And here we are, still no evidence, anywhere, that book of Mormon ancient civilizations ever existed, not one sword, coin, or Armour. We can find 12,000 year old civilizations that existed in other places in the world, but we can't find BOM civilizations that existed couple thousand years ago. As much as ppl want to say they know this literature BOM is true, it's just as important to know it actually existed, otherwise I can say Harry Potter is real, only because I prayed about it and it gives me the warm fuzzies in my chest.
They should have looked at all the things that Joseph Smith actually said about where the Book of Mormon happened. The word "isthmus" is never used in The Book Of Mormon. The word "neck" is used which is one of the possible translations of Niagara. All of Joseph Smith's references to places where the Book of Mormon happened specifically were in the heartland of America. The evidence is there like crazy among the Hopewell region. Oh well. We treat spiritual evidence like it's more important than scientific evidence anyhow.
When looking for answers there’s the path of god and the path of science. Those go to opposite directions, one takes you to satisfactory false answers that are easy to digest, the other one takes you to the bitter truth.
One small problem with this video. Mr. Ferguson didn't lose his faith in the Book of Mormon! It appears that he was mostly troubled by Joseph Smith's Book of Abraham and struggled quietly with his faith for a time, but towards the end of his life was an active and believing member. He told his testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Church to multiple people and he was working on a book, The Messiah in Ancient America, upon his death. I have that book sitting on my dresser as I write this.
This involves two competing theories of Book of Mormon geography. One says the events took place in the American northeast, particularly upstate New York. The other theory says the events took place in Meso America including central America. BYU professors have focused on Meso America and northwest South America. The church has bet the farm on upstate New York. Neither geographic locations have ever located artifacts that would verify the Book of Mormon. There are even some church members who have funded studies to see if the American mid-west or southwestern Ontario, Canada are Book of Mormon locations. Still no evidence has been found.
People will believe what they want that supports their particular agenda. If one reads the Book of Mormon and prays about it, they will know for sure that it is true...if they are sincere. A lot of people are not sincere, and choose to tear down a religion that has so much truth to it. That will be their downfall. Agency is agency, and people can believe whatever they want to believe.
I understand the interest. But there is, categorically, not a single point of reference in mesoamerica that is consistent with the Book of Mormon. Every single edifice especially the temples, have stairs on them. That would be forbidden in a Jewish context. Not only does their background and language not come from Hebrew, it can actually be traced back to Southern Asian India. A huge clue is Maya. Which means the way and it comes from those from India, not those from the Middle East. Furthermore, Native American Indians have far more of the X1 pay haplogroup marker in their blood had that is utterly consistent with every Hebrew group on the planet to this day. It is interesting to note that these people in Central America did have a special relationship with their God, and they did fall away from that relationship and became quite pathological it's at least a few instances but they were not people of the Book of Mormon.
Simple task: xray the hill Cumorah and show the cave or hole where the book of mormon and the other artifacts JS said was deposited there. Don’t need to show the artifacts, just that there is a space, whole or cave under the ground. That’s it.
JS never said the boom of Mormon took place in South America. JS says that he walked the mounds of the Lamanites and they were teaching their ancestors. That was in New York. Some stupid guy tried to say is was South America but it's not.
Wait so I'm confused. Why did finding out that the glyphs were from the book of the dead shatter his faith. What's the difference in what Joseph Smith was saying and the scientific findings. (I'm not mormon, I just didn't understand the conclusion of why this was a faith ending revelation).
