"The Book of Mormon purports to be a translation by Joseph Smith, Mormonism's founder, of ancient engraved plates made of gold that he found buried in a hill in upstate New York. By his account, he was directed to these plates by an angel named Moroni, one of the compilers of the record when he was a mortal. By his account (something which changed in dramatic details over the years) he proceeded to translate these plates into English. The plates told a story of the inhabitants of the Americas, transplants from Jerusalem just prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.Smith would dictate his translation to various scribes, first Martin Harris, a man Smith befriended in the hopes of securing financial backing to have his translation work published. After an incident where Harris lost the first 116 pages of the translation, Smith replaced him with Oliver Cowdery. Eventually, Smith completed the translation and published the book.
The Book of Mormon traces the descendants of the first colonists from the Middle East, the family of a prophet named Lehi. His posterity split into two groups, the Nephites-followers of his son Nephite and the Lamanites-who followed his other son Laman. The Nephites were faithful people who lived Jewish customs and lived the Law of Moses. The Lamanites, according to the Book of Mormon were less faithful and were cursed by god with a "skin of blackness" and became the ancestors of the American Indians (which explains why Native Americans are not white). The account describes many wars and finally climaxes with a visit of the resurrected Jesus after his crucifixion in Jerusalem. After Jesus' visit, the society eventually fought wars that culminated in the destruction of the Nephite civilization.
Later Mormon leaders have repeatedly stressed that the truth of Joseph Smith rests solely on the veracity of the Book of Mormon. As "the most true book ever published," the Book of Mormon's claims must be fully true and should easily be verified by archaeological evidence, right? Well, unfortunately, wrong. The dirty secret that Mormons won't ever fully admit is that no good evidence supporting claims as made in the Book of Mormon have been found to date. Of course, they rationalize this by emphasizing the to date part of this. BYU has a large archeological department with a big budget dedicated to proving that Book of Mormon claims are true. So far, nothing that's solid evidence exists, otherwise the Mormons would have shouted it from the rooftops.
One of the biggest problems with the Book of Mormon is geography. Where did this all happen? Unlike the Bible where the places can be pinpointed, Very few of these exist for the Book of Mormon. Aside from places described in the first part of the book, before the colonists got to the Americas. Jerusalem, we can pinpoint, as well as the Arabian Peninsula; however, the route as described to their departure point (which some Mormon archaeologists claim to have found, but other than a spot that sort of looks as described there is no other concrete evidence to support his claim), the record goes silent. The Book of Mormon does not describe in any detail that we can match to the present day lay of the land. Sure cities are described, a narrow neck of land, etc, but where exactly are these places? Are they in Mesoamerica, or does the book encompass the entire North and South American continents? Were the Nephites the Maya, and if so, why does the height of their civilization not correspond to the timeline of the Book of Mormon? Also, what happened to the iron implements like swords, horses, pigs, Reformed Egyptian writing, and many other issues.
Also, as exposed on South Park, what happened to the 116 pages of text that Martin Harris lost? Why could they not have just been retranslated? Oh that's right, the rocks in Joseph Smith's hat didn't come up with the same translation, but with a similar story as well as an explanation that God knew what was going to happen.
This does not even scratch the surface of the issues with the text itself, but just suffice it to say that if the translation was perfect, how come we are now on the 10th edition to the text? The modern tenth edition is radically different than Joseph Smith's first edition. Why?
Occam's Razor dictates that the simplest explanation that includes all present evidence is usually the correct one. So which is simpler, that God did not see fit to leave enough evidence to let us identify without doubt where this happened and that he hid archaeological evidence that would prove conclusive, or that Joseph Smith made the whole thing up? My next post will describe how this probably happened, as near as we can piece together."
A side note from Molly: I was always taught to remind people that mormons also used the King James Version of the Bible, and they do. But the emphasis is very heavily on the Book of Mormon. It is considered to be more prefect within the church and though it is never said that the Bible is the lesser work, it is sort of implied.
Thanks Sapper Daddy! Much appreciated.
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