Where are the Gold Plates?

[quadrophenic_9]

Not really, I don't need to try, it's all too easy. Paganism follows the natural cycles of the earth, which are observable and meaningful.

Doesn't make your gods/goddesses any more truthful or meaningful to anyone else.

We have no prophets, and false promises of redemption. I'm open minded about harmony in living with the earth mother.
Melissa G

How about open-minded about living with your fellow human beings, or because they are Christian they don't count?

 

[Melissa G]

But it is. As it cannot be backed up. The kingdoms of the Middle East, in correspondence with Egypt, used Akkadian or Cuneiform, the diplomatic launguage of the time. If anything, Cuneiform is a neat script, using wedge shaped strokes, Late Egyptian was written in Hieratic, again a shorthand version of monumental heirogylphs, no need for any Reformed Egyptian. During the Greek period, Demotic became the shorthand method of writing

Melissa G

 

[quadrophenic_9]

But it is. As it cannot be backed up. The kingdoms of the Middle East, in correspondence with Egypt, used Akkadian or Cuneiform, the diplomatic launguage of the time. If anything, Cuneiform is a neat script, using wedge shaped strokes, Late Egyptian was written in Hieratic, again a shorthand version of monumental heirogylphs, no need for any Reformed Egyptian. During the Greek period, Demotic became the shorthand method of writing

Melissa G

Doesn't make your beliefs any more real or truthful.

Your gods/goddesses are as false as you claim the Mormon Church is.

 

[Melissa G]

Doesn't make your gods/goddesses any more truthful or meaningful to anyone else.

Not at all, I know this.


How about open-minded about living with your fellow human beings, or because they are Christian they don't count?

That's a leading question. I can get along with anybody, but there's something about the LDS I find makes me feel uneasy. Perhaps because it is , in my view Arrogant and Elitist,when it has no right to be.

melissa g

 

[quadrophenic_9]

That's a leading question. I can get along with anybody, but there's something about the LDS I find makes me feel uneasy. Perhaps because it is , in my view Arrogant and Elitist,when it has no right to be.

melissa g

In your view.....

Have you even taken the time to not attack the Mormons and try to get to know them? You'd find them a lot less arrogant and elitist if you did that.

So is it all LDS or just some?

 

[Melissa G]

None in particular, there all very polite as far as I can tell. These arguments or discussions if you will, always tend to be circular. Largely a waste of time. Anyway, enjoy the evening, I have other things to attend to, and time is a precious commodity.

Ciao
melissa

 

[Melissa G]

Doesn't make your beliefs any more real or truthful.

Your gods/goddesses are as false as you claim the Mormon Church is.

And what do stand for friend ? You don't say, so perhaps you stand for nothing ?

~M

 

[Polaris]

But it is. As it cannot be backed up. The kingdoms of the Middle East, in correspondence with Egypt, used Akkadian or Cuneiform, the diplomatic launguage of the time. If anything, Cuneiform is a neat script, using wedge shaped strokes, Late Egyptian was written in Hieratic, again a shorthand version of monumental heirogylphs, no need for any Reformed Egyptian. During the Greek period, Demotic became the shorthand method of writing

What does that have to do with the feasibility that a people altered their language over the course of 1000 years?

 

[Melissa G]

Quite alot, people tend to evolve their own language, not someone elses. Look at what you Americans have done with English.

 

[madhatter85]

only circular because you talk in circles, with ignorant rebuttles, and your "house made of cards theory" about the LDS church doesn't work because none o those "cards" can be brought down. in the face of 180 years worth of ridicule and attacks on credibility, and people trying to "prove it wrong" it still continues to grow and be the most propserous church on the planet (per capita). you can tell if something is good or bad by the fruits that it brings forth. and the LDS church brings forth nothing but good fruit.

 

[madhatter85]

Quite alot, people tend to evolve their own language, not someone elses. Look at what you Americans have done with English.

so? are you butthurt about americans and thier form of slang?

 

[Polaris]

Quite alot, people tend to evolve their own language, not someone elses. Look at what you Americans have done with English.

But the families who came over were learned in Egyptian.

 

[Melissa G]

Oh my god, their ganging up on me. To me, it proves just how irrational people can be. By Ignorant, I take it you mean factual ? I understand you can't give up the basis of your life and faith. Nonetheless, facts are facts, and the LDS Church is built on hearsay at best, and fraud at worse.

Melissa G

 

[Melissa G]

But the families who came over were learned in Egyptian.

It's possible, but it doesn't explain why you wouldn't use your own language, and not that of a foreign land, whose religious system is so alien to yours.

~M

 

[Polaris]

Oh my god, their ganging up on me. To me, it proves just how irrational people can be.

We're ganging up on you... so that makes us irrational? Now that's a rational statement.

 

[Panda]

in the face of 180 years worth of ridicule and attacks on credibility, and people trying to "prove it wrong" it still continues to grow and be the most propserous church on the planet (per capita). you can tell if something is good or bad by the fruits that it brings forth. and the LDS church brings forth nothing but good fruit.

I don't see how being a religion aimed mainly at the white middle classes makes you better than others? Also are you trying to say there is no such thing as a bad LDS? If so then that is quite arrogant of you. If not what do you mean?

 

[Panda]

But the families who came over were learned in Egyptian.

I thought that the Native American genetic structure was unrelated to that of the Middle Eastern genetic structure? This effectivly mean that people didn't come over to America from the middle east?

 

[nutshell]

Oh my god, their ganging up on me. To me, it proves just how irrational people can be. By Ignorant, I take it you mean factual ? I understand you can't give up the basis of your life and faith. Nonetheless, facts are facts, and the LDS Church is built on hearsay at best, and fraud at worse.

Melissa G

What's hearsay?

 

[Katzpur]

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 them up to heaven."

At the very least, that sounds suspicious, don't you agree?

Not particularly. You forget that Joseph was not the only person to have seen the plates. Eleven others saw and held them. Many of these individuals eventually became Joseph's enemies (for a number of different reasons), but none of them ever denied having had the experience they did.

The fact that we no longer have the plates is immaterial as far as I'm concerned. What is interesting to me is this: Joseph Smith described the record he translated as being inscribed on metal plates which had the appearance of gold. When he first saw them, they were in a stone box buried near his home. Now, in 1830, the very idea of an ancient record having been written on golden plates and stored in a stone box was positively preposterous. After all, nothing of this sort had ever been discovered by archeologists at that time. Joseph was ridiculed unmercifully for making such a claim, but never recanted his story. Well, as fate would have it, about 100 years later, a number of such records began to turn up in places throughout the world. Ancient histories, etc. inscribed on metal plates, some of them even made of gold. And, just to make matters more interesting, many had been stored in stone boxes just like the one Joseph Smith claimed to have. Several of these ancient records are now on display at museums in various cities worldwide. Even more intriguing is this: Joseph claimed he was not given access to roughly two-thirds of the plates in his posession, as they appeared to be sealed shut. Some of the recent archeological find include "sealed" plates, much like those Joseph described. Does any of this prove that Joseph really did translate an ancient record written on gold plates? Of course not. But it certainly does put his description of the places and the means by which they had been stored on a solid foundation with other ancient practices.

 

[Katzpur]

look, there are no plates, there never were any plates,

And you know this how?

It's very convient to have the plates disappear.

Actually, for us, it's rather inconvenient.

And in case as I've pointed out, the text they are/were supposed to be written in, ie Reformed Egyptian is a total fabrication. No such text ever existed in the ancient World, period, non, zero, zilch.

What's your linguistics background, Melissa?

So how come Smith could translate a non-existent text ? And why oh why, couldn't the angel write the plates in the language of the time , like Hebrew. It's laughable

So far, you haven't proven the text to be non-existent. You really need to start by doing that. The plates weren't written by an angel at all, but by men. I know you see all of this as "laughable" but have you even stopped to consider that what is laughable to you is sacred to me? I wouldn't think of ridiculing your beliefs the way you have ridiculed mine. It's hard for me to understand why you would want to insult the deeply held beliefs of people you have never even met.

By the way, my next post is taken from Jeff Lindsay's Book of Mormon Evidences. You may find it interesting. Or, laughable.