Questions and comments
I listed the comments as you listed your answers
a.) The Book of Mormon itself in its current condition takes me to another question asked in the first post. Doesn’t it contain over 4000 changes from the original 1830 edition?
b.) Do you have the photo of the plates? or have you ever seen it or them? Here is what I have heard about these plates and my opinion:
i. The angel Moroni supposedly revealed the golden plates that had been buried in Smith’s neighborhood near Palmyra, New York, back in AD 421. Smith supposedly found the plates by using “peep stones,” magical rocks he put in a hat. The characters on the plates were supposedly written in “reformed Egyptian” hieroglyphics. Smith claimed he translated the plates by using “Urim and Thummim,” a set of miraculous glasses. The golden plates supposedly disappeared soon thereafter. This book was published in 1830, and is known as the Book of Mormon.
ii. My opinion: These plates have so much controversy attached to them it is very hard to trust anything about them. To name a few controversies, 1. How Smith found the plates, was it Jesus, an angel or Jesus and angel that told him about them? 2. How some of the book translated perfectly from the King James Version of the bible a before the King James Version was written. 3. The translation of the plates, some say was completely wrong.
c.)
i. The fact that the book of Mormon mentions anything from the bible like Zedekiah King of Judah doesn’t prove that it is inspired or that it is historical. All that proves to me is that the author knew of Zedekiah King of Judah.
ii. You say
“ Using a Nelsons three in one for instance, a person (me) was able to follow each name, if even just in part, to Old Testament beginnings. This enlightens the mind enough to show, even if in fiction, just how creative these early authors would have had to have been in order to captured the authenticity of both time and people, as is found in the pages of The Book of Mormon This is not the writing of an amateur essayist or novelist, either one, as its records are full of such great detail, yet left vague and open ended enough to prove that a story was not its purpose. ”
. When Smith was around the Bible was the book most studied by all and taught in school. Just because someone can create a story that links to the Bible doesn’t prove it’s inspired by God. Look at the Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien even created several different languages from scratch. No one would say The Lord of the Rings is a Holy book just because Tolkien created such an elaborate story. Ok a few wierdo's maybe LOL
iii. You also say
“An author of fiction could not have resisted to fill in these many left out details and small events with his own colours of detail and texture.”
If someone was trying to trick you in believing what he wrote was inspired like the Bible then he would wrote it like the Bible. The story detail or gaps don’t prove it’s inspired or true.
iv. It sure is convenient that the original plates are in the ground so no one can see them. I would think if it’s the truth then it would be displayed. Ok maybe with high security but what is the Mormons afraid of?
My over all thoughts: all of the Americas have been searched archeologically and there has never been any evidence found of any of the people groups from the book of Mormons from the Americas. I would have to say that this is one of the strongest reasons I don’t trust the book of Mormons.
I hope my bluntness isn't taken as an attack I'm just stating it as I see it so if I'm in error someone can correct me and help me understand where I'm wrong
Can you show me archeological and historical proof from non-Mormon sources that prove that the peoples and places named in the Book of Mormon are true?