Post
by oliver_denom » Sun Apr 29, 2018 7:32 pm
If someone wants to believe that the Book of Mormon is an ancient text translated into English from ancient golden plates, then FAIR Mormon can create enough doubt in scientific, archeological, historical, linguistic, and literary scholarship to allow for that belief. It's not difficult to create a "what if scenario", hence groups of people who believe the moon landing was faked, the earth is flat, and global warming is a hoax.
The CES letter is not a work of academic scholarship, which will forever make it an easy target for Mormon academics. Sure, it makes a number of good points and observations, but it's not rigorous enough as to make it impervious to valid criticism. And if someone has rejected reason to the point where Smith reading words from a stone in his hat is more plausible than the explanation that he made it up, then you're unlikely to get very far convincing them otherwise. For every proof you deliver, they'll have a way to side step.
For example, there is zero doubt that Smith copied the King James bible along with all its translation errors. That copying is throughout the work, and when he's not copying verbatim, he's paraphrasing or retelling a biblical story in his own words. That's a huge piece of evidence, but with a little hand waving, it's first dismissed by the book's self reference to the brass plates, and then is turned into evidence in favor by claiming that "The spirit" often repeats itself. When cornered they'll say that literal things are figurative, or that Smith said horse but meant tapir. You can't pin someone down who isn't bound by rules of evidence. Just ask anyone defending their pet star wars theories even after the movies contradict them. There's always a way when working with fiction.
Maybe Smith used The Late War and maybe he didn't. Who really knows? That's never been a key element to proving the Book of Mormon to be a 19th century text. Besides common sense, just about every line of empirical study brings you back to the same conclusion, unless you choose to ignore it, and if you do, then FAIR can help make you feel better about that decision.
“You want to know something? We are still in the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages--they haven't ended yet.” - Vonnegut
L'enfer, c'est les autres - JP