Jeff Lindsay (engineer)

Jeffrey Dean Lindsay is a former professor, author, apologist, chemical engineer, and patent agent.

LDS apologetics

Apart from his professional activities, he is also known for his writings dealing with the purported plausibility of the Book of Mormon and to a lesser extent for his work in Mormon history, in particular responding to various statements from anti-Mormon sources and frequently asked questions about the LDS Church. His writings are primarily on his website at JeffLindsay.com, particularly his LDSFAQ section (LDS Frequently Asked Questions), though he has blogged regularly on the Mormanity Blog since 2004.[1] More recently, he was selected as one of the bloggers for Orson Scott Card's Nauvoo Times where he blogs weekly.[2] The Mormon Interpreter, a pro-LDS website featuring scholarship and apologetics, prominently featured Lindsay in the 2014 article "Eye of the Beholder, Law of the Harvest: Observations on the Inevitable Consequences of the Different Investigative Approaches of Jeremy Runnells and Jeff Lindsay" by Kevin Christensen.[3] According to Christensen, Lindsay deals with the issues raised in Runnells' popular critical work "at greater length, over a much broader span of time, consulting a wider range of sources, providing far more documentation, and including far more original research than Runnells." Original contributions from Lindsay mentioned include his satirical treatment of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass[4] as "evidence" of Book of Mormon plagiarism as well as treatments of the Book of Abraham and other topics. At the Mormon Interpreter, Lindsay has also been cited for a "thoughtful blog response to [a] New York Times article"[5]

Several of Lindsay's writings have been published or cross-posted at another pro-LDS website, FAIRMormon.org, including his analysis of a critical response to one aspect of the Arabian Peninsula evidence for the Book of Mormon.[6]

Lindsay has written an article Does DNA Evidence Refute the Book of Mormon?, in which he concluded that many Latter-day Saints incorrectly assumed that Lehi's group was the primary genetic source for all Native Americans and recommended that such errant assumptions be abandoned. Additionally, he noted that the Book of Mormon does not make such claims regarding Lehi and therefore only encourages a more enlightened view rather than complete abandonment of the Book of Mormon. This was one of the early articles on DNA-Book of Mormon issues noted by the Church and made available as a PDF file on their LDS Newsroom at LDS.org.[7]

Lindsay's work in Mormon history has attracted the attention of various Mormon research groups, including the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies.

Lindsay is on the Executive Board of the Interpreter Foundation,[8] a leading LDS apologetics organization, and has published 3 peer-reviewed publications in the Interpreter on LDS issues.,,[9][10][11]

Some of Lindsay's claims have been criticized.[12] For example, Richard Abanes, a writer critical of Mormonism, refers to Lindsay's work as "numerous self-published articles, not scholarly, extremely biased, articles often based on misinformation".[13] Some LDS people also disagree with some of Lindsay's viewpoints.

See also

Notes and references

External links

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