Jersey Girl wrote:Ray,
What in your view would compell a person who presumably experienced visitation from God Almighty and an Angelic messenger to translate from Gold Plates bestowed upon him from on High and then set about to sell the copyright of the end product?
That's another subject, Jersey Girl. Sticking to this one, here's what Richard Packham says:
ADDENDUM (January 1, 2006)
I have just recently finished reading the book by Wayne L. Cowdrey, Howard A. Davis and Arthur Vanick, Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?: The Spalding Enigma, Concordia, St. Louis, 2005, 558 pages, ISBN 0-7586-0527-7. This book is the product of over thirty years' research (the authors published a first version in 1977).
The book gathers together all the evidence to refute claims by Mormon apologists (and even many critics of Mormonism such as Fawn Brodie) who claim that there is no evidence to link Sidney Rigdon or Solomon Spalding's writings with the Book of Mormon. Rather, there is abundant and detailed evidence, presented here, that Spalding had written a now missing novel (NOT the one in the Oberlin College library) which had similarities in names and language style with the Book of Mormon; that the manuscript disappeared from the Patterson printing shop in Pittsburgh; that Sidney Rigdon was a regular hanger-on at the Patterson shop during the time Spalding's manuscript was there; that Spalding knew Rigdon and expressed suspicion that Rigdon had taken the manuscript; that Rigdon knew Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith by 1827; that Rigdon made several trips to the Palmyra area between 1827 and 1830 and even preached near there; that Cowdery had close family ties to the Smiths; that Rigdon was really the guiding light behind Mormonism; and - basically - Mormonism was based on a theft, a plagiarism and a religious hoax. No longer will apologists be able blithely to dismiss the suggestion that the Book of Mormon had its source in Rigdon's ideas and Spalding's novel.
The authors have done a meticulous job of examining old diaries, court records, genealogies, stagecoach schedules, local histories, contemporary newspaper articles and other contemporary sources to document their theories. Of course, in reconstructing events that have been the object of concerted efforts to cover them up, they have had to resort to some conjecture, but if one must choose between the authors' suggestions of a natural, human explanation for the origin of the Book of Mormon and a supernatural explanation, the principle of parsimony ("Ockham's Razor") must favor the natural explanation, however conjectural.
I recommend the book highly, with only a couple of criticisms. There is no index. The foreward, by Rev. George Mather of St. George, Utah, is a sermon on faith, having nothing to do with the content of the book. It would have been much more useful if the authors had given us a little background about themselves and how they came to write the book. The authors frequently insert comments into direct quotations, indicating that the comments are by "the Editors" - one assumes that the comments are rather by the authors, but then why not say so? But those are just quibbles and do not detract from the mass of evidence collected here.(Emphasis added)
That's the crux of it, in emphasis. Without a "natural explanation", this one will have to do. But the atheist Packham isn't averse to speculation himself:
In the essay collection American Apocrypha edited by Brent Metcalfe and Dan Vogel there is a must-read article by Scott C. Dunn (pp 17-46) called "Automaticity and the Dictation of the Book of Mormon." Dunn thoroughly demolishes this line of argument (that an uneducated Joseph Smith could not have written it without divine guidance) by giving detailed examples of other books, as long, as detailed, as complex as the Book of Mormon, which were produced by authors equally as unskilled and unlearned in the subject matter as Joseph Smith was. It is a phenomenon called by various terms such as channeling or automatic writing.
One of the examples he gives is a book I came across when I first began really to explore Mormon history: Oahspe, which is a scripture-like book published in 1882 by John Newbrough. Newbrough had been visited by an angel and told to prepare himself for an important divine task by living a righteous life for a probationary period. He did so, and then was commanded by the angel to buy a typewriter and paper and to sit down at the typewriter and place his hands on the keys. When he objected that he did not know how to type, the angel said that he did not need to know how to type. The angel then proceeded to type rapidly the text of the book, using Newbrough's fingers. When I examined the book in the university library, I immediately thought, "This is just like the Book of Mormon!" (The Oahspe book is on-line here.)
Other examples Dunn discusses are Schucman's Course in Miracles, Edgar Cayce's books, Jane Roberts' "Seth" books, the Urantia books, Levi H. Dowling's writings, and - perhaps the most amazing example - the Patience Worth books, channeled through an uneducated woman named Pearl Curran.
Remember that it is not up to the critics of the Book of Mormon to "explain" it. I think of it like the magic tricks that the stage magician performs. I can't explain how the magician appears to saw the lady in half. But I don't have to explain how he manages the illusion in order for me to know that it's not what it appears to be. I still know that it's a trick. It's the same with the Book of Mormon. I don't have to explain how he produced it. However he managed to produce it, there is a mountain of evidence which says that it's not authentic. (Emphasis added)
http://packham.n4m.org/jsauthor.htm
Take your pick.