If plates then God

[Res Ipsa]

tagriffy believes Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon on his own despite the evidence that shows it is unlikely that he could have done so.

When you have to misrepresent someone else's words this badly to make your argument, you have no argument at all.

[Physics Guy]

I would also go with 2 and 10, like tagriffy. I see nothing unlikely at all about Joseph Smith composing the Book of Mormon all by itself. On the contrary, it was obviously produced quickly by someone of Smith's place, time, and education level. All the Mormon apologetics that tries to make out that this would be unlikely only suggests, by its weakness, that the first impression is accurate. The Book reads like something someone made up and recited. The last thing it sounds like is the painstaking record of a real ancient people who were concerned to save space on precious plates that were hard to engrave.

My own answer of 2 to the first question is not important at all. It's not really such a different answer from a 1. I'm just allowing that maybe Smith had some help. And if in fact he somehow needed a fair amount of help, or even found an old manuscript that someone else had written, then all that would mean is that my guess about the details about how an old religious hoax worked is wrong. Oh well. The chance that it was anything but a hoax is still practically indistinguishable from zero.

Conceivably some other answers to the first question could be important. If someone didn't believe Smith could possibly have written the Book of Mormon, then perhaps that person would consider that someone like Mormon did.

I still find all those arguments from the Book itself to be weird, though. I mean, it's not like the Quran, which is supposed to have been composed in its original language by God and dictated by an angel. The sheer poetic beauty of the Arabic text of the Quran is supposed to seem superhuman, to many native speakers of Arabic. With a text like that, you can ask whether any human being at all could conceivably ever have written it, and if the answer seems to you to be No, as it does to most Muslims, then I guess you have to accept that it's a revelation from God.

Nobody has ever claimed that the Book of Mormon wasn't written by mortals, however. In fact the strongest Mormon claim about it is that it was written by primitive people in a language and script that they themselves found difficult to write. The text is explicitly admitted to have human flaws. So, completely unlike the Quran, the miracle of the Book of Mormon is not the text itself but only the supposed feat of translating it, from Reformed Egyptian that describes itself as flawed and limited into a stilted version of King James Bible English. And since the original Reformed Egyptian text has never been available, even this weirdly limited miracle is only an alleged miracle.

[Doctor Steuss]

[...] Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon on his own despite the evidence that shows it is unlikely that he could have done so. [...]

The existence of the Book of Mormon is evidence that he was not only capable of doing so, but in fact did author it.

The Book of Mormon is the evidence. That's how evidence generally works outside of faith, dogma, and special pleading.

If someone were to say that it's impossible for John Boyne to author a book with the complexity, length, and internal consistency of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas within only a few days -- we can dismiss that idea because the first draft was written in about two days. The existence of the initial manuscript after only two days of writing is the evidence that such a book can be written in just a few days.

The existence of the Book of Mormon is the evidence that Joseph could author such a book.

We don't need frontier folk magic beliefs to explain the existence of all of Mark Twain's writings, when his formal education didn't extend past the age of 12, anymore than we need frontier folk magic beliefs to explain the Book of Mormon's existence.

Scores of books have been written with far more miraculous timelines, consistency, and complexity from authors of similarly humble beginnings... the only difference is those authors generally had the scruples to not claim divine attribution.

[MG 2.0]

Joseph Smith who dictated the content of every single word they wrote.

Joseph Smith was the sole author of every word he dictated. Everything in the story was mentally produced, compiled, and presented by Joseph Smith with much careful thought and many years of contemplation in preparing to author his book.

Thanks Shulem. So now we are at two people who believe Joseph’ s mind was ultimately the origin of the Book of Mormon.

Regards,
MG

[Shulem]

love your response Shulem!!

I might only add that while Smith is indeed the sole author of every word he dictated, a minor clarification might be that he, um, borrowed more than a few of those words from other sources before he lumped them together into his storyline, and then dictated them.

(Kind of like how a certain blogger is the sole poster of the {way too frequently plagiarized} words on his blog. : D )

Right, absolutely. Whole chapters of Isaiah were copied straight from the KJV with a few variations to sprinkle and mix into the text. The sermons of Jesus (Greek name) were also pretty much copied into the text as presently constituted in our modern Bible during that particular time of the dictation/translation process.

Thank God for St. Timothy (Greek name ) in the Book of Mormon! How could the Book of Mormon possibly be authentic if it didn't have a Greek disciple?

[MG 2.0]

Smith is indeed the sole author of every word he dictated, a minor clarification might be that he, um, borrowed more than a few of those words from other sources before he lumped them together into his storyline, and then dictated them.

That makes three that think Joseph dictated the Book of Mormon from his own mind.

And we have at least one that thinks he did so after being a sponge, of sorts, in preparation for the dictation.

Thanks Marcus.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

Bless your heart, MG.

And we have a null response.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

tagriffy believes Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon on his own despite the evidence that shows it is unlikely that he could have done so.

When you have to misrepresent someone else's words this badly to make your argument, you have no argument at all.

If I’m not mistaken tagriffy expressed his opinion that with a high degree of probability he thinks Joseph wrote the Book of Mormon.

Yes, I then interjected the fact that there is a good amount of information that would counter that opinion. I should have left his opinion/response ‘as is’.

Regards,
MG

[Shulem]

Thanks Shulem. So now we are at two people who believe Joseph’ s mind was ultimately the origin of the Book of Mormon.

Yeah, every single word came from Joseph Smith while he dictated with his face in hat, or curled up in a corner in the room, or reading straight out of the Bible. He made up the Book of Mormon just like he made up the Pearl of Great Price. He made up all of it with no help from his friends. He did it all by himself! It was a great feat and an amazing thing but it wasn't rocket science. It was creative genius at work wherein he employed his passion in doing what he wanted to do more than anything in all the world. And in that, he excelled!

Go Joseph!

[MG 2.0]

I would also go with 2 and 10, like tagriffy. I see nothing unlikely at all about Joseph Smith composing the Book of Mormon all by itself. On the contrary, it was obviously produced quickly by someone of Smith's place, time, and education level. All the Mormon apologetics that tries to make out that this would be unlikely only suggests, by its weakness, that the first impression is accurate. The Book reads like something someone made up and recited. The last thing it sounds like is the painstaking record of a real ancient people who were concerned to save space on precious plates that were hard to engrave.

Thanks PG. So this makes four for four thus far.

Regards,
MG