How icons and references are used on this site
About Joined Articles
About References
Icons
The index of evidences uses a visual legend, allowing someone to quickly see the current status of a specific entry. Here is an in depth review of what each icon means:
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Confirmed
Most scholars would concur on the existence of this entry. The following is a general guideline:
- In the case of an event, it means that the event is confirmed to have taken place within history.
- In the case of a location, it means that the location has been identified and found.
- In the case of an item, it means that the item has been found, that the means to produce the item has been found, or other recorded instances of a similar item has been found.
- In the case of a person, it means that an individual has been properly identified as the person claimed.
For example:
An example will be provided before the site transitions into its beta phase.
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Strong plausibility
In order for something to be given a strong plausibility rating, it first must meet the criteria to be possible, and then have additional evidence to support that this may be the item or event in question. The following is a general guideline:
- In the case of an event, it means that the event is believed to have occurred because of available evidence and witnesses.
- In the case of a location, it means that a possible location has been found, and additional evidence helps to confirm that this is the location in question.
- In the case of an item, it means that an item or the means to produce a similar item has been found that could closely match the description of the item in question.
- In the case of a person, it means that an individual bears a close resemblance or other identifiable characteristics of the person in question.
For example:
An example will be provided before the site transitions into its beta phase.
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Possible
A possible entry must have some sort of evidence that helps to support the possibility of the entry in question. The following is a general guideline:
- In the case of an event, it means that there is enough evidence to suggest that the event may have occurred, but more evidence is needed to confirm it.
- In the case of a location, it means that a possible location has been found, but additional evidence would be needed to confirm that this is the location in question.
- In the case of an item, it means that an item, or the means to produce a similar item, has been found but may not be reliably verifiable.
- In the case of a person, it means that an individual could possibly be the individual in question, but not enough information has been found to confirm this.
For example:
An example will be provided before the site transitions into its beta phase.
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Appears doubtful
An entry will appear doubtful if there is very little to no evidence to support the claim. Most LDS scholars believe that these evidences will either be found as time goes on, or that they will remain hidden until the Second Coming of Christ. The following is a general guideline:
- In the case of an event, it means that there is no evidence or witness of the event occurring that has been found at this point.
- In the case of a location, it means that no possible match for a location has been found yet.
- In the case of an item, it means that no similar item has been found, and no means to produce a similar item has been found yet.
- In the case of a person, it means that no individual has been found as of this point that matches the description of the individual as claimed.
For example:
An example will be provided before the site transitions into its beta phase.
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Invalid
An invalid entry will only occur when critics have claimed something out of context or have used evidence to claim that the Book of Mormon false when the item is not claimed by the Book of Mormon in the first place. The following is a general guideline:
- In the case of an event, it means that the event being used by a critic is not actually found in the Book of Mormon, or the event is being used out of context.
- In the case of a location, it means that the location being used by a critic is out of context.
- In the case of an item, it means that the item is being compared incorrectly to another item, or that an item is being used in the claim of a critic that is not actually claimed in the Book of Mormon.
- In the case of a person, it means that an individual is being used who does not exist, or that an individual is being misquoted, or falsely attributed to a quote.
For example:
"The hardest cross I have to bear is the Cross of Lorraine."
- Winston Churchill
(This quote was not made by Winston Churchill, but was actually made by General Spears, Churchill's envoy to France)
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Informational
This entry is just an interesting entry. There may or may not be any evidence for such an entry. This item will not be included in any precompiled lists.
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Needs more information
This entry needs more information. Usually this will be an entry that I would like specific feedback for. This item will not be included in any precompiled lists.
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Other
The other marker will only be used when none of the above markers will work for an entry. See the details of the entry for more information.
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Joined articles
Often an article of evidence has multiple points associated with it. Most often you will see article points separated like this:
| Strong plausibility |
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| Appears doubtful |
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Sometimes it makes more sense to address multiple issues in one article. For example, assume that we are discussing possible locations for the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. Instead of creating multiple pages to discuss each possibility, this is something that is better suited on a single page, even though both points should be addressed. These will show up linked together.
So when you see two points linked together like this:
| Possible |
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| Invalid |
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Be aware that both links will take you to the same page where both issues will be addressed.
References
Some people value specific types of references much greater than other types of reference.
In one example, I once had the opportunity to discuss with someone what evidences might exist in a specific field of science that helped to support the Book of Mormon. He would not accept something as possible unless it was presented in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. After a fairly lengthy discussion with him, I eventually presented him with information that supported the possibility of the claim he wanted using several peer-reviewed articles. He still would not agree that it could even be considered as a possibility because all of the details were not contained within a single article. This taught me that some people value certain types of references more than others and that some people ask for evidence even when they have already made up their mind.
This site cannot use references from an LDS owned college, or from an apologetic source, as defined in this site's guidelines found on the introduction page.
Therefore, the different type of references are clearly marked using the following guidelines:
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Peer-reviewed journals
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If an article appears to be coming from a peer-reviewed journal the footnote links and external links will appear with a green 'P' tile.
I will do my best to correctly identify if the journal is peer-reviewed, based on reliable resources, and on what the journal itself claims.
For example:
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Expert in the field
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A link will appear with a blue 'E' tile if it is written by an expert in the field, even if it is not in a peer-reviewed journal.
In order for a report, book or article to be "written by an expert", the writers credentials must be verifiable, and the writer must have a degree that matches the appropriate field.
For example:
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Books and other journals
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If a reference is a book or another journal that is not peer-reviewed and cannot be verified to be an expert in the field, the footnote link and the external link will appear with a gray 'B' tile.
For example:
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Other
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If a reference does not meet either of the above conditions, then it will appear with a red 'O' tile. News articles and web pages would fall into this category.
For example:
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LDS owned source
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In some cases a reference to a source owned by the LDS Church is used on this site. These references will have an 'L' in a dark blue tile. Sources from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Brigham Young University, and their respective websites (byu.edu, lds.org and mormon.org) all fall within this category. The exception to this is the BYU archive found on byu.edu. If an archived document was considered official doctrine of the LDS church it will have this icon. However, if an archived document was not considered official doctrine of the LDS church it will have the apologist icon found below.
For example:
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LDS author or apologist
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If a reference is attributed to an LDS author or apologist but not from a source that is owned by the LDS Church then it will appear with a dark blue 'A' tile. Works from fairmormon.org, or Jeff Lindsay would fall into this category. Also works by or about LDS leaders that are not official doctrine of the LDS church or that do not appear on the organizations website are also within this category. This category would also include documents in the BYU archive that were not considered official doctrine of the LDS church. For example, personal diaries and the Journal of Discourses would fall into this category.
For example:
| 6 - |  | How the New Testament Came to Be: The 35th Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, September 2006 |
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The puny book icon
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One of the rules of this site is that I cannot use a book reference unless I have seen the book. The purpose for this is to verify that what is claimed to be in the book is really in the book.
So you may see an extra icon next to the standard icons. This is a small photograph of the cover. Clicking on the puny icon will show you a larger version of the cover so that you can verify that I have seen the reference.
For example:
| 7 - |  |  | British Museum Press, Queen of Sheba: Treasures from Ancient Yemen, Chapter 11 - pg. 161, 2002 |
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Dead links
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On a normal site, links that no longer work are normally removed. On this site, links that go off into dead space are still retained. If the original link can be found in an internet archive somewhere, then the reference will just be updated to point to the archive.
However, sometimes a page will not be in the usual archives. These become a 'dead link.' They appear with a black 'D' tile. The original url will be displayed in addition to the original reference material, so that others may search for this in their own research. These links will appear black once they are pointed out to me and I can get around to updating them.
For example:
| 8 - |  |  | Example reference name, (Original URL: http://www.example.com/i-dont-exist.aspx) |
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