Posted by:
markrichards
(
)
Date: January 24, 2013 12:50PM
When I was under the clutches of the Dark Lord, I always had 'funny' questions that were answered with, "Well, when Joe Smith 'translated' the BOM he used terms like 'synagogue' and metal names like 'iron and steel' so the reader would understand better." I always, like a good brainwashed Modorite, took all that at face value.
On a side note, I can see why followers of the Dark Lord DO NOT want people enrolled in anything except their colleges/universities. I studied Electronics and minored in math at Sac State. I had to take a world history/culture class and that mixed with some other classes and I soon came to realize it takes a degree of sophistication to produce just iron. It takes a lot of time to get even one pound the way my Norwegian sires (back in the year 600 or so) did it. Yet, the BOM describes a civilization that is full blown; not the civilizations of barely clothed hunter gatherer society the greeted Eric the Red in about 1000 AD or the unclothed gatherers that greeted Columbus and his band of lusty soldiers of fortune in 1492.
As I read and studied history (it is a fascinating subject), I read the reports the priests made during the expeditions of the Spanish explorations. These reports were not full of statements like, "Gee, those poor people worship rocks, water and trees." Those reports were advanced re-con reports which describe the society the Spanish armies could be facing. Statements like, 'No walled cities, no gunpowder, no iron tools," meant one thing to an advancing army; bring it along. As we conquer these areas, living off the land will be harder. Cortez and his lusty crew ran out of gunpowder, had to delay their march into what is now Mexico City for six months while they attempted to make their own. No easy task as Cortez's men had to create, from nothing, an infrastructure to support manufacturer of gunpowder. There was an 'arms' race in Europe during the 13th through 17th century because the Spanish and others were facing a foe (the Muslims) that was as well armed as the Spanish and other Europeans and any little advantage by either side was a war winner. When you come right down to it, the Spanish explorers and conquistadors were armed with guns and cannons and fought well as the "Pike and musket" formation will hold off a disorganized attack, but there was one little thing The advantage swine herders like Cortez and Pizarro had over the native Americans and that was the horse.
Let us assume, for a moment the bom is a record of two different civilizations immigration/migration to the N. American continent and everything is true. Lehi and his band brought horses, cows, chicken, goats, sheep and pigs along for the ride. Let us assume the people which was scattered all across the land and one day they all decided to gather in one place for one final showdown and they were defeated in a huge battle. What happened to all those horses, cows, goats sheep and pigs? Did they get all brought along for the battle? Did the Lamanites pull out a catsup bottle and have a big bar-b-cue after defeating those pesky "Bible thumpers?" Did all these animals die off due to a lack of care? The BOM mentions 'wheat.' Having lived on a farm, wheat is not that easy to get rid of, and wheat will show up, years later on land it was not planted on. Animals in the wild do very well. Remember, a domesticated animal was once, eons ago, a wild animal. Even animals like boars (which were brought to N America from France) and domesticated in France, do well in the wild. No one is caring for all those boars, in fact here in California, the State Department of Fish and Game increased the tag limit because they are such a problem. California is ground zero for introduction of non-native species. Some Frenchman brought snails and just turned them loose. Some Spaniard missed his mustard, scattered a few seeds and now mustard is one of the top ten noxious weeds in California. Some Brit missed his Christmas dinner of Starlings" and had a friend bring a few over. Starlings are the 'rats of the air' and attempts at reducing their population have not done well. Funny, north american predators (hawks, eagles, owls) have not developed a 'taste' for Starling. In Australia, rabbits were introduced by some English lord who liked his rabbit stew. He just let them go and two hundred years later, the rabbits brought over by the English are endangering native vegetation and animals. So BOM advocates are now telling us the horses all died off or were eaten. They can't use the 'disease' argument. Animal disease (let alone human pathogens) came along for the ride with the later settlers 16th century settlers. In addition, there is no, zero, zilch, nada archeological evidence the horse lived on the north American continent after about 7,000 years or so before Christ.
A horse was the 'Sherman Tank' of its day; it was mobility in battle, transportation and helped to make a quick get away in case the tides of a confrontation turned against you. Horses were also used to chase down and destroy escaping armies/belligerents. Effective use of horses, if history has any lessons to teach us, was always a 'deal breaker.' A man could only walk about ten to twenty miles a day on average. A horse, even walking or going on a mild canter could easily double that distance. The fastest way to disseminate information was via horse, until code or alphabet signal systems were developed toward the end of the 18th century and supplanted by telegraph. As Napoleon's army retreated from the field at Waterloo, Wellington sent in the cavalry to surround and finish off the Grand Army, lest it be re-formed to fight again a few days later. Certainly the Lamanites (if they ever truly existed) would have realized the folly of killing off all the horses. Any advantage in life that a horse could bring was now off the table.
Perhaps I am looking at this through Eurocentric eyes and opinions. As a 'fan' of history, I can now laugh at some of the BOM myths and realize it just could not have existed in North America, let alone central or South America. Joseph's Myth of iron, brass, bronze foundries 'filling the entire face of the land and supporting a largely military industrial complex society just could not have happened on the scale the BOM states existed. Certainly some remnants of metallurgy would have remained. Metal pots are more effective to cook food than heating up rocks and sticking them in a reed basket. Metal knives would have made processing a killed animal a quick task. The only metallurgy that survived was melting down gold and making jewelry. Even traditions of past practice would have survived in the 1100 or so years from the 'final battle" until the Spanish, French, English and Swedes (oops, I forgot the Dutch) stepped foot on North America at the end of the 15th century. Yet we are told by BOM apologists all that tech simply disappeared and we are to take it as a matter of fact based upon the 'Burning of your bosom?"