We were discussing the various fanciful stories in the BoM regarding hundreds of thousands of warriors dying in battle on Hill Cumorah in upstate New York. For which there is no archeological evidence.
Me: The idea that this civilization flourished and was annihilated in upstate NY is ... absurd.
Mormon: I agree.
Me: I'm sorry, but Hill Cumorah presents a huge problem in logic for you then. Here's why.
1. The Book of Mormon states the Hill Cumorah is the place where the plates were placed.
2. The Book of Mormon states the Hill Cumorah is where the battles took place.
3. Respected LDS Church scholars state the Hill Cumorah is in New York, that it is where the plates were placed, and that it is also the place where the battles took place, as confirmed by the Book of Mormon AND the Prophet Joseph Smith.
This is the historical record confirmed by LDS documentation. You admit this idea is absurd, while at the same time testifying that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God and the Book of Mormon is true.
(I thoughtfully provided many long discourses by Joe and Joseph Fielding Smith and other illustrious revelating leaders to show the truth in these statements). Yikes! Can you say, "cognitive dissonance"? What's a TBM to do?
Here is one response to this dilemma of reason and evidence, to believe what is "absurd" in the words of one Mormon, or believe the BoM and church teachings:
- From the Deseret News, re: GEOGRAPHY PROBLEMS
THE GEOGRAPHY OF the Book of Mormon has intrigued some readers of that volume ever since its publication. But why worry about it?
Efforts to pinpoint certain places from what is written in the book are fruitless because the record does not give evidence of such locations in terms of our modern geography.
Attempts to designate certain areas as the Land Bountiful or the site of Zarahemla or the place where the Nephite city of Jerusalem sank into the sea ‘and waters have I caused to come up in the stead thereof’ can bring no definitive results. So why speculate?
To guess where Zarahemla stood can in no wise add to anyone’s faith. But to raise doubts in people’s minds about the location of the Hill Cumorah, and thus challenge the words of the prophets concerning the place where Moroni buried the records, is most certainly harmful. And who has the right to raise doubts in anyone’s mind?
Our position is to build faith, not to weaken it, and theories concerning the geography of the Book of Mormon can most certainly undermine faith if allowed to run rampant.
Why not leave hidden the things that the Lord has hidden? If He wants the geography of the Book of Mormon revealed, He will do so through His prophet, and not through some writer who wishes to enlighten the world despite his utter lack of inspiration on the point.
SOME AUTHORS have felt ‘called upon’ to inform the world about Book of Mormon geography and have published writings giving their views. These books, however, are strictly private works and represent only their personal speculations. (Deseret News, July 29, 1978, Church News Section, p.16)
The response from my Mormon friend:
Mormon: We've already seen that the BoM does NOT support a New York Cumorah. Joseph may have believed it, at first at least. There is some indication that he later on began to espouse the Central America geography, but he died not long afterwards, and the Saints were once more forced to focus on survival, so that geographical questions reverted back to the previous (most likely incorrect) views. You might have a point if we believed that our leaders or scholars are infallible. We don't though. I don't have to trust Joseph Smith or Oliver Cowdery's views on geography at all.
Well now there's an interesting religion for you. "We believe everything Joseph Smith revealed to us. That is, we believe, until we don't believe it anymore, then we believe something else..."
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