My worst member-missionary moment

[_Hades]

Indeed, the Book of Mormon situation mirrors the Bible as there is nothing to convince us it wasn't made up by Jews and then 1st century Christians on top of that.

Now yer gettin' it Space.

[_moksha]

I told him that an angel came and took the plates away.

Have a Wonderful day!

Zee.

Would it have helped if you told him that the same Angel removed all the archaeological, linguistic and DNA traces of the Nephite-Lamanite civilizations? That would prove the remarkable power of Angels.

[_Gadianton]

even while I said those words, I could feel how silly it sounded. I was pretty embarrassed about it, to be honest.

I can imagine you were embarrassed!

One thing that's interesting to me is how the "familiarity" of a story builds credibility irrespective of how logical the story actually is. I remember one time on my mission some missionaries joking about "gentile" misrepresentation and misunderstandings of Mormons, "...you are here to tell us the story about Joe Smith who found the silver plates in a corn field?"
To the missionaries this was funny, how ridiculous! I also thought it was funny, though, I realized that finding silver plates in a cornfield is no more ridiculous than finding golden plates on a hill. The only reason one scenario seems perfectly rational and the other ridiculous is having been spoon-fed the story hundreds and thousands of times growing up one way.

[_The Dude]

Never had a member-missionary experience, since I grew up in Utah valley where everybody was a member.

I had a few embarrassing missionary experiences, though. One was much like the OP except the investigator didn't politely say "Oh". No, when I told him an angel took the plates to heaven, he LOL'ed in my face and said "you don't really believe that, do you?"

[_selek]

But there are quite enough ancient MSS to convince us that the Bible was not made up in the 19th century

Indeed, the Book of Mormon situation mirrors the Bible as there is nothing to convince us it wasn't made up by Jews and then 1st century Christians on top of that.

Ah, the old "your religious book is just as bad as my religious book" defense.

Do you see how this doesn't help your cause, especially on a board with many agnostics and atheists?