Seriously, the Book of Mormon civilization was about as big as the Romans, ran as long, and people over there still pick artifacts up off the ground daily.

Over here, well....

fictional civilizations don't leave much evidence.... that's one of the big points that finally helped me let go.

When I was in upstate New York I was helping my uncle plant a garden behind his house. As I was digging around I accidently opened up the entrance to a cave. In the cave was a large room full of gold plates. I thought "how is my uncle going to plant his garden here with this room in the way?" So I got some dynamite and blew it to smithereens. Now I'm wondering if I made a mistake. Oh well.

You goofed bigtime, canadianfriend. Considering what they were going to pay Hoffman for BOGUS manuscripts... you were about to live your life out on a hut on stilts in the Bahamas.

Alma 11:

3 And the judge received for his wages according to his time—a senine of gold for a day, or a senum of silver, which is equal to a senine of gold; and this is according to the law which was given.

4 Now these are the names of the different pieces of their gold, and of their silver, according to their value. And the names are given by the Nephites, for they did not reckon after the manner of the Jews who were at Jerusalem;

Your argument is quite a stretch. Sure they didn't use the word "coin" but by the context it is very clear that it is referring to small pieces of gold and silver used regularly and commonly as money of a standard size. Even if the word "coin" were used apologists could argue that "coin" doesn't really mean "coin" just like "horse" doesn't really mean "horse".

Still not found in archeology...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2012 06:26PM by bc.

anonow Wrote:
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>The actual translated text of the BOM doesn't say
>anything about "coins"

It makes mention of "pieces" of metal which could
not have been so large and heavy as to be unmoveable.
They were clearly meant to be somewhere between the
size of a coin and a small bar of precious stuff.

Coins do not have to be disks -- various societies
have used metal objects that served as "coins,"
that have differing shapes and sizes. When I lived
in Nepal, some of the women there wore gold jewelry,
that could be detached, one piece at a time, and used
to pay debts.

Solomon Spalding had his fictional ancient Americans
use metal "pieces" which passed as money, in the same
way that Nephite "pieces" were used as monetary currency.
As in the Book of Mormon, some of these "pieces" ended
up being put to bad uses, such as bribing judges.

The only reason I can imagine for our never finding any
Nephite money, is that the "pieces" were sacred, in the
same way that the Nephite metallic records were "sacred;"
and thus we sinners will never be allowed to see one.

Either that -- or else Nephite money was a lie.

UD

When Alma 11 describes the value of each of the pieces of precious metal, he equates it with a measure of barley. That would imply that barley was a common, everyday commodity among the Nephites.

The only barley known in precolumbian America was a rare strain found only in the American Southwest, where Mormon scholars now say there were no Nephites. It was never found in the area where Limited Geography proponents say the Nephites lived.

For a listing of similarities and dissimilarities between Nephite civilization and ancient Roman civilization, see http://packham.n4m.org/romans.htm

One of the big anachronisms of the book of mormon is the people of meso america or north america did not even use metal, plates or other wise.

The use of gold and started about 600-700 AD and came up from the Andes.

So not only did they not use metal for currency, they did not use it all for tools, bows, swords, shields, chariots, or Plate of Gold.

They just did not use metal as described in the book of mormon.

Michael Coe discussed this in his Mormon Stories Podcast there every Mormon and ExMormon should listen to.

Saying a Judge receieved payment with any kind of metal is akin to saying Judge Judy is paid with Federation Credits.

We were given a Roman coin years ago. Looking at that coin was intrumental in helping us think our way out of the church.

People turn up Roman coins just tilling their gardens each year in some places in Europe. There are so many of them that most of them have little value. ($8 or 9 for the cheap ones. http://www.ebay.com/itm/LARGE-Ancient-Roman-Coins-Sale-8-75-Coin-SPECIAL-LOT-BUY-5-Win-Silver-/300671722274 )

Think how much the Borg would give for just one real Nephite coin.

I was thinking of buying some to have on hand to give to the next set of missionaries that come by. It becomes a reminder of unanswered questions....

It's just not the coins that are missing. When they do digs along Hadrian's Wall, which is about 1800 years old, one of the most common things they fine are the remains of leather shoes. Civilizations produce a whole lot junk, and if leather shoes can survive for 1800 years under the right conditions, it isn't too much to hope that more solid things would survive under more ideal conditions. Not so with the Nephites though, it would seem.

I have a collection of Greek and Roman coins. They are so common that even a retired teacher can afford to collect. I have been trying to find some Nephite coins but they just don't seem available.

Because the LDS church must FIRST fall and tumble to the earth (along with the RC church). God will not glorify a false and abominable hierarchy. Then the artifacts will come forth. Jesus said that there is nothing hidden that shall not be uncovered or revealed. Be patient and you will see.