The Book of Mormon Exposed, Part One
" ..... Let me now state uncategorically that as far as I know there is not one professionally trained archaeologist, who is not a Mormon, who sees any scientific justification for believing the foregoing to be true, and I would like to state that there are quite a few Mormon archaeologists who join this group ..... The bare facts of the matter are that nothing, absolutely nothing, has ever shown up in any New World excavation which would suggest to a dispassionate observer that the Book of Mormon, as claimed by Joseph Smith, is a historical document relating to the history of early migrants to our hemisphere." (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Summer 1973, pages. 41, 42, 46)THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE
".... You can't refine ore without leaving a bloom of some kind or impurities that blossom out and float to the top of the ore... and also the flux of limestone or whatever is used to flux the material.... [This] blooms off into silicas and indestructible new rock forms. In other words, when you have a ferroused metallurgical industry, you have these evidences of the detritus that is left over. You also have the fuels, you have the furnaces, you have whatever technologies that were there performing these tasks; they leave solid evidences. And they are indestructible things .... No evidence has been found in the new world for a ferrous metallurgical industry dating to pre-Columbian times. And so this is a king-size kind of problem, it seems to me, for the so-called Book of Mormon archaeology. This evidence is absent." — Ray T. Matheny, Speech at Sunstone Symposium 6, "Book of Mormon Archaeology" August 25, 1984. (Italics inserted by editor.)THOMAS STUART FERGUSON
"Herewith is a copy of my recent [1975] paper on Book of Mormon matters..... It was one of several presented in a written symposium on Book of Mormon geography [sic]. (My thesis is that Book of Mormon geography involves a lot more than playing with topography and terrain.) The real implication of the paper is that you can't set Book of Mormon geography down anywhere because it is fictional and will never meet the requirements of the dirt-archeology. I should say — what is in the ground will never conform to what is in the book." (c/f Salt Lake City Messenger, Utah Lighthouse Ministries) (Emphasis inserted by editor.)Thomas Ferguson had also conducted his own independent investigations into the translation of the Book of Abraham after the missing papyri had been rediscovered. Believing that at long last they had tangible proof of the legitimacy of this book, he was devastated to discover that it was fraudulent. (See The Book of Abraham and its Rejection by Egyptologists and Scholars .) And after a lifetime of devotion to the LDS church, he reached the place where he had to admit that the Book of Abraham was fraudulent, the Book of Mormon was a work of fiction, Mormonism was a spiritual deception and Joseph Smith was a false prophet. On page 140 of their book, "The Changing World of Mormonism," ex-Mormons Jerald and Sandra Tanner mention an unexpected visit they had from Ferguson, on this subject. However, like so many others, for the sake of his Mormon family Ferguson decided to stay in the LDS, although from that day on he never ever again bore his testimony. (Sandra Tanner has very generously provided free access to this particular book of theirs, at this link The Changing World of Mormonism .)
"..... the evidence I sorrowfully submit, points to Joseph Smith as their creator." (Studies in the Book of Mormon, B. H. Roberts, University of Illinois Press, 1985, page 243)There have been many more statements similar to those above, made by both scholars and archeologists, who have come to the inevitable conclusion that the Book of Mormon is a work of fiction. There is not a single reputable archeologist who believes that the Book of Mormon contains a history of the early inhabitants of the Americas.
"It is difficult for a reasonable person to believe that such men as Oliver Cowdery, Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, David Whitmer, and many others, could speak frequently of the Spot where the Prophet Joseph Smith obtained the plates as the Hill Cumorah, and not be corrected by the Prophet, if that were not the fact. That they did speak of this hill in the days of the Prophet in this definite manner is an established record of history .... " (Doctrines of Salvation," Volume 3 (Bookcraft, 1956), pages 232 to 243, Joseph Fielding Smith) (Emphasis inserted by Editor.)And in "Mormon Doctrine" (Bookcraft, 1966), page 175, the late LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie commented as follows:
"Both the Nephite and the Jaredite civilizations fought their final great wars of extinction at and near the Hill Cumorah (or Ramah, as the Jaredites termed it), which hill is located between Palmyra and Manchester in the western part of the state of New York ..... Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and many of the early brethren who were familiar with all the circumstances attending the coming forth of the Book of Mormon in this dispensation, have left us pointed testimony as to the identity and location of Cumorah or Ramah." (Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 3, pages 232-241.)In chapter 7 of A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, LDS Apostle LeGrand Richards, also identified Cumorah as being in New York.
The first myth we need to eliminate is that Book of Mormon archaeology exists. Titles of books full of archaeological half-truths, dilettante on peripheries of American archaeology calling themselves Book of Mormon archaeologists regardless of their education, and a Department of Archaeology at BYU devoted to the production of Book of Mormon archaeologists do not insure that Book of Mormon archaeology really exists... no Book of Mormon location is known ..... (Dialogue, Summer, 1969, pages 74 to 78.)THE LEHI OR "TREE OF LIFE" STONE
The National Geographic Society along with the Smithsonian Institution sponsored archeological work in Mexico where 'Stela 5, Izapa' was found. Information on Stela 5 has not appeared in the National Geographic. No one associated with our expedition connected this stela in any way with the Book of Mormon. (Letter from George Crossette, Chief, Geographical Research, National Geographic Magazine, dated April 27, 1965, to Marvin W. Cowan) (Italics inserted by Editor.)LDS Professor Dee F. Green quotes Dr. Nibley as saying:
"Science does not arrive at its conclusions by syllogisms, and no people on earth deplore proof demonstration by syllogism more loudly than real archaeologists do. Yet Mr. Jakeman's study is nothing but an elaborate syllogistic stew. The only clear and positive thing about the whole study is the objective the author is determined to reach. With naive exuberance, he repeatedly announces that he has found 'exactly what we would expect to find.' Inevitably there emerges from this dim and jumbled relief exactly what Mr. Jakeman is looking for." (Dr. Nibley's review of Jakeman's publication on Stela 5, as quoted in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Summer 1969, page 75)And in his own personal capacity, Professor Green has also castigated Dr. Jakeman's work:
"The basis of Jakeman's evidence is his own hand-drawn version from a photograph of the stone. He makes unsupported assumptions about the canons of ancient art; he fumbles over elements of the dream which are not included and items on the stone which have no place in the dream; he displays ignorance of his linguistic data and most unfortunately reverses the scholarly method by presenting his data with a rash of 'evidentlys,' 'probablys,' 'appears,' and 'apparentlys' — but offers his conclusions as unarguable facts." (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Summer 1969, pages 74-75)It is a fact that no archeologist of repute sees any connection whatsoever between the abovementioned stele and the Book of Mormon.
"He [the angel Moroni] said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang."Furthermore, in a letter written in 1842 to John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, Joseph Smith stated the following, concerning the Book of Mormon:
"In this important and interesting book the history of ancient America is unfolded ,,,,, The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before Christ. They were principally Israelites, of the descendants of Joseph. The Jaredites were destroyed about the time that the Israelites came from Jerusalem, who succeeded them in the inheritance of the country. The principal nation of the second race fell in battle towards the close of the fourth century. The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country." (Italics inserted by editor.)Then in 1881 Wilford Woodruff (who was to become the LDS's fourth President and Prophet), claimed:
The Lamanites, now a down-trodden people, are a remnant of the house of Israel. The curse of God has followed them as it has done the Jews, though the Jews have not been darkened in their skin as have the Lamanites (Journal of Discourses 22:173).In April, 1971 Spencer W. Kimball, who was at that time an Apostle, but later became the twelfth President and Prophet of the LDS, stated the following at a Lamanite Youth Conference:
"You are of royal blood, the children of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Lehi. With pride I tell those who come to my office that a Lamanite is a descendant of one Lehi who left Jerusalem six hundred years before Christ and with his family crossed the mighty deep and landed in America. And Lehi and his family became the ancestors of all of the Indian and Mestizo tribes in North and South and Central America and in the islands of the sea, for in the middle of their history there were those who left America in ships of their making and went to the islands of the sea." (c/f "Of Royal Blood," Ensign, July 1971)Mormons need to realize that the above quotes are only a few of the pronouncements made by their former leaders on the connection between the Lamanites and the Jews, including those who held the post of Prophet of the LDS. However, contrary to the claims of the Book of Mormon and the LDS church, extensive genetic tests have revealed that the ancestors of the American Indians were Siberian Asians. There is no trace of Jewish ancestry whatsoever. (Nor are there any traces of the Hebrew language in any of the dialects spoken in the Americas. This would have been an impossible state of affairs, if the BOM had been a true, historical record.)
"Evidence of the foregoing animals has not appeared in any form — ceramic representations, bones or skeletal remains, mural art, sculptured art or any other form. However... evidence has been found in several forms of the presence in the Book-of-Mormon times of other animals — deer, jaguars, dogs, turkeys etc. The zero score presents a problem that will not go away with the ignoring of it. Non-LDS scholars of first magnitude, some who want to be our friends, think we have real trouble here. That evidence of the ancient existence of these animals is not elusive is found in the fact that proof of their existence in the ancient old-world is abundant. The absence of such evidence...is distressing and significant, in my view." (Mormon Tom Ferguson, Written Symposium on Book-of-Mormon Geography, 1978). (Italics inserted by Editor.)
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