. . .the original record was engraved on thin, malleable sheets of metal with the appearance of gold
and bound with three rings at one edge. . .According to the account presented
in the book, it is an abridgment of earlier records by Mormon and his
son, Moroni, about AD 400. At the end of Moroni's ministry (approximately AD 421), he hid these plates along with several other items in a stone box in a hillside (now named the Hill Cumorah) near Palmyra, New York. . .Joseph Smith stated that he was directed by God through the angel
Moroni to the place where the plates were stored. . .Through the power of God and the Urim and Thummim,
which were ancient seeing stones hidden along with the plates, he was
able to translate the characters (which, according to the Book of
Mormon, were related to 600 BC Egyptian with Hebrew influence)[6] into English.[7]
What mainstream Christians critics may not know is that the Judeo-Christian traditions contain an equally bizarre story (more bizarre than the dictated to Moses story) of how a significant portion of the Old Testament was composed.
[37] So I took the five men, as he commanded me,
and we went into the field, and remained there.
[38] And the next day,
behold, a voice called me, saying, Esdras, open thy mouth, and drink that I give
thee to drink.
[39] Then opened I my mouth, and, behold, he reached me
a full cup, which was full as it were with water, but the colour of it was like
fire.
[40] And I took it, and drank: and when I had drunk of it, my
heart uttered understanding, and wisdom grew in my breast, for my spirit
strengthened my memory:
[41] And my mouth was opened, and shut no
more.
[42] The Highest gave understanding unto the five men, and they
wrote the wonderful visions of the night that were told, which they knew not:
and they sat forty days, and they wrote in the day, and at night they ate
bread.
[43] As for me. I spake in the day, and I held not my tongue by
night.
[44] In forty days they wrote two hundred and four
books.
[45] And it came to pass, when the forty days were filled, that
the Highest spake, saying, The first that thou hast written publish openly, that
the worthy and unworthy may read it:
[46] But keep the seventy last,
that thou mayest deliver them only to such as be wise among the
people:
[47] For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain
of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge.
[48] And I did so.
-2 Esdras 14:37-48 (King James Version*)
Scripture as the product of visions induced by quaffing a hallucinogenic beverage? Been there, done that. Actually, that explains a few things.
I'm not saying that you can't pick on the Mormons in the spirit of Christian love and fellowship, but you may want to leave the origin of scripture stuff alone.
Pot, kettle. Kettle, pot. You both reflect insignificant amounts of ambient electromagnetic radiation between 380nm and 750nm.
*I know that the King James Version is a lousy Biblical translation, but the stilted language is anachronistically entertaining.
