I've done that. Not just with the Book of Mormon but with other religious subjects as well. The answers I've received have been neither a burning in the bosom nor a stupor of thought. The problem is, I'm an evidence sort of person, not one who feels lots of spiritual feelings. I'll admit that...
Sure, but plenty of pro-choice people act as though abortion is just one more form of birth control. Is it?
True.
Oddly enough, I worked with someone who was both a vegan and pro-choice. I wasn't sure how this was a tenable position to hold. She wouldn't eat honey because of its cruelty to...
Well, I have issues with that method, not just in the case of Mormonism, but with miraculous visitations by Saints, etc. There are so many thousands of conflicting stories out there I think anyone who needs it should get their own miracle. It work better than being forced to trust what other...
The thing I like about the Book of Mormon story is the human element to it. Ancient writers, a compiler 1500 years ago who hid the plate from enemies, a young man with a miraculous gift to translate the plates, who must keep them hidden from treasure-seekers. But the angel element muddies the...
Totally false. They are not the actual words of God, they are the words of ancient prophets, excepting the part where Jesus comes and delivers his Sermon on the Mount to the New World people.
Inspired by God, not directly from God.
I've read the book cover to cover. Have you? :)
I think both sides of the debate can be faulted for not doing enough to reduce the number of abortions by making birth control readily available so that abortion is not simply used as birth control by the lazy, the uneducated, or the poor.
I think that abortion should be kept legal but that...
The point is that the Book of Mormon mentions animals like elephants, horses, sheep, cattle, pigs, and goats--all old world animals--but says nothing about jaguars, buffalo, or tapirs.
They weren't God's actual words, but supposedly came from records carefully kept over hundreds of years, condensed into a single volume, and then hid away for fourteen hundred years so they could be found and translated. In the example you give, God also brought down the records before taking...
The best evidence for the LDS church would be if they could produce the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated and let scholars study them. Yet, when I asked where one could go to see the gold plates, I was told that after Joseph Smith finished translating them "an angel took...
He already said that maybe "horse-drawn chariots" could mean "tapir-drawn sleds." According to this theory, they had no word for "tapir" when they arrived in the New World, so they started calling them horses.
With all due respect, those are apologists. They know the answer, now they're looking for evidence to support it. Most people need to see independent, peer-reviewed research to believe this sort of claim.
Too me, some of the most damning criticisms of the Book of Mormon focus on those areas...
And even then...
If I told you that I saw an angel last night, you'd think I were lying or delusional. If the angel had told me to join your church (versus, say, to wander naked in the wilderness for the next ten years) you might listen, but you'd still have serious doubts.
I agree and considering that there are literally thousands of sects I've got to think that maybe it doesn't matter to God which church we should join. If it mattering to Him, wouldn't it be more clear?
I know it seems like I'm arguing with everything just for the sake of arguing. And to a certain extent I am. For Mormonism to be true you need a whole series of unlikely things to be true. To the outside observers it's all explainable as just another man-made religion that was a product of its...
Only doesn't the LDS church believe that the gospel won't be taken away again? What's different now?
Still, why not bring the gospel back in 1650 in Rhode Island or 1700 in Pennsylvania, or 1750 in New York? Better yet, Langue d'Oc in the 12th Century. Plenty of religious freedom there. Seems...