Glass & Steel in the Book of Mormon, why a problem?

[_gdemetz]

Of course, they are, why not? According to Wikipedia, and not me, there is evidence of steel being produced as long as 4000 years ago.

[_Drifting]

Of course, they are, why not? According to Wikipedia, and not me, there is evidence of steel being produced as long as 4000 years ago.

But everyone (apart from 8 people) was dead!

[_gdemetz]

Yes, but what Wikipedia is referring to happened several centuries later, according to their information.

[_Drifting]

Yes, but what Wikipedia is referring to happened several centuries later, according to their information.

So, in a mere couple of centuries the earth went from 8 people to the point where smelting steel was happening in Africa?

If the females of Noah's group were permanently pregnant and produced every single one of their child bearing years you would only get to a population of a thousand or two by the time that Africa was populated and technologically advanced enough to smelt steel.

Sorry, the math won't let you keep both possibilities. One has to go under the bus - steel or the flood, which one?

[_gdemetz]

Well what they claim may or may not be that accurate or exact, but it doesn't take many people to make steel, and it is also possible that this knowledge existed before the flood. However, I do feel more comfortable with the 1400 BC date.

[_Drifting]

Well what they claim may or may not be that accurate or exact, but it doesn't take many people to make steel, and it is also possible that this knowledge existed before the flood. However, I do feel more comfortable with the 1400 BC date.

Even if the knowledge existed before the flood, only 8 people knew about it after the flood and there is zero evidence supporting the theory that anyone on the ark had knowledge of steel smelting.

So we have to go from Noah, his three sons and their four wives being the only people alive circ 2300bc and not having knowledge of smelting. To the point circa 900 years later where Africa is not only populated but also has the technological advancement and requirement of steel smelting.

[_SteelHead]

I meant that they were condemning the Book of Mormon, not the Bible, for having the word "steel" in it.

The problem is that in the Book of Mormon you have a litany of metalworking... something like: "and they worked with gold and silver and bronze and iron and steel". I'll dig up the verse if you like. Eliminating the possibility that steel is mistranslated from bronze or copper.

Found them

Jarom 1:8

8 And we multiplied exceedingly, and spread upon the face of the land, and became exceedingly rich in gold, and in silver, and in precious things, and in fine workmanship of wood, in buildings, and in machinery, and also in iron and copper, and brass and steel, making all manner of tools of every kind to till the ground, and weapons of war—yea, the sharp pointed arrow, and the quiver, and the dart, and the javelin, and all preparations for war.

2 Nephi 5:15

And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance.

Can't be a mistranslation like what occurs in the Old Testament.

[_Themis]

Those statements are not inconsistent. Many critics who believe in the Bible and thought it infallible, stated that steel was not even invented at the time of Nephi (around 600 BC). However, I pointed out that this same word was translated in the Bible at a time before Nephi (around 1000 BC). I also mentioned that there was an earlier record of steel from 1400 BC!

I am unaware of the criticism that steel was not known in 600BC. The real problem with steel or iron is that we see no evidence for it in the new world, even though the Book of Mormon lists that it was there and important to all three civilization mentioned in the Book of Mormon. This is just one of a number of anachronisms. The more you now of history and science the more you know the Book of Mormon was made up.

[_Themis]

Well what they claim may or may not be that accurate or exact, but it doesn't take many people to make steel, and it is also possible that this knowledge existed before the flood. However, I do feel more comfortable with the 1400 BC date.

I'm curious. Do you consider the Flood to have killed off all humans except 8? This is also one of the other problems with the Book of Mormon with it's reference to the flood and the tower of babel.

[_gdemetz]

Yes, I really do.