I just noticed that the old Jack West slideshow and lecture about his travels to South and Central America has been put on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn0CnnBqs_Q

I bought my own copy of that when I was on my mission in Australia 42 years ago. I probably showed it to a dozen or so investigators. The presentation was so long and dry that most of the investigators lost interest about halfway in. I actually edited the audiotape to cut the running time down by about half. I also shared the presentation at a couple of youth firesides after I got home from my mission. I still have that filmstrip and cassette tape packed away somewhere. I also have the related book titled "The Book Of Mormon On Trial." If you listen to any of the video, the little beeps you hear every so often were to notify whoever was running the filmstrip to advance the strip to the next corresponding photo.

Ironically, in 1976---the year I returned from my mission---the LDS anthropologist John Sorenson wrote an article in which he criticized productions such as West's as being amateurish and inaccurate. You can read his article here:

http://ida.net/graphics/shirtail/john.htm

Despite Sorenson's criticism, I see that some enthusiastic person has put West's comic-style book on the internet:

http://bookofmormonontrial.com/index.html

I ate that stuff up as a naive young TBM, but when I began studying my way out of the church using reason and skepticism, I quickly saw how silly the whole book was. One of West's silliest arguments concerned the charge of lack of evidence for the wheel in ancient America. He "proved" his case with this example:

http://bookofmormonontrial.com/table-of-contents.html

From this link, go to page 502 to see the drawing of four giant stone wheels which West claimed were wagon wheels created by ancient Americans to haul stones to build ancient temples and cities. In actual fact, the giant stones are common discarded millstones, which can be found all over the world. When I was a naive TBM, it would have never occurred to me that those stones were anything but what West claimed they were---giant wagon wheels. But as I got older and wiser, I realized that no team of draft animals could pull a wagon of that size and weight, let alone carrying a load of giant stones. The stone wheels would have broken apart while rolling, and furthermore, ancient America had no draft animals to pull that sort of vehicle. The whole idea is preposterous, and it's a shame that someone would put West's long-discredited book on the internet.

He was very unsophisticated in his apologetics--just took everything he saw in the Americas and turned it into "proof" for the BoM--no convoluted pseudo-scholarship like what we see today. I have no idea how much he was just bs-ing (a la Paul H. Dunn) and how much of it he actually believed, but the "young me" lapped it all up secure in the "knowledge" that the BoM could be proved scientifically as well as spiritually!

Thanks for the fun, nostalgic trip down "Memory Lane!"

I bought with my own money, and used, the Farnsworth filmstrip, not Jack West's.
With a French "script" I'd translated myself.

Boy, do I feel dumb for doing that :(

Ça alors! Et tu es toujours con!

It's awesome how convincing you can make the case when you get
to control both sides of the argument.

Correct me if I'm wrong not interested in reading it all (West's comic) I just skimmed through, just the same religious nonsense with no real objective evidence. I really can't see that evidence standing up in any court except a Bishops court of love.
Damn Jack West those slides were instrumental in me joining the church as I thought they were actual evidence and never researched them, though that was more difficult in 74. Later on when older and wiser I tried prove the church true I found they were all BS.
Guess I was one of those they suckered in. Least I my seven kids and 14 grandchildren are out now.

"Correct me if I'm wrong not interested in reading it all (West's comic) I just skimmed through, just the same religious nonsense with no real objective evidence."

I didn't really expect people to go through the whole book. I mainly wanted to point out the part about the giant stone wheels.

"Damn Jack West those slides were instrumental in me joining the church as I thought they were actual evidence and never researched them, though that was more difficult in 74."

It just goes to show how people can be "converted" to Mormonism based on completely bogus "evidence."

Thorn, aren't you Aussie?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2016 03:32PM by randyj.

Dual national Canadian/Australian living in Australia since 84

But he MUST have been right because he had such a cool explorer's kind of name!

I had a high school student in Arizona recently submit to me her paper she presented to her history class on why the Book of Mormon was true. Her source for the 'truth': Jack West. She is young. I hope as she matures she better understands research and not continually seek information with only confirmation bias.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/2016 10:39AM by Eric K.

I think it's great that the book is on the Internet, where it can be ridiculed without mercy.

I misread that as Jack Web, the guy from Dragnet. I was disappointed when I realized my mistake.

I found a Kodak carrousel with a hundred 2x2 slides on one of my thrift store shopping trips, upon reviewing them I found out these are copies of the slides used in that film. I saw much of the movie on youtube and I saw all of the slides I have. You guys think there's a market for these?