Has anything in the Book of Mormon been proven true? Has anything been shown to highly likely to be true?
I assume you refer to any archaeological evidence of the expansive advanced Nephite civilization described in the book, and the link of these peoples (from whom modern Indians came) to the ancient lost tribes of Israel described in the Old Testament.
In a word, no.
For those who would like to know more, without wading through Joseph Smith’s tedious pseudo-Biblical language, read “Under the Banner of Heaven”, by Jon Krakauer.
From a Mormon:
Bottom line, no. Nothing has been proved, as in “hey, look, we found a lost city that says ‘Welcome to Zarahemla’ over the gate, and it was stuffed with stone tablets that mentioned Nephi and Moroni!”
150 years ago, critics of the Book of Mormon howled with laughter over the many mistakes Joseph Smith made. It was thought that no one ever wrote histories on metal plates, for example. A bunch of those ‘mistakes’ have since turned out to be pretty accurate–metal plates have been found elsewhere, and such.
So Mormon scholars enjoy studying both Central/South American and Hebrew history and culture, and feel that they have found many points that make the Book of Mormon’s claims more plausible. Naturally, non-Mormons do not accept one iota of any theory put forth by a Mormon. Which is pretty much what the LDS expect. In LDS opinion, however, the Book of Mormon gets far too many things correct to be made up by a man who knew absolutely nothing about Israel or ancient America.
However, it is important to note that Mormons by and large (and especially in the scholarly community) do not expect ever to ‘prove’ the Book of Mormon. It would, in fact, be counterproductive in our eyes. It’s a fun hobby, and the anti-Mormons keep us on our toes, but it has very little value otherwise. The focus of BoM apologetics then is not to prove the Book of Mormon, but to remove erroneous claims of it as provably untrue, so that honest seekers will not be hindered by false claims. It also serves to educate, enlighten, and strengthen the faith of those who already believe.
The value of the Book of Mormon, we believe, lies in the spiritual truths contained therein. Only the witness of the Holy Spirit will convince anyone of its truth and help people change their lives, which is what it’s for. The Book of Mormon does not exist to educate us about anthropology, it exists to bring people to Christ.
The major LDS organization that studies these things is called The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies. Go ahead and browse the site. You may also wish to visit your friendly neighborhood LDS bookstore and peek in a few of the books, in order to get an idea of what Mormons think about this stuff.
A more reliable and generally informative volume might be By the Hand of Mormon, by Terryl L. Givens, a professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia. It’s considered the latest respectable academic treatment for the general public, in the vein of Harold Bloom and Jan Shipps, and addresses BoM claims directly.
I should mention that Krakauer also cites your source as his as well.
Sorry for the hijack…
“Is there a Krakauer here?”
“Krakauer! We barely get in our coffee break!”
You may resume the discussion.
RE to the OP- well, Jesus existed, Israelites existed, ancient Americans existed. The connection of the three though is tenuous.
Has anyone been able to trace back how early the legends of Viracoccha, Kukulkan & Quetzlcoatl go? if they would have emerged during the claimed Hebrew migrations or the visits of Jesus to the Americas? (of course, the BoM migrations range from post-Babel pre-2000 BC & the later Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem post-600 BC, so that’s a good expanse of time.)
The most recent issue of Christianity Today has an article - available online - which is subtitled Evangelicals try to reach Mormons with respect—and hard science.
I don’t know enough about Mormonism to say that DNA evidence causes their whole theological structure to crumble - I doubt it does - and I’m sure that pro-LDS counter-arguments exist. But it seemed on target to your question. The article goes on to say where you can get copies of the group’s materials.
Crap. The stuff from “The Book of Mormon…” through the second paragraph of my post is a quote from the article, not my own thoughts.
For a good summary of the LDS research response, see dangermom’s post from a while back.
Given the Christianity Today article (re: “The church sent a free video to 7,500 households, consisting mostly of Mormons”) I wonder if they sent thousands of videos to their own members about how there is no evidence whatsoever for the Israelites’ captivity in Egypt.
Skammer says,
After watching Hope Christian Fellowship’s video online several times, I wrote an e-mail to Thomas W. Murphy asking about his participation in HCF’s production. He replied that:
-
The version HCF presents contains carefully selected quotes from longer, more detailed and varied statements.
-
He is disappointed that HCF excluded statements which are “critical of historical claims made in the Bible”. For instance, they totally removed all content which presented statements placing the Asian migration to the New World at 25,000 years ago, “well outside the parameters of Biblical chronology as believed by many evangelical Christians.”
-
Here’s the clincher: Dr. Murphy states that the video in question cut him off in the middle of his statement that “one might leave the church [after hearing this evidence]” and completely ignored his own recommendation that one could stay within the Church actively and “confront forthrightly the difficulties in our history.”
In other words, this guy’s words were edited carefully to present the bias of the maker of the video.
as much a critic of LDS teacher as I am, I wouldn’t rely on DNA evidence. After two millenia, any Israelite/Jewish genetic link to Native Americans is bound to be terribly watered down. Heck, I wonder how much a DNA analysis of ancient Israelite bones to, say, Jerry Seinfeld would show any overlap.
There would be quite a bit of overlap, actually. The Etheopian Jews split from the European Jews over 2000 years ago and both groups can be linked genetically. In fact it was DNA testing that proved once and for all that there really was a link.
Haj