vessr wrote:Hello members of the Celestial Forum.
This is my first post, so I’ll begin with a bit of an introduction:
I was a member of the church for more than 30 years, having converted to Mormonism at age 19 after receiving what I thought was a testimony “by the power of the Holy Ghost” that the Book of Mormon was true, and thus I assumed the Church was also true. I also thought I saw Jesus Christ through my closed eyelids while the missionaries were praying with me the night before my baptism. But it couldn’t have been him, because he had brown hair and I couldn’t describe him in the way Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon did for example, with his white hair, countenance and brightness of his robe.
A couple of years ago, I believed I had received different kind of “testimony” that led me away from the church. I believed with all my soul that I had found the Sealed Portion of the Book of Mormon, and its author. Because I ended up becoming the legal representative of the author I can’t say much more, less I be criticized or sued for breaching the attorney client privilege. So I will make the next stage of my “spiritual growth” or downfall brief:
I had a stroke a year and a half ago that caused me, due to some memory loss, to lose the ability to know whether my conversion to the Sealed Portion was true or my conversion to the Mormon Church was true.
This has led me to a stage of agnosticism, which I never experienced before, always having believed in God and some form of Christianity or its counterfeits since a child. Now, I search to know again if the Book of Mormon is a true history of the Nephites or Lamanites or the fabrication of one or more creative minds.
Although I hope, at the end of my search, to find out the latter concerning the book (because it would be much easier to live without the church than to go through the repentance process of rebaptism, etc.), the answer to my dilemma is important to me because there is too much at stake to getting this wrong.
With the above as background, I’d like to explain now why I am here and the question I am about to ask the Celestial beings in this group (or, rather, the beings who are part of this Celestial Forum of questioners and answerers).
I got here via the late Ted Chandler’s lengthy response to Royal Skousen’s “The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon.” Ted’s words led me to his criticisms by Dan Vogel, which led me here.
Ted’s response had seemed plausible to me—that the Book of Mormon was copied from another source document, primarily by Oliver Crowdery, rather than having been dictated by Joseph Smith. But I wondered why it mattered and have learned (I believe) that Ted’s response was supportive of his assumption (I think) that the Book of Mormon was copied materially from the writing of Spaulding.
Coming to this site by way of Googling Dan Vogel’s response to Ted, I’m in a quandary: which of these two impressive writer’s is correct, for Dan’s criticism of Ted’s analysis seems just as credible as Ted’s analysis.
Thus, in this war of words and tumult of opinions, I ask that question … or are they both wrong?
How did the debate finally end? Do I have the whole story on this site as to Dan’s response to Ted and to Ted’s counter-responses, if any? If Dan was correct, why would it matter in terms of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon? For, couldn’t the book have been fabricated via dictation just as well as from copying another work?
Since I don’t believe in prayer, as an agnostic, I can get an answer only the old fashioned way … my considering the opinions, facts and arguments of others.
Firstly I'd like to echo Erotics sentiments regarding your stroke, "I can say that my heart goes out to you and that I wish you a speedy return to health and well-being."
I, too, left the church after 30 years of faithful obedience and service. Unfortunately, my memory is intact and I can find few extenuating circumstances that can forgive my blatant ignorance of reality. That I swallowed hook, line and sinker, a fabricated religious system that influenced my marriage and the raising of my family, is a constant source of pain to me. Not everything experienced while a member was unwelcome but I think I could have spent my time more wisely.
My very biased opinion regarding your memory loss that caused you to question your religious convictions and experiences seems a blessing in disguise to me.
Following my Dad's first stroke he simply "forgot" that he had ever smoked. 70 years of chain smoking, three packs a day, of unfiltered cigarettes, with all the ensuing nicotine dependency, and habitual behavior, disappeared from his brain and body apparently from a blood clot that caused him to collapse. He lived the last three years of his life without ever once going back to a habit that had in some ways defined him.
Whether or not Joseph Smith invented the BM or just copied it from someone else is immaterial. The BM simply doesn't pass the BS test.
Good luck in your search.