The stories and worldviews we find in the translated text of our Book of Abraham coincide nicely with what we find from ancient Abrahamic lore. If a whale were to die today in the ocean and sink to the bottom, there would be little or no evidence of it in a century or maybe less. There's no agreed upon facts.
Do you see any problems with that? That is it seems to me you're assuming the accuracy of some problematic sections of Genesis. I found the church through my philosophical understanding of Pragmatism.I like to listen to others that share different beliefs than me. The book originated with Egyptian papyri that Joseph Smith translated beginning in 1835. To say that one can verify dates by written records though seems itself problematic especially when you move into the period with limited writing before late antiquity. If a whale were to die today in the ocean and sink to the bottom, there would be little or no evidence of it in a century or maybe less. It at least makes plausible the statement about Egypt being under water when it was founded, although it could not have been completely under water. Abraham 1: 23 The land of Egypt being first discovered by a woman, who was the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus, which in the Chaldean signifies Egypt, which signifies that which is forbidden; 24 When this woman discovered the land it was … I think the 1st century pseudopigrapha model is as problematic as the catalyst model.
In any case it doesn't give a date although it strongly promotes the idea of the Pharoah under discussion being Semitic. There is no lack of pseudepigrapha from that period. Call me skeptical of science at large, but beyond the written record each dating method is all theoretical. Did Pangaea break up 200 million years ago or in the days of Peleg?
Dr. Muhlestein has a PhD in Egyptology from University of California, Los Angeles, and is the director of the BYU Egypt Excavation Project. A third-century papyrus from an Egyptian temple library connects Abraham with an illustration similar to facsimile 1 in the book of Abraham.44 A later Egyptian text, discovered in the 20th century, tells how the Pharaoh tried to sacrifice Abraham, only to be foiled when Abraham was delivered by an angel. More to the point, the scene on Facsimile 1, with its representation of a human sacrifice on an Egyptian lion couch, fits extremely well with Egyptian Middle Kingdom evidence for the cultic ritual of human sacrifice.... I'd also say Abr 1:23-25 is also written from a first person perspective thus reflecting Abraham's beliefs about the history but not relating how he came to those beliefs (that themselves may be distorted). I wonder if this isn't more ambiguous if it refers to people, especially Semitic peoples, moving into the region - a region perhaps already populated. No such place name occurs in the Bible, but it does occur, appropriately timed and located, in an inscription of the Akkadian ruler Naram Sin, dating to about 2250 BC.The Caananite [god] El....compares favorably with the information set forth in the Book of Abraham text regarding Elkenah. I'm not sure we know pre-flood people lived longer though. Anyway, while there are some ambiguities, what's amazing is how much we can know so well about the dates in history. Evidence further suggests that some were killed by strangling, others perhaps with drugs (Petrie believed that some were still alive when buried). Abraham is telling a mythical tale as he has received it, and the text we know is from 2,000 years after Abraham, as copied and edited by Jewish scribes in Ptolemaic times. The High Dam at Aswan now prevents that annual flood, which made Egypt so fertile. It's been a while since Biology 101, but dating methods always seemed fishy - especially since there's no way to verify dates beyond any written records.
I adhere to simple truths.
It sounds like you're conclusion comes from when Egypt was first unified roughly 4000 BC. Did Pangaea break up 200 million years ago or in the days of Peleg? Did I take the garbage out to the curb this morning, or did an advanced alien race come down in their spaceship and use molecular transformation technology to instantly transport the garbage cans from the house to the curb? Anyway, while there are some ambiguities, what's amazing is how much we can know so well about the dates in history. At what point where can one even debate? This has nothing, therefore, to do with Canaanite (Semitic) Hyksos of the mid-2nd millennium B.C., which is the time of Moses.
IIRC radiocarbon is only good for dating back about 50,000 years. Between scavengers and marine organisms and micro-organisms little would remain, unless the carcass were to be quickly covered in mud by a undersea land slide or such. You know it still seems to me that the primary difference between creationism and modern science is still one of timespan.