Mark Wright

Deification- Divine Inheritance and the Glorious Afterlife in the Book of Mormon and Ancient Mesoamerica

Simply put; Humans can become God's. However,the Mesoamerican definition of a "God" and the "Divine" is much different from the Western concept of a Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent being.

This talk will be difficult to comment on without the visual aids being used. This presentation also requires me to understand Mesoamerican religious traditions and a MASSIVE paradigm shift regarding Nephite theology.

Quick note on a minor/major problem, depending on your perspective, is the use of Presentism in the content of Mark's talk:
Presentism is a mode of historical analysis in which present-day ideas and perspectives are anachronistically introduced into depictions or interpretations of the past. More on Presentism

A few notable items regarding Mayan Kingship and Deification

Mayan King being anointed prior to becoming a King. Office of kingship not only political but probably endowed the individual with a mortal deification as well as allowing for post mortal celestial glory like unto the Sun.

If Mark's statements are accurate representations, (and I do not question honesty only objectivity as a Historian and Mormon) of Mesoamerican theology then there is an exciting similarity between Nephite theology and specifically King Benjamin and his coronation ritual.