Please Explain how Joseph Smith could have possibly authored the Book of Mormon.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by mystic man

Little Joey Smith simply made the thing up while someone wrote it down.

"Little Joey Smith made it up." That's really a kind of silly, immature statement for you to make, regardless of how clever you thought it was. If you have any evidence at all to support what you said, please present it. Otherwise, you might want to look for a thread where you can actually contribute something worthwhile.

[BalanceFx]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

"Little Joey Smith made it up." That's really a kind of silly, immature statement for you to make, regardless of how clever you thought it was. If you have any evidence at all to support what you said, please present it. Otherwise, you might want to look for a thread where you can actually contribute something worthwhile.

Hah. Ok did you read the OP? Where are the golden plates? Wheres the archeaology to back his story? Wheres the evidence that he was at all chosen to be a prophet?

Heres a thought assignment for you. State your religion to yourself as a scientific hypothesis. Hypothesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

Go ahead, although I have to say I doubt this one is going to impress me all that much, it seems too insignificant a piece of evidence, for me anyway. It seems reasonable to put it down to coincidence, or seeing what you'd like to see. Much like the chiasmas you find in the BoM, if you look hard enough you can find it in the telephone book or a Stephen King novel. Now show me a ruined Temple of Solomon replica, or a battlefield of 2 million corpses and you'll really have peaked my interest.

Seriously, Paul, 2 million corpses would peak your interest in the Book of Mormon? I thought you were a little more sophisticated in your analysis than that. You really do seem surprisingly unimpressed by the chiasms in the Book of Mormon and that baffles me. If they are a dime a dozen as you have implied, why do you suppose that it took Bible scholars eighteen centuries to discover their presence in the Bible? If Joseph had included the highly complex chiasms that we find in the Book of Mormon in order to help him pass off his fraudulent book as a legitimately ancient text, why didn't he bother to even mention their existence during his lifetime? He didn't have a clue that they existed, that's why! Nobody did for roughly 100 years after the Book of Mormon was published. Since you figure that by looking hard enough you can find examples of them in pretty much any book you look for them in, I challenge you to do just that. I'm not talking about simple six-line chiasms. I'm talking about examples that are even a fraction as complex as those found in the Book of Mormon. Meanwhile, I'll let you know if a couple of million corpses show up in Mesoamerica and you can get all excited.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by BalanceFx

Hah. Ok did you read the OP? Where are the golden plates? Wheres the archeaology to back his story? Wheres the evidence that he was at all chosen to be a prophet?

Heres a thought assignment for you. State your religion to yourself as a scientific hypothesis. Hypothesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Speaking of the OP, is "Where are the golden plates?" your answer to it? Starfish explicitely stated, "This is not a thread for listing "errors" in the book. That's not the point." And yet that's the first thing you do.

[BalanceFx]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

Seriously, Paul, 2 million corpses would peak your interest in the Book of Mormon? I thought you were a little more sophisticated in your analysis than that. You really do seem surprisingly unimpressed by the chiasms in the Book of Mormon and that baffles me. If they are a dime a dozen as you have implied, why do you suppose that it took Bible scholars eighteen centuries to discover their presence in the Bible? If Joseph had included the highly complex chiasms that we find in the Book of Mormon in order to help him pass off his fraudulent book as a legitimately ancient text, why didn't he bother to even mention their existence during his lifetime? He didn't have a clue that they existed, that's why! Nobody did for roughly 100 years after the Book of Mormon was published. Since you figure that by looking hard enough you can find examples of them in pretty much any book you look for them in, I challenge you to do just that. I'm not talking about simple six-line chiasms. I'm talking about examples that are even a fraction as complex as those found in the Book of Mormon. Meanwhile, I'll let you know if a couple of million corpses show up in Mesoamerica and you can get all excited.

a) I'm not paul
b) Joe smith contends that he spoke with angels and god of which there is not scientific evidence of either and provides no proof for such an outlandish statement.
c) If hes story is true where are the plates?

[BalanceFx]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

Speaking of the OP, is "Where are the golden plates?" your answer to it? Starfish explicitely stated, "This is not a thread for listing "errors" in the book. That's not the point." And yet that's the first thing you do.

I did not point out errors... You asked for evidence that supports a belief that Joseph Smith made it up. I can provide plenty of evidence to support a disbeleif. Your evidence stated so far is the content of the book which you do not want to debate and Chiasms that were inscribed on plates of various metals that noone can find.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by BalanceFx

a) I'm not paul

I didn't call you Paul.

b) Joe smith contends that he spoke with angels and god of which there is not scientific evidence of either and provides no proof for such an outlandish statement.

And that's beside the point. You're an atheist. There is no scientific evidence for anyone's religious beliefs. If that's all you're trying to say, we agree.

c) If hes story is true where are the plates?

Are you saying the existence of the plates would prove that his story was true? Oh never mind. I can spot a juvenile a mile away. If I wanted to talk to a kid, I'd go over to one of my neighbor's. Look, I don't care what you think about Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon. I just have to limit my time to talking to posters who actually have something worthwhile to say.

[mystic man]

How is "Little Joey Smith" silly? and, um what more evidence do you need that he made it up besides the point that the entire book is pretty much ridiculous. Why would God reveal such a thing that is riddled with tons of factual, historical, and scientific errors/inaccuracies? Also, what makes the BoM so spectacular that he couldn't have thought it up?

Oh and stop whining.

[BalanceFx]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

And that's beside the point. You're an atheist. There is no scientific evidence for anyone's religious beliefs. If that's all you're trying to say, we agree.

Right... But lets say I tell you an angel appeared to me las