EAllusion wrote:It seems like they are incapable of grasping that a major alternative hypothesis is that the book is a 19th century fictional history based on contemporary mound-builder myths and local religious beliefs written in the genre biblical pseudoepigraphia….
Bingo. My favorite "correspondence" illustrates this perfectly:
Dr. Dale & Dr. Dale wrote: 3.2 Strong Christian elements in Maya religion
Coe’s standard: “Many Colonial-period Maya identified the risen Christ with the Maize God” (p. 71). “The raised wooden standard shall come! . . . Our lord comes, Itza! Our elder brother comes. . . . Receive your guests, the bearded men, the men of the east, the bearers of the sign of God, lord!” (p. 227). “There was . . . a great deal of . . . blending between Spanish and Maya religious institutions and beliefs, since in many respects they were so similar” (p. 289).
Book of Mormon correspondence: From the title page to the last chapter, the Book of Mormon is, as it claims to be, another witness that Jesus is the Christ.
[Page 126]
Analysis of correspondence: In both books, the correspondence is specific, detailed and very unusual. Why would Joseph Smith have “guessed” that the ancient Mesoamericans had strong elements of Christianity in their religious practices? View of the Hebrews claims to find ancient Hebrew elements among American Indian tribes, but not Christian elements. So this is specific, detailed and unusual.
Likelihood = 0.02