Jeff Lindsay also says
Unfortunately, the story leaves out some important information and ultimately relies on a critical narrative (from others, I think) that makes far too much of Ferguson's loss of faith and leaves little room for readers to appreciate that there are serious LDS scholars with the training Ferguson lacked who can delve into Mesoamerican archaeology or Egyptology without losing their faith, scholars who understand that scientific research especially in archaeology is messy, difficult, and often takes a great deal of time to get meaningful results. Read alone, her story may create the impression that the evidence related to the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham is so weak that a serious scholar could not maintain their faith if they seriously considered it.
I have found that the maintaining of faith is not the ultimate goal like it appears to be with Mormon scholars. It is all they seem to give a flying flip about, which is ultimately irrelevant to what is real. Lindsay here completely misses the entire point. He appears to me to be so brainwashed about faith that he cannot grasp the essential point. Forget about frickin faith already. This is about evidence either boosting or destroying the claims of the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham. It is evidence that ought to command our assent or dissent, not faith. Evidence is how reality is grasped and understood. Evidence is the only thing that can change something from probably wrong to probably correct, when the evidence calls for the change of mind. It is the complete, fundamental, zero evidence for the Book of Mormon "dirt" and "earth" reality as being real that wiped Ferguson out. There is literally nothing to bolster the scripture as having to do with anything that is real.
The Book of Abraham is different on this score. It is entirely dismantled through literally everything we have concerning it with negative evidence that contradicts what Joseph Smith claimed. Therefore, Joseph Smith is demonstrated to be wrong, and a false prophet. It is not the lack of evidence that defuses the Book of Abraham, it is the overwhelming complete evidence that does this! Lindsay's wading through the sewer of evidence against his pet LDS scriptures in his high waders of faith is irrelevant. It is nothing to do with faith, it is the complete lack of evidence (where there ought to be something) for the Book of Mormon, and the overwhelming vast majority of evidence in regards to refuting everything Joseph Smith ever said or translated with the Book of Abraham! Drop the scholars can continue living by faith thing. Faith lets you say its dark during full sunlight, so what? It is evidence that is necessary to remain logical, coherent, and rational. This LDS scholarship on these two issues utterly fails in its task.