I've never read it all the way through, but I want to read it just in case someone says something like, "well you haven't even read it so how do you know the church isn't true?!"

It'd probably be a good laugh, too.

Is it worth it?

IDK. I can't remember ever reading it all the way through either. I started a bunch of times but can't remember if I finished. I've thought about reading it too. It can't HURT. It's not like we are all of the sudden going to get a witness to the "truth" of it.

It is definitely a lesson in endurance and discipline.

It is mind-numbingly dull.

And a lot of wars. Non-stop wars, in fact. Aside from Abinadi being martyred and the King Benjamin speech and Jesus coming, after they get to the new world it's all pretty much wars.

But you do feel like you've accomplished something after you're done...

Aside from being the most boring book ever written it is also stupid, simplistic and obviously false. Thomas Paine's quote about the bible fits BoM even more perfectly: "...it drops to the level of an arabian tale without the merit of being entertaining".

Deinitely. I don't sleep until about 4am. Lol

...of opportunities to poke more fun at it. It is so stupid and superficially false, you will wonder how so many of us took it so seriously. If you ever hope to have an intelligent discussion about it with some random Mormon, it will help if you have actually read it.

First Nephi is pretty easy to read. Then they bog you down with a lot of Isaiah stuff, which should be read before bedtime as it has a good chance of curing any insomnia. When you get to mosiah it's not so bad.

Happy reading.

No need. The prophet has spoken and the thinking's already been done!

Ron

I've been off for a while, but what's with the new moniker Ron?

It might be fun to read a first edition BOM alongside the most recent edition and make notes.

God, I'd rather have a red-hot cattle prod shoved up my ass.

just sayin'...

Ron

Got to Alma, and then needed to finish my other project.

I'll pick it back up in about a month.

Good lord is it unintentionally funny.

The first 10 pages is all you need to read to get a good feel for the book. Coveting, theft, and a beheading-its all there in those first few pages.

What's that joke? "Not even a bullet can pass through 2 Nephi."

http://www.scribd.com/doc/61538645/28-Page-Summary

It has enough detail to educate you without killing so many brain cells.

I also favor this <one minute summary on mormonism by Richard Dawkins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d95M8jk3mv0

SNORE!

I give you permission to skim through the wars. I did. Reminded me when my son was little, and he had a fascination with battles and wars and fighting.

Play a drinking game with the BoM. Each time the people are described as "stiffnecked," take a shot of your favorite hootch.

After you sober up, consider taking a college level "Bible as Literature" class. Learn the different voices that are incorporated into the Old Testament, and hear how later down the line as the tribes were reunited into one people, the "Editors" were able to blend the different stories to give all of them one consolidated Scripture.

When you can see the different layers in the Old Testament, then the one single voice of the BoM will become painfully obvious, and reinforce the idea that there was only ONE author: JS.

~VOW

Not only is it the version that came letter by letter from the hat according to witnesses, but when you read this version compared to the familiar version of today, you'll discover that your "witness" feels much differently. Then you have to ask yourself if this is that same spirit you were told you felt reading the other vesion.

I've recommended this challenge to others, and they usually decline. Personally, I think that this proves a point- we are told how to feel and if we feel as instructed then we are to understand this means what we read is true.

Reading an unfamiliar version makes you feel differently. Thus, you have to wonder whether the spirit is the same spirit or if it is merely an emotional response.

To make the experiment more interesting, go against church the church and try reading the RLDS 1908 Authorized edition, which by the way is regarded even by outside (non believing) parties to be the more accurate version between the two churches.

I would suggest that if you feel the SAME each time you read each version, then you may wish to reconsider whether you think it is just a programmed emotion...

BoM -- a second rate novel that is terminally boring. It took me at least an hour to figure that out.

Then I decided to do something exciting. So I drove down to the railroad yard and watched the tracks rust.

I know what u mean, but every time i look at the BOM I just feel sick and like Im touching something dirty. I mean it literally makes me sick to read one verse of this so called gospel because I find lies I can easily disprove in every sentence and i hate seeing how so many of my loved ones actually take it for Straight from GOD Himself when some pedofile loser actually wrote it all

Read it from the www.skepticsannotatedbible.com website. Much more entertaining.

If read as fiction, some of it can be kind of fun. But it's hard to do that when you know deep down that the whole thing is being pawned off as fact. Some of it will bore you to tears. I doubt you'll get through 2nd Nephi. But after that at least you'll have some characters to follow which might make it somewhat readable.

Samuel Clemmens didn't call it chloroform in print for nothing.

I tried reading it all the way through but just can't keep my mind to it no matter how hard I try. It is a pointless, benign book that has little to do with Mormonism at all. It contains none of their doctrinal teachings.

Like the 2,000 stripping warriors.

So what if they were all mama's boys? They always made me feel really really really spiritual.

Try reading this version of the bible instead, much more fun! www.lolcatbible.com

that was f'ing hilarious.

I think of all the college hours wasted studying the B of M at BYU. Go ahead and read it. Funny, back when I was TBM a friend of mine read the book and I asked him what he thought. He shrugged his shoulders and said nothing special. Wow, how could he not be moved by such a great work! Hahahaha.

having to prove a negative. Its THERE claim. They have to prove it true, you don't have to prove it false.

So ask them, What evidence do you have to show that its true? I'm not talking about testimonies or heresay from people who've been dead nearly 200 years. Provide some evidence to show that your claims are true and then we can talk.

It does give TBMs pause when you state that yes, you have read the entire thing. As a never-mo, I don't think a lot of LDS have read it (just like the majority of Christians have never read the Bible cover to cover).

When I was going through my almost hormonal convert phase, one fo the first red flags was the missionaries' surprise when I answered yes, that I had read the BOM. They truly were shocked I had, and then scared when I said that I'd read the Bible cover-to-cover as a teenager (what can I say... I love reading).

It's pretty dull. Lots of wars, lots of God being annoyed at Group A and them falling out of favor with him, and later being annoyed at Group B, granting A all of the power and making B's lives suck terribly.