Gazelam wrote:Joseph Smith was a translator, evidence to that fact is overwhelming. Here is one website dealing with just that: http://www.jefflindsay.com/BMEvidences.shtml I suggest that if you want to weed out your bitter root you spend more time studying the evidence than the criticism. To question is good, but look for answers instead of more questions.
Made up Mormonism? Joseph was the Prophet of the Restoration. Did Christ "make up" Christianity when he sought to restore the Jews from the Law of Moses?
I have shown you evidence for the Book of Mormon on other threads. Most notably the Temple in Cusco.
Let's just deal with one point at a time, Gaz.
Here is the major problem with the claim of "translator" -- we have nothing to prove he was a translator.
Can you at least agree with that?
Here are my reasons for claiming that we have no evidence.
1. No plates. The Book of Mormon could just as easily have been an original work (even if I ignore how much appears to be taken from other works) because none of us have any "normal, physical, scientific" way to know that he translated it. The plates are not available to examine, so we have no way of knowing if he translated from plates or just told what was in his head.
2. The Book of Abraham papyri are more damaging that helpful because they do not show his ability to translate. I could have been impressed if the story went like this: "I got the papyri and began to translate them. I discovered they were mostly funerial texts with nothing of importance on them. One of them was good. It contained the story of Abraham. I translated that then burned it." -- or -- "None of the texts were of value. But it got me to thinking about Abraham and I received a revelation that I am now going to call 'The Book of Abraham'."
But instead we got a drawing that has been passed around inside the PofGP that has nothing to do with the description underneath it. It sure sounds like he couldn't translate.
3. The Kinderhook plates. The apologists have to do a lot of explaining about this and the previous two points to make it sound like something less than his failed attempt to detect these mock-ups. He told people things about them that were not true and didn't detect the fraud.
So, seriously, Gaz. Just the notion that he somehow could translate is only supported by wild gyrations from people like Lindsay and FARMS.
Isn't it time you rethought your defense and started looking at it like maybe he was a fraud when it came to this special power that he claimed to have? You have nothing to base your belief on or believe me...the Church would produce the plates. That's why they don't. There weren't any.