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Date: October 16, 2014 03:53PM
I laughed at the way Big Dan attempted to distract the reader with the following red herring:
"Another example: More than 20 years ago, two critics suggested that the cosmological ideas in the Book of Abraham derive from a 1728 entry in Benjamin Franklin’s unpublished personal papers and from an obscure 1755 work by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant that was barely noticed in Germany and wasn’t published in English until 1900."
I assume he was referring to Vogel and Metcalfe as the "two critics". Of course, they were just pointing to an intellectual environment and not a specific source when they drew parallels to Kant. Meanwhile, if Big Dan wants to unrealistically demand that any potential influence must have been on Joseph Smith's actual bookshelf, then let's give him some Thomas Dick, "Philosophy of a Future State" (published in 1828 and a 2nd edition in 1830):
"...it may be stated, that the soul of man appears to be capable of making a perpetual progress towards intellectual and moral perfection, and of enjoying felicity in every stage of its career, without the possibility of ever arriving at a boundary to its excursions."
"A thousand conjectures and inquiries are suggested to the mind, in relation to the systems and worlds which are dispersed through the immensity of space. Are all those vast globes peopled with inhabitants? Are they connected together, under the government of God, as parts of one vast moral system? Are their inhabitants pure moral intelligences, or are they exposed to the inroads of physical and moral evil? What are the gradations of rank or of intellect which exist among them? What correspondence do they carry on with other provinces of the Divine empire?"
“It is now considered by astronomers, as highly probable, if not certain, - from late observations, from the nature of gravitation, and other circumstances, that all the systems of the universe revolve round one common centre, - and that this centre may bear as great a proportion, in point of magnitude, to the universal assemblage of systems as the sun does to his surrounding planets, And, since our sun is five hundred times larger than the earth, and all the other planets and their satellites taken together, - on the same scale, such a central body would be five hundred times larger than all the systems and worlds in the universe. Here, then, may be a vast universe of itself - an example of material creation, exceeding all the rest in magnitude and splendor, and in which are blended the glories of every other system. If this is in reality the case, it may, with the most emphatic propriety, be termed, THE THRONE OF GOD... This grand central body may be considered as the capital of the universe. From this glorious centre, embassies may be occasionally dispatched to all surrounding worlds, in every region of space. Here, too, deputations from all the different provinces of creation, may occasionally assemble, and the inhabitants of different worlds mingle with each other, and learn the grand outlines of those physical operations and moral transactions, which have taken place in their respective spheres. Here, may be exhibited to the view of unnumbered multitudes, objects of sublimity and glory, which are no where else to be found within the wide extent of creation. Here, intelligences of the highest order, who have attained the most sublime heights of knowledge and virtue, may form the principal part of the population of this magnificent region. Here, the glorified body of the Redeemer may have taken its principal station, as "the head of all principalities and powers:" and here likewise, Enoch and Elijah may reside, in the mean time, in order to learn the history of the magnificent plans and operations of Deity, that they may be enabled to communicate intelligence respecting them to their brethren of the race of Adam, when they shall again mingle with them in the world allotted for their abode, after the general resurrection...”
Sound familiar?