Of all the amazing miracles in the Book of Mormon, what do you see as the #1 most unbelievable happening?

I really look forward to your scrutiny.

Will tell you my Top 3 when I get off work tonight.

Murder
Theft
Covet....all in the first few chapters

Weren't the ten commandments around then?

top one for me is the miracle of the Three TripleAAA field workers Jesus allowed to tarry here til his return. It must have been so tedious for them to wait around to cars to be invented and highways to be constructed. Apparently they did jack squat with mormon western migration. And I would have expected them to be at Carthage jail...

I like that fabrication better than the Jaredite submarines and Nephi's Liahona

1) Magic glowing rocks illuminated by the finger of a deity

2) Wooden submarines loaded full of people, livestock, bees, and fish for a year long journey

3) Nephi and a couple of other people building an ocean going wooden ship on the barren Arabian peninsula

All of it?

Decapitating a fella and donning his clothes was odd

Chopping the arms off all comers was a bit cartoonish. Oh, hell, it was all cartoonish. Like the violence in Kill Bill.

Other Susan

Arriving and living in an already inhabited land (Americas) and writing about their adventures for about 1,000 years but not once mentioning any people other than their own.

1) A golden ball of curious workmanship with two spindles and words that appear when needed. Is powered only by righteousness, and disobedience is an automatic off switch.

2) A small community of approximately around 16+ people building a temple after the manner of Solomon's temple.

There are too many but those are a few of the top ones.

The descriptions of wars where 2 sides fought until they were all dead. Ridiculous and unprecedented in any history of warfare.

A TBM actually reading the damn thing.

I could never connect how the BoM was related to the LDS Church. Very little was actually used in the lessons in the meetings. It was mostly about this GA said this "blah blah blah".

the1v Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I could never connect how the BoM was related to
> the LDS Church. Very little was actually used in
> the lessons in the meetings. It was mostly about
> this GA said this "blah blah blah".


Spot on. The BoM is like a rice cake, absolutely no substance.

The doctrine, setting, practices, words, of the first books of Nephi is so non-Jewish, particularly the pagan JHWH/Jewishness of the time they claim to have been from. It's outlandish, ill-informed and false. There's almost nothing correct. It's thoroughly nineteenth century Christian with a weak gloss of second temple judaism on top.

Starting with a false premise leads nowhere productive and to me is the biggest and fatal flaw of the book.

That there are people that actually believe it's true.

Headless Shiz trying to raise himself up.

Christ in the Americas.

"It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief."

Anf then what happened? The nation perished and dwindled in unbelief.

Most unlikely...The total evaporation of hard items mentioned in The Book.

The Corporation defending this lame fiction should have bulging museums full of stuff described in their boring book.

Instead, no sword, coin, chariot or bone of a horse has ever been displayed anywhere.

Their only displayed items were found at Kinderhook and most know this story of a playboy prophet caught on a hook.

1. The complete change of the American continents in three days. Mountains gone. valleys filled. Islands rising and sinking.

2. A being who dwelt among people for 30 years plus that would endure ridicule, betrayal, torture and execution that pleaded with God to forgive his executioners; would three days later slaughter millions.

3. Riding Tapirs

Mormon and Moroni. After all the Nephites are dead, these 2 collect all of the histories of the Nephites and store them in a big room in the hill Comorah. They then spend the rest of their lives compiling the histories on plates of gold.

1. where did they find 200 lbs of gold to smelt and pound into sheets. Watching "Gold Rush" on tv just shows how much effort must take place in order to get 1000 oz (62.5 lbs).

2. A scroll or papyrus roll was the convention for preserving the written word until the 6th century AD. In the following centuries book binding was perfected in Europe and Asia. When did the Nephites transition from scrolls to books? The Mayans used a fan fold type binding instead of rolling, they alternately folded the pages back and forth. When they unfolded it, it was still a long parchment. I'm not sure if Archeology has ever found anything similar to the Golden Plates.

3. The 24 plates of the jaradites see #2. Again, assuming that scrolls are the typical method of writing, when did the Jaradites change over to leaves to write on.

4. The final Jaradite battle, to the very last man.

5. the bleached bones of the Jaradites Omni 1:22 So many bones, where are they today?

Etc, Etc.

Jesus appearing in the Americas. The timeline of this happening in BoM would've occurred before his crucifixion, not after.

Because it's all made up, it's all unlikely. It's all based on early American and Native American folklore. Along with the delusions of grandeur and yarn spinning of Joe Smith, Jr.

Therefore, the BoM in total is in and of itself the most unlikely event that took place, including Smith being led to unbury it from its hiding place inside the Hill Cumorah.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2015 09:24PM by amyjo.

So many good choices to choose from.

Don't forget the horses, and roads made of cement.

And, I like the one-lone man left after all the thousands were killed in battle. And that this man made it all the way up the American Continent, to where J.S. found the Bk of Mormon plates.

Plus, this all-alone man was able to inscribe the last message on the plates, and carry them for thousands of miles, before burying them in the mountain site where Joseph found them.

(Did I get all this right?)

Skin becoming dark because of wickedness
Skin becoming light because of righteousness

Everything! It's ridiculous from beginning to end. There are dozens upon dozens of most unlikely events. As B.H. Roberts properly concluded, it's clearly the product of an immature mind.

And remember part of Nibley's "Book of Mormon Challenge:"

19. The book must not contain any absurd, impossible, or
contradictory statements.

Alma 17: 27-39

Holy Joe really loved the super man stories!

The parts in Helaman(?) and Ether that speak of the state of wickedness becoming such that no man could keep hold of his treasure. The Nephites would bury their treasure for safekeeping and Ghawd would cause the earth to just swallow it up and make it vanish.

When I first read this as a hard core TBM, I thought that was amazing.

Later on, I realized that it totally plays into the folk magic and treasure seeking mindset that typified Joe Smith and his superstitious, backwoods, semi-literate followers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2015 03:56AM by Strength in the Loins.

The fence made of snakes that block cattle. That has to be my favorite.

The slippery treasures. Reminds me of a certain money digger I have heard of.

Jesus kicking the sh!t out of the people who didn't kill him after forgiving the people who did. These people are then happy and love him when he comes to see them even though he just destroyed their relatives and friends in horrible ways.

For me, 3 Nephi 28:21-22:

21 And thrice they were cast into a furnace and received no harm.

22 And twice were they cast into a den of wild beasts; and behold they did play with the beasts as a child with a suckling lamb, and received no harm.

Joseph Smith has the Three Nephites surpass in quantity, if not quality, the miracles of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego AND Daniel. Bear in mind the Nephites would have had no Book of Daniel, so they would have had to come up with these tortures independently.

I laughed my head off in my dorm room when I read about riding tapirs. Just imagine people riding that dumb animal. It's like riding an anteater. the snake fence was creepy and I hated it. Also, people turning brown for being bad. And the fact that the tablets were written in the language of the Egyptians, despite that fact that the submarine clan didn't flee from anywhere where they spoke the Egyptian language. It's a wild ride.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2015 10:37AM by abushabu.

I love the part in Mosiah 17 where Abinidi gives a lengthy speech while he is being consumed by flames.

Who does that?

I'd say all of it, especially the idea of wooden submarines full of people and animals, and that they flipped over on the journey. I had to hold in my laughter when I realized that Mormons really believe that actually happened.