Discussions toward a better understanding of LDS doctrine, history, and culture. Discussion of Christianity, religion, and faith in general is welcome.
Just kidding. But check this out. This sword was recently found in a grave in Germany. It dates to 1000 years BEFORE Nephi cut off Laban's head and stole his sword, and 2000 years before millions of ancient Americans wielded swords in the big battle that were patterned after it.
Yet in the Americas untold hundreds of thousands of swords that were 2000 years newer, by the time of the Cumorah battle, and that were made of much more resilient material simply corroded away entirely, along with any evidence that these societies even knew how to smelt metal.
What's that FARMS? Nephite steel looked like this?
Sure, why not.
“The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.” -Mark Twain
Jesus: "The Kingdom of God is within you." The Buddha: "Be your own light."
Joseph had to make wild guesses as to what life would be like for the Nephites without having a firm grasp of the elements that went into his story. Geography, geology, metallurgy and supportive technologies, zoology, botany, agriculture, archeology, and linguistics all stood out as holes in his fiction.
At least Joseph got the Vorpal Sword being the enemy of the Jabberwocky right!
Good faith does not require evidence, but it also does not turn a blind eye to that evidence. Otherwise, it becomes misplaced faith.
-- Moksha
Red Ryder wrote: ↑Wed Oct 25, 2023 9:05 amStone?
Kidding aside, how do the apologists explain this?
Three ways:
1) The soil in Mesoamerica is sooooo acidic it dissolved everything, steel, bones... (but just Nephite stuff, not Mayan, right?).
2) Extending the tapir analogy to weapons (see photo of above of Central American macahuitl) combined with the Book of Abraham tactic of redefining words. Steel means obsidian, to "molten" ore means whatever you need it to mean.
3) Good old fashioned optimism. Oh it's there, brother, just waiting to be discovered. It will be found on God's timeline, not yours. Your job is to stay in the boat until either they find it or you die.
“The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.” -Mark Twain
Jesus: "The Kingdom of God is within you." The Buddha: "Be your own light."
Hagoth wrote: ↑Wed Oct 25, 2023 9:48 am
Three ways:
1) The soil in Mesoamerica is sooooo acidic it dissolved everything, steel, bones... (but just Nephite stuff, not Mayan, right?).
Could that be due to the coffee trees which were still pissed about being cast out of heaven?
Good faith does not require evidence, but it also does not turn a blind eye to that evidence. Otherwise, it becomes misplaced faith.
-- Moksha
Hagoth wrote: ↑Wed Oct 25, 2023 9:48 am
Three ways:
1) The soil in Mesoamerica is sooooo acidic it dissolved everything, steel, bones... (but just Nephite stuff, not Mayan, right?).
Could that be due to the coffee trees which were still pissed about being cast out of heaven?
Coffee was first introduced to the Americas by Captain John Smith at the Jamestown colony, so maybe he gathered up all of the swords and junked them in coffee to hide the evidence. Funny the BoM has nothing to say about tobacco, since it was an important religious sacrament.
“The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.” -Mark Twain
Jesus: "The Kingdom of God is within you." The Buddha: "Be your own light."
