I for the life of me never found it to be that great of a book. Yet mormons swear their life by it, and supposedly converts become mormon because they are overwhelmed by its glory.

Just never felt that way. Did it ever inspire you? Don't get me wrong, Nephi killing Laban is pretty cool as is all the violence. Maybe it could be made into a hollywood film franchise? Granted the characters are pretty wooden and one dimensional.

But I always found it an excellent soporific.

I could never figure out why R rated movies weren't ok, but reading the BoM was glorified.

Maybe they thought the movies were so superior they didn't want the competition?

It was a chore. Period. It teaches one lesson. Obedience.

Even at my most TBM, even on my mission, it did not give me even one spark of inspiration. Just Obey.

Obey, or you will be cursed with a dark skin and then, even worse, you won't age as badly as the white and delightsomes and also you will be kind of sexy and gold earrings will look really good on you.

Now wait, why was I going to obey?

Yes. It inspired me to get more sleep.

Without a doubt the most boring, painstakingly vapid holy text I have ever had the misfortune of reading in my life. If you're going to make it up, at LEAST make up a better story.

same awnser as snowball

it inspired me to take a nap

I really struggled through all the long boring war parts. Endure to the end! War, war, war.

I tried to get myself emotionally into it and feel all spiritual and all, but it wasn't as inspiring as the Nancy Drew books I preferred.

It was always a chore to read, and I read it because I knew I was supposed to. Obey, obey.

The Bible had OK parts and really stupid parts. It was a chore too until I began to view it as literature later in life.

I couldn't help but wonder why God was associated with such stupid books. Surely he could be more straight forward. I thought, "God needs parables? Really?"

my one-time family experience:

we had both 'new' & old editions, we were reading out loud before school...

when we got to the changed/updated parts: Priceless.

That would have required me to actually read it....and I could never bring myself to undertake the chore....so everything I ever heard about what's in it was second hand...in priesthood meeting, or Sunday school or sitting for 2 f***ing hours on cruel folding chairs at stake conference being bored out of my mind....just so we could go and have lunch and then come back for 2 more hours of torture...GD near child abuse IMHO....

I read it many many times. It never once inspired me. I didn't realize that until just now. I was inspired by the New Testament though and would feel good each time I read that.

Best broadway show I've seen in years.

The People of Ammon's Gandhi-like stance of non-violence.
The beatitudes (ripped off as they were).
The 2nd chapter of 2 Nephi: The whole plan of salvation crammed into one chapter is no small feat.
King Benjamin's New Age address.

Joseph may have been looney tunes, and Brigham may have hollowed out the early church, but there's something about the book. So what if so many LDS brush aside its precepts and cheapen it with dogma?

It did. It inspired me to smoke a reefer and burn the book.

NO. I've read it three times. There's not doctrine in it, it's a series of improbable stories, all war and fury, retribution, death and violence. Silly unbelievable things like cureloms, neas, etc.

(Admittedly I never prayed fervently until I convinced myself that it was true, but then I'm just not wired that way.)

It inspired me to write a review of it. I see anti-free speech mormons managed to delete many copies, but not all:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A38PQHRMCMIM1P/ref=cm_pdp_rev_title_2?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview#R1JEJTA82BBGXD

"Yea, verily I chose not to comment on the writing or the story of the book, which Mark Twain called "chloroform in print," especially since I find that remark highly disparaging to chloroform." ROFLMAO!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2012 12:28AM by rationalguy.

Oh that was freaking awesome!

Now THAT was great literature!

I was BIC but was always put off by so many weird sounding lessons in SS so I didn't read it until I was in my 20's. I thought the least I should do is read it since this was the religion I belonged to. I have never been more disappointed in a book. I was expecting spiritual inspiration of what mormons believe and actual guidelines for building character and Christ like qualities. I knew then the church was as weird as I thought it was. Triple F rating.

My brother's read it some crazy amount like 74 times. Can you imagine? He prides himself on being a history and literary buff and somehow after reading it that many times he still loves it and says it is the book he would choose to take if he were stranded on a desert island.

No.

Without the influence of faith, the BOM collapses in on itself like the contrived low-brow fiction it truly is.

With all we know about pre-columbian native american cultures, dna, and the availability of information today, the true miracle of the Book of Mormon is that people still buy into it. They say, "Well, you just need to have faith." Faith is for situations where there is no knowledge or facts available. Otherwise, its just living in denial.

It inspired my brain to turn off, it inspired my eyelids to droop, it inspired Morphos to take me to the land of dreams...


Ah, to sleep, perchance to dream!

The Book of Mormon as anti-Mormon lit is truly inspiring. Mormon 4:18 s the most powerful passage.

I read it many times and thought it was the answer to everything because I was conditioned to believe that.

But, I found the book to be boring in most places and I never felt anything special. I read, prayed, pondered (as I was told to do) but I never felt any inspiration. I noticed the periods of time when I read the BOM everyday versus the periods of time when I do not read the BOM ever were not any different. Well, actually, I was happier when I was not reading the BOM. This was because I got frustrated not feeling anything special when I was doing all of the reading, praying, pondering, etc.

Personally, I always enjoyed reading the New Testament (the 4 gospels). I also found the D&C to be scary weird.

When it talked about the 2000 stripling warriors, I went to the gym.

Bradly, I'm with you those are pretty much my exact thoughts. I always thought King Benjamin's message was great. I pretty much don't attribute the parts stolen from the bible as BOM inspiration though because they were stolen. And the Ammonites, that was cool too.

I thought some of the stories were interesting, the Nephi-Cinderella story, Jared and his glowing plutonium. All kind of interesting. I'm not knocking the book (well except maybe killing a man who's pretty much defenseless when he could have just tied him up, but whatever it's supposedly a culture thing), I just think it's about as much a record of the Native Americans as the Harry Potter series is a record of witches living in England.
I also agree with sam about the D&C, I always hated that book, it just felt wrong, scary weird is the perfect description.

Never got past Enos or Enoch or whatever chapter. As I read, I found the language very odd, and could never tell who was "speaking". Sometimes it seemed written in first person, sometimes third person, and never a transition dust made sense. How did I know if God or Jesus or Nephi were speaking?

None of it felt right, and I gave it an honest to goodness effort. Never finished it.

Not sure if it was just me or what, but it seemed difficult to read, whether in modern day english or near KJV. Attempting to make it through the 'And it came to pass' nearly every other sentences in some parts just made it all the more excruciating.

It makes me want to rewrite it without all the "and it came to pass"es and "behold"s. Otherwise it is boring. I find more excitement in the Bible myself.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2012 12:18PM by imalive.

lol

Yes! Its the #1 reason why I left the church. I figured out that it was all made up in the 19th century!