2007-07-04 19:02:26 · 22 answers · asked by . 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
according to Forensic linguists no one in the 1800's wrote the Book of Mormon. And is in fact of ancient origin. This does not prove it is the word of God but it does give proof that JS Jr. didn't write it.
2007-07-05 11:34:18 · answer #1 · answered by Dionysus 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You can't say impossible, but I knew a guy from Syracuse NY which is not too far from where Joseph Smith was born. He loved to say that Joseph Smith was the village idiot and that the Mormons had built an entire religion around the guy.
If he were the "village idiot" as some people would like to have fun with, then it would have been impossible for him to write it. He would have had to have some other means.
I don't really think he was the village idiot and probably was a very smart person for his day. If you hold that assumption, then it is possible that he made it up, but is it probable? I don't think so. What would his motive have been? It wasn't money because Mormon's have never had a paid clergy.
Also, even with all of the persecution, he never denied it nor did anyone who witnessed the events that took place.
Ultimately it is up to each of us to decide whether or not we are even interested in pursuing knowledge of the Mormon faith, but I think there are some compelling reasons to have a better understanding of the religion than most of the people in this forum can demonstrate. Most will just throw some comment that isn't true out there hoping that somehow by stating it on the internet it will make some people believe it is true and that's too bad. I think we should all be far more knowledgeable than we are about a lot of things including religion.
2007-07-05 02:19:22 · answer #2 · answered by rndyh77 6 · 2⤊ 3⤋
Lucy Mack Smith relates in her biography that Joseph entertained the family with his stories of the former great cultures and civilizations that existed before the Indians became 'Indians', and this itself was a popular theory from the 18th to early 19th centuries. Smith was also well read in the KJV bible as his family read from it everyday, which explains much of his style of dictating and orating. Add this with the religious climate that had been part of that region since the end of the Revolutionary War, you have the making of a quasi-religious fantasy-history written by a loquacious but unlearned farm boy.
Smith himself either didn't like to write, or was very slow at it, and thus the use of scribes. The "Gold Plates" were simply a mechanism to transfer the poor workmanship of this book to someone else (Nephi & Moroni), and they're the ones who wrote poorly, not Smith.
So it was not impossible, but probably inevitable Smith would have written 'something'. He had the story line mixed with both biblical rhetoric, new-age philosophy, and had pretty much established by the time he decided to put this 'on the market'.
There is nothing remarkable about the Book of Mormon except those individuals who claim it is absolute truth in spite of it being a poorly written fantasy.
2007-07-05 13:39:47 · answer #3 · answered by Dances with Poultry 5 · 3⤊ 3⤋
Considering that his wife said that he couldn't even dictate a comprehensible letter...
Considering that according to those who acted as scribes, he would translate to them for hours, get up to eat or whatever, then come back, and pick up right where he left off, without needing them to read back where exactly that was...
Considering that he only had about a 3rd grade education, barely literate...
Considering that there are cultural and grammatical clues in the Book of Mormon that are dead give-aways, information that many Middle East scholars know about that proves the book's truth that nobody in the US in the early 1800s knew about..
Have you read the Book of Mormon?? Puh- Leeezzzeee!
Oh, and no, he never smoked Peyote.... Joseph Smith was dead before the Mormon pioneers came into contact with the Indians who use(d) that substance. It's native to an area that Joseph never visited!
2007-07-05 02:16:36 · answer #4 · answered by Next Up 4 · 4⤊ 2⤋
Nope. Anybody could write something like that . Not even original. I watch my kids play a board game like RISK and they have even made up their own names for the little countries on the gameboard. Then they took a marker pen and made cities with names as well as the king of whatever country they had conquered. Any JR. Highschool kid can do it. The names were all similar to what Joe Smith came up with. Too bad Joe Smith didn't have a good map of North and South America back in 1830 . If he did, he could have made the book of mormon halfway believable.
2007-07-05 04:27:00 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
On his own, yes. He was an undereducated farm hand whose family also worked as coopers. He was, as his mother described him, of all her children, the least given to book learning.
The Book of Mormon is a miracle. And it talks about the people who deny it:
3 And because my words shall hiss forth—many of the Gentiles shall say: A aBible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible.
4 But thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a Bible; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine ancient covenant people. And what thank they the Jews for the Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles?
2007-07-05 02:42:04 · answer #6 · answered by Fotomama 5 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Listen to the first file entitled "A Scholar Looks at Evidences for the Book of Mormon" by Daniel C. Peterson found here:
http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/multimedia/index.php?cat=BOM
and then you tell me
2007-07-05 17:43:01 · answer #7 · answered by Joseph 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Not just almost, but totally impossible. The guy had a 4th grade education for pete sakes and had no way of knowing all that information from the period he was writing about! He was given the gift to cypher the records written on the golden plates. God gave him the plates and the tools to interpret them, thru an angel of course. But yes I believe thru prayer and personal testimony that the Book of Mormon is truly the history of the Lamanite People.
And that Joseph Smith was truly a prophet of God. No I didn't take any one elses word for it. I took it up with God personally and ask for his opinion on the subject! God answers prayers and for any one who doesn't believe it, they haven't ask or they have personal reasons for trying to deny it's validity. For my self, I will not argue with God. It just isn't an intelligent thing to do!
2007-07-05 02:14:14 · answer #8 · answered by Carolyn T 5 · 3⤊ 3⤋
Nope. Ever been in a book store? And he didn't even edit it that much - made it up on the fly. Most writers would love to do that and be accepted so easily.
CB - lol.... Poor misled person. One day you will see what a con artist Smith was (Yeah he had a 3rd grade education- that's why he told others to write the book for him, not to mention repeatedly marrying a new woman and taking advantage of cousins, and that the LDS condoned racism).... and wonder how you could have been fooled for so long. Til then, enjoy the bliss (which comes with ignorance).
2007-07-05 02:28:14 · answer #9 · answered by Frank 6 · 1⤊ 5⤋
No i find it impossible for a guy to find a golden book writen by good and only show 10 witnesses and berry it back,it would have been the greatest find in the history of the world and would still be in the church
2007-07-05 02:18:49 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 2⤋