Mormons will ritualistically say, “I know the Book of Mormon is true”. This phrase falls from their lips as easily and without thought as someone saying “how are you” when you pass you in the hall at work.

It’s just a phrase without truly much deeper meaning than to give oneself comfort and to be a sign that you are part of the team.

But if a Mormon actually did think about this phrase, what would they actually mean when they say “I know”?

Definitely they are saying they are part of the team.

They might even be indicating that they had a warm feeling one time when they read the book of Mormon and possibly prayed about it.

But beyond that, what does the church teach it means for the book of Mormon to be true? These are a few of the key teachings in the current manuals lds.org website about the book of Mormon and what it is.

- The Book of Mormon is the word of God, like the Bible.

- It is the most correct of any book.

- It contains the fullness of the Gospel.

- Both books contain God's guidance as revealed to prophets as well as religious histories of different civilizations.

- The Book of Mormon contains the history and God’s dealings with the people who lived in the Americas between approximately 600 BC and 400 AD.

- The prophets in the Book of Mormon recorded God's dealings with His people, which were compiled by a prophet named Mormon onto gold plates.

- With the gift and power of God, Joseph was able to translate the ancient writings into what we have today.

- The translation took less than three months.

Given these repeated teachings of what the book of Mormon is, as a faithful Mormon, when I said I knew the book of Mormon was true, I was thinking the following:

- The book of Mormon is a history of real people who lived real lives.

- These real people wrote their history and spiritual experiences down on real gold plates.

- The prophet Joseph had a gift from God where he could understand these ancient languages and translate the word of God now into English so we can have new scripture.

- There is a fullness of the gospel found within its pages. What is most important is found within it.

- It may not be perfect, but it is a correct book that can be trusted more than other sources.

If you took a poll of chapel Mormons, I think they would agree with this list, and if they actually took the time to think about what they were saying, this is probably a good definition of what would like to mean, when they say the words, “I know the Book of Mormon is true”.

So if this is the definition of true, what would you be surprised to see in and about the Book of Mormon?

- I would be surprised if we could not find any evidence of the people described in the book. How they lived, what they ate, the tools they used, the animals that were part of their lives.

- I would be surprised if those things of their daily lives just disappeared from the face of the earth.

- I would be surprised if the gold plates were an unnecessary part of the translation process. They were protected by prophets for over a thousand years and carefully handed from father to son and prophet to prophet. They were miraculously hidden in the ground and protected for another 1,400 years by an angel. They were important and necessary.

- I would be surprised if they were superfluous to the translation process.

- I would be surprised to find false doctrine taught in the book of Mormon. This is the most correct book. It was written and protected by miraculous means. God would not allow false and damning doctrines to be found therein. (literal hell after the resurrection anyone?)

- I would be surprised if there clear and proven evidence that would make it impossible for some of the key prophets in the book to have ever existed at all. (tower of babel and global flood – brother of Jared)

So what happens when a true believing Mormon actually takes the time to think about their testimony? What happens when they take their religion seriously enough to actually study what the church teaches about the truthfulness of the book of Mormon? What happens when they take their faith seriously enough to want to be honest with others and themselves when they use the words “I know” as something sincere as opposed to something as shallow as a trite hallway greeting?

They really only have three choices.

Accept the reality that the book of Mormon is not and cannot be true in the way the church teaches that it is true.

Ignore what the church teaches and come up with your own definition of truth and somehow convince yourself that this is still in harmony with the church.

Or do what the majority of Mormons do. Put their head back into the sand and wish away the issue. Somehow I will learn more when I die, approach.

Fortunately for the church, the majority of Mormons don’t actually take their faith very seriously. The majority of Mormons don’t even come to this crossroads where they have thought about what they really mean when they say the words I know. It is just a cultural ritual to prove they are part of the team. They feel warm fuzzies on occasion and that is enough for them to continue living on the surface.

The part that makes me mad and frustrated is that this process is so simple and easy to do and yet the majority will not take their faith seriously enough to engage in this thought process.

And then they have the nerve to judge us that we are somehow deluded, prideful, and being led away by Satan, because we are willing to actually think about our faith.

How dare they judge me when they are only willing to live on the surface? Take your damn faith more seriously.

Until you do that you have not earned the right to criticize my lack of faith.

In my mind it's a given, so there's no need to constantly say it to convince anyone, including myself.

The Book of Mormon is the cornerstone of the Mormon Church. The BoM describes events that allegedly happened over two thousand years ago. Archaeology is a branch of science whose purpose is to study such ancient history. Encarta (online dictionary) defines it as "the scientific study of ancient cultures through the examination of their material remains such as buildings, graves, tools, and other artifacts usually dug up from the ground."

The world's foremost authority on archaeology is the Smithsonian Institution. A few years ago, some LDS believers circulated a false story claiming that the Smithsonian was using the Book of Mormon as a guide book. The Smithsonian decided to refute that misconception by publicly issuing the following statement:

STATEMENT REGARDING THE BOOK OF MORMON
1. The Smithsonian Institution has never used the Book of Mormon in any way as a scientific guide. Smithsonian archeologists see no direct connection between the archeology of the New World and the subject matter of the book.

2. The physical type of the American Indian is basically Mongoloid, being most closely related to that of the peoples of eastern. central, and northeastern Asia. Archeological evidence indicates that the ancestors of the present Indians came into the New World - probably over a land bridge known to have existed in the Bering Strait region during the last Ice Age - in a continuing series of small migrations beginning from about 25,000 to 30,000 years ago.

3. Present evidence indicates that the first people to reach this continent from the East were the Norsemen who briefly visited the northeastern part of North America around A.D. 1000 and then settled in Greenland. There is nothing to show that they reached Mexico or Central America.

4. One of the main lines of evidence supporting the scientific finding that contacts with Old World civilizations if indeed they occurred at all, were of very little significance for the development of American Indian civilizations, is the fact that none of the principal Old World domesticated food plants or animals (except the dog) occurred in the New World in pre-Columbian times. American Indians had no wheat, barley oats, millet, rice, cattle, pigs, chickens, horses, donkeys, camels before 1492. (Camels and horses were in the Americas, along with the bison, mammoth, and mastodon, but all these animals became extinct around 10,000 B.C. at the time when the early big game hunters spread across the Americas.)

5. Iron, steel, glass, and silk were not used in the New World before 1492 (except for occasional use of unsmelted meteoric iron). Native copper was worked in various locations in pre-Columbian times, but true metallurgy was limited to southern Mexico and the Andean region, where its occurrence in late prehistoric times involved gold, silver, copper, and their alloys, but not iron.

6. There is a possibility that the spread of cultural traits across the Pacific to Mesoamerica and the northwestern coast of South America began several hundred years before the Christian era. However, any such inter-hemispheric contacts appear to have been the results of accidental voyages originating in eastern and southern Asia. It is by no means certain that even such contacts occurred; certainly there were no contacts with the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, or other peoples of Western Asian and the Near East.

7. No reputable Egyptologist or other specialist on Old World archeology, and no expert on New World prehistory, has discovered or confirmed any relationship between archeological remains in Mexico and archeological remains in Egypt.

8. Reports of findings of ancient Egyptian Hebrew, and other Old World writings in the New World in pre-Columbian contexts have frequently appeared in newspapers, magazines, and sensational books. None of these claims has stood up to examination by reputable scholars. No inscriptions using Old World forms of writing have been shown to have occurred in any part of the Americas before 1492 except for a few Norse rune stones which have been found in Greenland.

This is a great, concise source which covers a good chunk of the historical problems with the BoM. Thanks, I had forgotten about this.
Do you happen to have a date for this letter, by any chance?

Let's see - the BOM is ...true...what?
True fiction, true plagiarized other works including the Bible, true ... God Myth... for the LDS Church. I think that about sums it up.

Well that was a wet blanket on faith, what about Lord of the Rings, are you going to tell me that's not True either?

I know that dragons, wizards, and orcs are True, I read about them in True books. They truly are books.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2013 01:41PM by gentlestrength.

Yes, I humbly bear my testimony that I know Saruman is a true prophet of Sauron. I read it in a true book so I feel it with every fiber of my being!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2013 02:48PM by hangar18.

Amen! We are deemed deluded and deceived but I think you put forth some pretty good arguments that the d&d award should go to them, not us.

The Book of Mormon true? Even if it were true, it is an awful book! Just a casual reading, we find the hero of the book, Nephi involved in many criminal activities. Why did not Nephi simply knock on Laban's door like someone with common courtesy would do and asked Laban if he can make copies of the brass plates. That would be an honorable way to keep his people from falling into unbelief. instead Nephi breaks into Laban's house, breaking and entering, steals the brass plates from Laban, grand theft then he murderers Laban, then he kidnaps one of Laban's servants.

The entire book, is filled with this same kind of intrigue, in some places it's almost as bad as the old testament.

I think Mark Twain nailed it, and I can only imagine what, Thomas Paine would have to say about it!

About a decade ago I was involved in a case against a TBM businessman. Long story short, one aspect of the case was that he had created a fictional person to run a fake "association", which he used to threaten others with lawsuits, lend credibility to his own enterprise, etc.

During the case, the judge ruled that the State could not disprove that the person actually existed.

I found it interesting that legally, you cannot prove that something doesn't exist.

The TBM scumbag was found guilty on other counts and fined almost a million dollars and was forced to close his businesses.