes bizarre-that there were no bees in ancient America because they are not mentioned in that period of the Book of Mormon (Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (p. 189). Bees, of course, are important for the pollination of flowering plants the world over, and the stingless American bee was, in fact, one of the few domesticated “animals” possessed by the cultures of ancient America, where there were no common barnyard animals, such as horses, cows, sheep, pigs, or chickens. Regrettably Dr. Nibley became not a master scholar but a master of intellectual massage. Using the lotion of unrelated citations spanning hundreds of years and containing facts, errors, and misrepresentations mixed with clever word games involving multiple languages, he became the feel-good author for educated Mormons. Yet, with so many learned men and women at BYU, there should have been someone waving some cautionary flags about Dr. Nibley’s faulty lines of reasoning and misuse of his sources. Sometimes in an overwhelming desire to “prove” matters of faith, a person can loose sight of his goal as an historian–to seek the truth. Lying for the Lord does not build up any religion and cannot be part of the methodology of anyone seeking the truth.

Roger Carrier

Leave a Comment

Comments (0)

The Daily Utah Chronicle welcomes comments from our community. However, the Daily Utah Chronicle reserves the right to accept or deny user comments. A comment may be denied or removed if any of its content meets one or more of the following criteria: obscenity, profanity, racism, sexism, or hateful content; threats or encouragement of violent or illegal behavior; excessively long, off-topic or repetitive content; the use of threatening language or personal attacks against Chronicle members; posts violating copyright or trademark law; and advertisement or promotion of products, services, entities or individuals. Users who habitually post comments that must be removed may be blocked from commenting. In the case of duplicate or near-identical comments by the same user, only the first submission will be accepted. This includes comments posted across multiple articles. You can read more about our comment policy at https://dailyutahchronicle.com/comment-faqs/.
All The Daily Utah Chronicle Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *