DiscussMormonism.com

John had an interesting thread over at MAD about the sails on Nephi's ship. I was especially intrigued by a question that LifeonaPlate asked:

Is it too much of a stretch for you to believe Nephi's ship could move without sails?

This does seem to require some affirmative notion of the existence of God and Nephi. For the sake of discussion, let's make the assumption that both exist.

Should we rely on supernatural means to make the story work? Could wind power be sufficient? So back to John's original question, what of the sails? Did they cannibalize the tents? Would that have been sufficient for the longest ocean voyage ever attempted?

Here's my problem with the whole thing...

God is basically telling Nephi to start for ABSOLUTE ZERO!! "Lord, show me where I can find ore that I might make tools".

So, I think we have to assume that Nephi knows next to nothing about how to build a ship. God is giving him step by step instructions.

Why on earth would God limit Nephi to building a ship using 600bc technology? I should think that God knows how to make a ship that would shame our current technology.

Same with the Jarodite barges. God, in his infinite wisdom and knowledge, comes up with the brilliant idea of putting 2 holes in the top and bottom of the barges to let air in?? God can touch some rocks and make them glow, but He can't tell the bro of Jared how to make a CO2 scubber?