I cheerfully admit, and routinely say, that Mormonism has not proven its claims. I don't think it's supposed to do so, either, and, accordingly, I reject your claim that it has failed to do so. (Daniel Peterson)
Daniel, I took the effort to understand this saying of yours from your perspective. I understand how it makes sense to you. Now, can we look at a few things from my perspective: During the last talk I had with Missionaries who came to my door they were telling me of a dig going on in Mesoamerica today where they were expecting Archeologists to find evidence of Book of Mormon peoples, including ‘many records.’ They may have not had their facts together?
These young men believed that the Hill Ramah was in Mesoamerica, and that Mormon traveled to New York from that location. They were excited about Book of Mormon proofs which they believed were about to be discovered.
The attitude they conveyed reminds me of bumper stickers Mormons had on their cars in the 1980s which read something like: “Speak to the Earth and it shall tell you”
As far as I can tell, many people of the LDS faith were, and still are, looking to find evidence to prove the Book of Mormon true. Today, I see more professors like you explaining why evidence is not required. I find the whole subject fascinating. And, while I have put up a light hearted page entitled “Book of Mormon Archeological File Photos” on my site, I am considering spending some time putting together a serious work on the matter.
Sometimes I use humor. Yet, most of my work is on the serious side.
Here is a short quote from something I penned on this subject:
A Mormon article entitled: "Does Geography in the Book of Mormon Matter?" spells out,
“…the geography question has not been answered by church authorities, nor have the opinions worked out by geography hobbyists yet led to agreement. In 1947 it was still possible to hope that ‘out of the studies of faithful Latter-day Saints may yet come a unity of opinion concerning Book of Mormon geography’ as Elder Widtsoe put it. But in the half century since, confusion has grown.” (Provo, Utah: BYU, Maxwell Institute)
Today, Mormons are left with the daunting task of trying to convince investigators that 'the geography question' really doesn't matter.
(The Book of Mormon — Rich Kelsey, p.4)
Link:
http://richkelsey.org/book_of_mormon.htm