doubleofive said:
One of my big things with Mormonism is that a lot of the events of the Old and New Testament and most of the places have other historical sources and archaeological evidence to support that they existed at one time. You literally can't throw a rock in the Middle East without breaking a clay pot with some historical document or hit an ancient city in the sands.
But the Book of Mormon seems to be the only record of an entire Jewish civilization that lived in America for thousands(?) of years. How do the leadership explain that no one has ever found their currency, old city walls, etc.?
Speaking of the leadership, one of my other big things is that I find it really hard to believe that Jesus would let the entire salvation of the world fall apart so soon after the Resurrection and would let it continue that way for 1800 years, until He remembered that He made this newer testament and needed to establish a succession of prophets He never mentioned needing. To me, letting the church wander about for 1800 years when they couldn't rebel against things they were never told sounds like one of those moves Tyr was talking about.
I agree. It's hard to believe that anything happened in America when some of the other civilizations they come across, like the Hittites, where around throughout the Bronze Age and are well documented. I know darth_ender mentioned that some groups of people migrated, but the migration from Asia to the Americas took tens of thousands of years, which is longer than some Christians think the earth is.
My only idea is that maybe Noah taught all the animals to row during the flood, but even then it's an impossible trek. Unicorns probably died off because they had to get out and push. :)
I believe the Jewish dietary laws were more for the Israelites of the time. Uncooked pork can have all kinds of bad things in them, and the locals were using them for sacrifices and stuff. Instead of giving the Israelites a cook book, God said to just avoid it completely.
Yeah, you can't eat pigs and snakes all willy nilly.