The claim of metal rings mean simply that Joseph had a prop made.
And don't forget- the plates were not used during the translation, nor were they physically seen by anyone. They were usually somewhere out of sight while JS stared at a rock in his hat. That "translation" has failed to reveal anything factual about this continent, while suggesting all manner of nonexistent animals, crops, language, metals and religious societies.
Firstly in recounting the D-ring David Whitmer isn't recounting his version of the plates but what his mother saw.
Second his mother was shown this by a Nephite who had a habit of disappearing, he appeared in the road and disappeared, he was hiding under the bed and apparently disappeared and then finally at the shed he decided to show the plates. I wonder why that detail is left out?
Lastly D-rings are used in saddles and bits for horses. They were often attached to a breastplate. So lets say that Smith actually had his plates made couldn't he have copied the D-ring shape from that source to hold the plates together?
Is there any evidence of D-rings being used in ancient Israel or the Americas?
It seems ridiculous that they are even attempting to claim this proves anything. They really are ridiculous.
"Appreciation is expressed to Jeff Lindsay of Wisconsin, whose excellent blog often deals with evidences for the truthfulness of the Gospel."
This quote at the end of the article made me giggle. The blog only discusses evidences for the TRUTHFULNESS, not evidence that might contradict their delusions, they just ignore those.
Why? Because the two don’t have a damn thing to do with each other! But in mormonspeak (which has a nasty habit of destroying logic) Delusional Evidence means Truthfulness and Gospel means “mormon church”.
However the “world” knows that the mormon church could disappear from the face of the earth and Christ’s Gospel could still be true. And that’s why this kind of delusional logic never leaves the bubble of Mormonism.
Can you even imagine this nonsense paraded anywhere outside the bubble? They would be laughed at instead of revered.
I knew it! Joseph did look at the plates when he was translating. Why else would there be rings unless he was turning the pages? All of those lying bastard eyewitnesses that said he only looked in his hat.
Of COURSE God wouldn't command his holy phrophets to learn reformed egyptian (no small task without rosetta stone) and then chisel those characters onto the plates bound by these rings and then gaurd them with their lives until they had time to ride their horses from the yucatan to hill cumoruh to bury them in a box.
To think Joseph wouldn't take the time to examine each and every character and translate it into old english is just plain stupid.
My religion did so not not spring out of a hat Dammmnit!
Never mind the fact that gold rings would bend and break under the weight of gold plates. Never mind the fact that the bottom pages would be compressed to uselessness under the weight of the book.
The plates were actually made out of an amalgam of something (can't remember off hand) and gold so that is why JS could run with them and why they didn't compress. I think the term was "gold light".