Gramps,
From 1948 to 1961 the Department of Archaeology at Brigham Young University sent “five archaeological expeditions to Middle America,” but no evidence for the Nephites was discovered. After these expeditions had failed, the church leaders gave “large appropriations” to support Mr. Ferguson’s New World Archaeological Foundation. This organization also failed to find evidence to prove the Book of Mormon, and the man who organized it, hoping that it would prove Mormonism, ended up losing his faith in the church. Gramps, if you knew God withheld the knowledge of the existence of American continent from Old World, why didn’t The Dept of Archaeology at Brigham Young Univ. know it? And I am asking this as a serious question.
Frankie

Dear Frankie,
I didn’t add all that stuff about Mormon archeologists to my last answer because 1) it was much too long for our Ask Gramps format, and 2) it really poses no question in the minds of the Church members in general. So let me pursue it for a moment here. Concerning BYU and the other Church universities– We live in a world where it is necessary to work in order to make a living. A hundred and fifty years ago a college education was not all that important as we lived in a highly agrarian society and it was easy to make a living with a plot of land, which was very cheap, and a couple of horses.
Today, with the astounding advancement of knowledge that the world has seen, those involved in agriculture represent about 4% of the population; practically everything else is highly technical. Today, without a college education, with very few exceptions (such as Bill Gates, who has only a high school education) a person must live on a subsistence wage. Secular education in today’s world is a must. So the Church universities are set up to prepare students in all the fields of academia. However, that secular learning is tempered by mandatory religion classes as well.
So there is no problem about sponsoring a department of archeology along with the other scientific disciplines. Since LDS students with a bent for archeology would dearly love to discover an authentic Book of Mormon site, let them have at it. There are several theories on the subject extant today, and in spite of that statement by the Department of Anthropology of the Smithsonian Institute, there is conclusive evidence of the existence of the Nephite culture. (By the way, I think that you will find that the list anti Book of Mormon statements that you quoted from the Smithsonian Institute has been rescinded and replaced by a more moderate statement).. The only thing about which everyone is crying wolf is that there has not been identified an archeological site that can be specifically related to a Book of Mormon site.
A prominent school holds that the meso-American ruins are Book of Mormon sites. Another school holds that the narrow neck of land spoken of in the Book of Mormon is between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. And a relatively knew (and very interesting) theory is that the hill known as the Hill Cumorah in western New York State is in reality the Hill Shim, and that the Hill Cumorah is about 20 south of there.
So the BYU teaches the academic theories of men, that help them make a living in today’s world. The presiding brethren (and most of the members of the Church) are in no way concerned about the results of academic research one way or the other as it may apply to any aspect of the history of the Church, because that is not where the truth is found. The truth of the things of God cannot be understood by the spirit of man and are only known by and through the Spirit of God. The knowledge He reveals transcends all human knowledge. So if science disagrees with revealed religion it does not perturb in the least the true believer, because he knows where the truth lies. And those who attempt to judge the Church by man’s knowledge will never come to the truth.
Now, since by your kindness this has come to be a bit of a personal communication between you and me, let me tell you a little something of my own background. In my professional carrier, for the first 16 years I conducted applied research in semiconductor materials and devices and the Battelle Memorial Institute–the largest non-governmental research institute in the United States. The next twelve years I was in charge of the electronic components that were used in the spacecraft built by TRW, the largest spacecraft manufacturer in the US. The next four years I was the chief scientist for one of the TRW Divisions. So I am not unacquainted with the field of science, with its methodology and with its fundamental limitations
Gramps