Hi all, I am James Dobbins. I am married, have five children - one is a priest, and I am retired. About time since I am 83. I teach adult religious ed at our parish, St. John the Evangelist in Virginia, and record each class. I make podcast of each class and publish it on the internet. I did this so class members who missed a class could catch up. Turns out we have about 25K people a month all over the world, including China and Indonesia, who download our podcasts and some parishes use them as part of their own religious ed program. Until a couple of years ago I taught the high school - juniors and seniors - CCD program. We met on Monday night and our house is 25 miles from Church along winding country roads. My wife asked me to stop because she was nervous having me drive these roads alone at night in winter when we often have snow or ice to contend with as well as the occasional falling tree branch. I also serve as the spiritual director for several of our parishioners. Prior to retiring, I worked for IBM Federal Systems Division, first as a member of the Apollo Flight Support Team in Houston, and after Apollo 13 I worked on Air Force and Navy programs. While at IBM, I studied law and was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1982, intending to retire early and practice law as a retirement profession. Things changed and I left the contractor world and entered government service while getting my Ph.D. in Program Management. I taught acquisition management at the Defense Acquisition University until I retired from the government in 2003. I then went to work for MITRE Corporation supporting DoD and the Intelligence Community. I retired from MITRE in 2015. I now write, make functional pottery, and do some consulting. I have written technical books on software quality and reliability, a thriller novel, and a book on Spiritual Growth called Take My Hand. I am delighted to be here and to help in any way I can.

Has anyone else read the book, The Search for the Golden Tablets? One of the elders in Salt Lake City had the idea they could convert everyone by finding archaeological evidence proving the Book of Mormon is truth. He researched and found all the places where they should find evidence of the events described. He was funded by the LDS church and went on expedition with a group of searchers. He searched everywhere and could not find a single artifact to support the Book of Mormon. He filed his report, the LDS church cut his funding, and would no longer support his efforts. He concluded the Book of Mormon was a fraud. He remained in the LDS church because he said it would hurt his mother if he left, essentially saying he was willing to live a lie to satisfy his mother. Brigham Young's granddaughter read the report and left the LDS church, saying that she refused to live a fraudulent life. If you go to their website and just read the doctrines and decrees, the writings of Joseph Smith, you cannot help but come away convinced he was nothing but a con-artist, and he was certainly no Prophet of God.