LifeOnaPlate wrote:I assure you i am not trying to be uncourteous. I sincerely ask the question of what, exactly, we would be looking for. Gardner's work provides some workable options at how to assess the Book of Mormon in terms of mesoamerica. I bring him up because I am quite drawn to his methodology.
Part of which methodology, as I know well from online discussions with Gardner, appears to be the transforming of the lack of evidence into a positive virtue. "We shouldn't expect to find (x); we also shouldn't expect to see (y)." It is a fine way of dealing with anti-Mormon criticisms, I suppose, but this part of his method does little to get us closer to substantive evidence of ancient Nephites and Lamanites.
It is for this reason that I said "evidence that doesn't spring from the text of the Book of Mormon itself." Gardner's method works from the text, but produces little by way of external verification for the antiquity of the Book of Mormon. You or Gardner can tell me why I won't find such verification, as though it is silly to expect evidence of something that you are claiming happened in the past. Outsiders will not take that seriously.
At the same time, I find it interesting that the Book of Mormon contains much that is easily recognizable, as though the translation process also involved a sort of cultural translation at the same time, and one that made it mysteriously quite similar to the King James Bible. So, accordingly, the method takes this into account, always navigating around the obvious problem that external evidence has not been identified.
Fine. As far as it goes, but it does not ancient history make. And I have no problem with that, but I will not pretend it is something it is not.
OK, so when writing on metal can be confirmed for mesoamerica you will again consider the historicity of the Book of Mormon?
When someone finds Reformed Egyptian or an artifact that closely matches early descriptions of the plates
in the New World, then I'll think seriously about the antiquity of the plates and the source text for Joseph's translation.
I don't know what evidence you are looking for. That's why I keep asking.
If my descriptions elude you, then that suggests to me that you do not have the evidence.
I haven't ever heard this claimed in a sunday school class. Perhaps some would make that claim, but I've not heard it.
Funny, in my time I have heard it several times. I know others have too. I am more inclined to trust the trend than your personal experience. I understand that does not a statistical study make.
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