If the Book of Mormon has no factual basis, does faith make it real?

Question

From the Bible one can find places, plants, animals, and technologies in an archaeological context. For the BOM one can't find a single thread which substantiates it. A work of fantasy or faith?

It should be noted also that even LDS scholars admit that no archaeological evidence can be found and DNA evidence points to Asian origins, not Hebrews, for Native Americans. Since I was LDS, these are important facts which I tried to find answers to. Ask the current prophet and he will tell you, all native peoples from the Americas through Polynesia are Lamanites. Why doesn't their DNA agree with him?

http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-w-murphy
This is the Anthropologist, Mormon, who did his dissertation on the subject of DNA, Native Americans, and the Lamanites.

Answer 1

You offended a Mormon.

I know a ton about the LDS church. I was a in for a long time even had some high callings in ward presidency.

After extensive research I came to the conclusion that the BOM is false and J.S. was a fraud. The sooner you open your eyes the better you will be.

Answer 2

How absolutely pathetic. This Forum discustes me, all these answers. First of all I don't think a single person who has answered your quetions has even bothered to ask an LDS person one question. They, and you I presume, instead go to websites or read book of these "experts" that give you all the "facts" about the LDS religion. Sorry to burst you bubble, but you have been extremely dececieved and lied to by your "experts". They tell you they know the LDS scholar points because they don't ever want you to look or ask them yourself.
Read these if you want to know the truth:

http://www.fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/Archaeological_Evidence_and_the_Book_of_Mormon.html
http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferences/2001_Social_History_of_the_Early_Nephites.html
http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Brochures/Archaeology_and_the_Book_of_Mormon.pdf
http://www.mormonfortress.com/bibarch1.html

One of the best pages for finding evidence that unlearned people can understand is this page: http://www.jefflindsay.com/BMEvidences.shtml#metal

And I will just say a few more things. First Joseph Smith was not the only person to see or touch the Golden plates. There were three witnesses who saw and touched the plates with their own hands as well as an angel who appeared to them to tell them it was of God. There were also eight other witnesses who touched the book. Those witnesses never, ever, denied seeing the golden plates, even after they left the church because they could not follow it's teachings. They never denied the truth.

Second as another person has said Joseph Smith was accused of many things, arrested several times, but never convicted, because all those arrests were false charges.

Why must we have historical evidence to believe in the first place? This question is not worth my time to find all the biblical scriptures about the unimportance of science in faith and the utter evil of those who request proof to believe, but they exist. Anyone who has read the bible remembers how much the pharasees asked for proff to substanciate christs words. If you are a christian, do you want to follow in the path of those who killed christ?

Also the fact remains, especially if you have read those articles, that only some of the bible is "historicaly" proven. How long has archeology been working to study the bibles historical accounts? Almost from the 1500 haven't they. How long has research been going into the mesoamericans, probably not even a hundred years, how can we possibly know as much about mesoamerica with so little study into it while the world has studies the ancient world for hundred of years?

Also the fact that cultures on mesoamerica were destroyed several times, several empires rose and fell. History disappears and is remade or destroyed by the victors. Then the spanish came. The spanish destroyed most of mesoamerican culture and most written records. In all of that do you think things went missing, of course they did, common sense says that.

I am always amased at all the LDS persecution on this site by people who have no idea what their talking about. I could rip apart several mainstream christianity teaching if I wanted to. But I do not, that is not christs way. The simple truth is this. The Book of Mormon teaches nothing bad, but teaches good things. If you or anyone else wants to know if it is true why not read it and then ask God if it is true. If you have truly read it wanting to know if it is true he will give you an answer. I have read it, several times, and know it to be true by the spirit of God.

In my own opinion I pretty much doubt you'll read any of these articles I've sent you, I've seen this several times. People believe crap very easily, crap sells, truth is much harder to accept. But I can say I tried.

Here is a link for what scholars do say about DNA, which I don't think it matters at all, but your making a big deal about it. I would read the whole thing if I were you.

http://www.fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/DNA_and_the_Book_of_Mormon_2.html

Answer 3

Torah/previous testomony New testomony (isnt in chronological order however) e book of Mormon is comparable volume of time as Bible, basically diff area of the international Koran could in all threat be final edit human beings the e book of Mormon term isn't final It follows a time line such as that of the Bible, till now and after the time of Christ It basically follows human beings interior the Americas as a replace of the middle East/Europe

Answer 4

O.k., think about it. In the bible, God himself said that there is no greater man that John the Baptist, yet when he baptized Jesus, God's image was shown in the form of a dove. As well, in the Bible, when Moses saw God, to get the ten commandments, he saw God in the form of a burning bush because the very sight of God by the human eye would kill a man - stated in the Bible.... Yet, somehow, this 14 year old boy, who had been accused of raping the governors daughter, and was a gypsy, was so much greater than these persons, that all it took was for him to go and pray in a field, and he gets to see God, and his angels?
Sounds kind of hogwash to me... I know I lived the religion for many years, and then I wised up.

Answer 5

No offence to anyone here but, the book of morman isn't real it was written by some dead guy who said he was visited by an angel with these golden plate things that somehow got lost in time. The Bible though has tons and tons of evidence supporting it, whereas the book of morman has none but the word of a dead guy.

Answer 6

The book of Mormon is a fictitious novel written by Mr. Smith under the influence of a deceiving spirit. I am convinced the poor man was possessed.

Answer 7

If memory serves me correctly, didn't John Smith find the book of mormon on gold tablets that only he could read and then they mysteriously disappeared. There is no question, it's a book created from his own imagination.

Answer 8

The Book of Mormon is a work of fantasy and I'm AMAZED at the number of people who have bought into that religion.

Answer 9

To know the answer to whether or not faith can make a thing real, you must first answer the question 'Is there such a thing as absolute truth'? Is there anything that remains true even if no one believes it?

Answer 10

edit your question and i'll give you your answer-what's a BOM- gt it!-all thing's in this reality rely on faith for their existence,it is the nature of what we call reality-that is why i stipulate .this reality- faith is the building blocks of this reality and can often be misplaced but without it-nothing on this plane could possibly exist-in short your faith is your energy eternal-lifes force no matter what your faith is!thts why i sign off.ktf.x keep the faith.