John Hamer's claim number 2:
"Text is far simpler than it first appears"
Hamer gives three arguments. My response to the second is very long so we will save that for part 2b tomorrow and look at the first and third today.
First argument: "Characters are 1-dimensional and story plots are wooden"
This sounds more
like personal opinion. I think the Book of Mormon stories are great and not
wooden at all. Take Zeniff and his band for instance. He was initially a spy
but was able to see the good in the Lamanites and wanted to negotiate with
them. He was “over-zealous” to inherit the Land of Nephi, but was fooled by the
Lamanite king. He expresses faith and is a peacemaker but he is not described
as a prophet, he doesn’t give sermons and doesn’t even mention Christ (although
I’m sure he believed in His coming). Despite his righteousness, he describes
how his people have “suffered these many years in the land”. I don’t think his
character is 1-dimensional, nor do I think this story and many other Book of
Mormon stories are “wooden”. But that is a matter of subjective opinion and not
very useful to debate.
With more
than 200 people included in a 1000 year timespan over 600 pages, it is obvious
that we can’t get into all the multi-dimensional aspects of most characters.
“Understanding the Book of Mormon” by Grant Hardy is a great resource to get
under the skin of the main Book of Mormon authors and understand their various
facets.
Third argument: "Complex systems like currency are expounded and forgotten"
In his
presentation, John Hamer makes this point by claiming that when Jesus comes, he
doesn’t use the Nephite currency when repeating the Sermon of the Mount, but
uses “sheckles, talents or whatever”. I don’t know why he would say that but
it’s either very dishonest or very sloppy. This is simply false and very easy
to fact-check. Jesus does indeed use the Nephite currency, Senine, in 3rd
Nephi 12:26, which was introduced in Alma 11.