If I could ask them one question . . . Come Follow Me, Lesson 14

[annotatedbom]

For Come Follow Me, lesson 14, March 30 - April 12, 3 Ne 9-18

If I wanted to encourage thought and try to understand devout believers better, I might ask:

“Doesn’t the crowning event seem to fall flat?”

Click here to see the Things to consider for this lesson.

Enjoy!
A-Bom

[Hagoth]

You forget, anotatedbookofmormon, that there IS physical evidence of the great destruction!

How could Joseph Smith have known that archaeologists would someday find one of the "great cities" that the Lord "cast into the sea." Today it's called Samabaj and it lies beneath the waters of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. You can read about it here: https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/ ... nt-america(apologist version) and here: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232917_eng (UNESCO version)

Ok, so it wasn't cast into the sea, it's in an inland lake,
And it wasn't a great city. It was a small village,
And it didn't sink suddenly in a great continent-wide disaster, more likely settled beneath the water due to tremors because it sits at the base of an active volcano,
And it was occupied until about 3 centuries after the great BoM destruction...

...but all in all I'd call it pretty solid evidence that there were many large cities cast into the sea on the same day, wouldn't you agree? Close enough, anyway!

And what about Joya de Ceren? BoM apologists have used that as evidence of the great cities that were "buried up in the depths of the earth."

Ceren was also a small village. It WAS covered by volcanic ash but that happened about 600 years too late. And it was buried slowly enough that everybody had time to get out.

It seems that there are "fact" facts and "faith" facts, and we must be careful to never get the two confused.

[annotatedbom]

Hagoth,

As usual, your comment is beautifully written, but it's like the icing on the cake how you seem to so easily come up with archaeology "fact" facts that highlight the silliness of BoM claims and the defenses of BoM apologists.

I'm trying to remember - isn't your background in archaeology, anthropology, or some related field? Regardless, I love your observations.

[Hagoth]

Hagoth,

As usual, your comment is beautifully written, but it's like the icing on the cake how you seem to so easily come up with archaeology "fact" facts that highlight the silliness of BoM claims and the defenses of BoM apologists.

I'm trying to remember - isn't your background in archaeology, anthropology, or some related field? Regardless, I love your observations.

I retired early to return to college and study Archaeology. My thing is drone survey archaeology. The professor I was working with in Peru died unexpectedly and my Ancient History masters program was cancelled, so I settled for a Public History Graduate Certificate because the U of U was entirely completed of Ancient History professors (1 death, 1 retirement and 1 resignation) and decided to wrap up my Anthropology degree and stack on a Religious Studies minor just for the hell of it.

[Apologeticsislying]

I likewise enjoy your insights Hagoth......