beastie wrote:No, it doesn't make sense.
it's becoming painful to see these contortions. And for what end? These people already believe in the Bible, which also contains pseudographia, and they can accept THAT as scripture.
It's a bit like calling a zebra a dog: It has four legs, a head, two eyes, a tail, and runs, just ignore the stripes and size difference.
Many LDS writers provide what I call shopping lists to prove their points. They assemble rather impressive- looking lists of words, customs, and architectural features which are found both in the Old World and the New. The longer the list, of course, the greater the "proof." Unfortunately such an approach is rarely of any real value. A major reason for this is that the items mentioned are simply too vague. For example, one author listed the following cultural similarities as indicicative of contact between the Near East and Mexico: "counting of time," "curing their sick," "mourning for [their] dead," "sun worship," and the "[use of] ceramic[s]." I can think of hardly any culture in the world that has not become involved in these practices at one time or another. To be meaningful, such a list must cite a _complex_ system of keeping time or a _unique_ manner of mourning the dead which is found _only_ in the two cultures in question.
"All That Glitters: Uncovering Fool's Gold in Book of Mormon Archeology," Sunstone 6.1 (1981)