LDS - What evidence is there that the Book of Mormon events historically happened?

There are rivers and places in the americas with the same names as in the book of mormon to start.

This article is perfect and I couldnt answer better:

http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Brochures/Archaeology_...

This one is also interesting:

http://www.the-book-of-mormon.com/dna-evidence.htm...

and if you didnt get your fill of anti smartaleck answers visit the same question here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlpWF...

The Bible gets plenty wrong too. A huge populations of Jews was never in Egyptian captivity. Nazareth didn't exist as a city in the 1st century. Some of the dates and names of kings contradict Babylonian records.

I'm not trying to defend the Book of Mormon, which any non Mormon archaeologist will call a straight up lie, but I just wanted to note people in glass houses should be careful throwing stones.

Rosskopf, the presence of a civilization does not prove the Nephite civilization. No civilization of that size could have existed and been exterminated without having left some genetic marker in the remaining population. No Jewish genetic markers exist in the Mesoamerican Indian population.

Further the lack of horses, the wheel, phoenetic alphabet, all negate your claims as well.

What evidence do you have that proves that it didn't? All you have stated is things that suggest that biblical events happened, never really proving them. I could say similar things about the Book of Mormon and talk about the findings in Mesoamerica, but it wouldn't prove or disprove the events in the Book of Mormon, just as your statements haven't proved or disproved the events in the bible.

You need Faith to believe the bible. You need faith to believe that Christ lives, that he walked on this earth, that he taught and showed men the way, that he suffered and died for our sins. None of this has been historically proven to have happened. We rely on faith. The same is with the Book of Mormon. We have faith that the events described therein are true. As far as your salvation is concerned, does it really matter if there were horses or chariots as long as the message is true? I would advise you to read the book, then pray to know if it is true. Wouldn't you rather know of something is true or not by asking the Divine creator of all things rather than what you have learned from a few foolish men? Evidence will not make you believe. If you recall the bible states that faith proceeds the miracle.

what i hear is typical anti mormon rhetoric.

its the very same kind of thing that Atheists do and say in debunking christianity and the bible. !

when i first became a batpized Lds member, i was given the phamphlet to moroni with love. I spent at least 8 hours reading the allegations and researching the quotations. Every single quote was taken out of context or was more of a lie than a detailed truth.

as far as archeology is concerned the field of study on the book of mormon is still in its infancy but there are many eye opening surprises. Not to forget to mention forbidden archeology that is censored from public veiw, and rejected by criminal Peer Review.

the world of science is so EVIL in specific parts that truth is nowhere to be seen.

The existence of God is of NO doubt in my witness.

the truth is always of doubt no matter who teaches it.

If there was any indication at all that it was historically correct, scholars and scientists would be all over it. As it is, there is not one single department in any university outside the LDS schools that take it seriously. It is put in the same category as bigfoot, the loch ness monster and alien abduction.

The church has not been able to convince any non believers. Here is a fascinating interview on the subject by a top, unbiased archaeologist:

http://www.pbs.org/mormons/interviews/coe.html

Even leaders and apologists can't decide where it happened. They started off saying it was in New England near the Cumorah and Zelph's grave, but it is obvious there is no evidence supporting that now. Then they moved it to South and Central America. Maybe over a large area, no maybe a limited area.

The book describes battles where hundreds of thousands died. There would be artifacts, especially since they supposedly had wheels and steel and chariots and many horses.

What unbiased professionals do find in Central America is lots of artifacts that are NOT discussed in the Book of Mormon. Why would the book talk about barley when the natives ate maize and squash. It never mentions those staple foods of the area.

The Bible:

possible land size to find cities is about 70 miles x 300 miles

believed historically by billions

digging for stuff since 300 AD

many cites continually populated

important for all religions of the area and most of the world

The Book of Mormon:

possible land size to find cities is 3000 miles x 12,000 miles

believed historically only recently by millions

digging for stuff in the past century

no continuous inhabited cities

You're comparing apples and oranges here.

Besides, I live outside of Sacramento, CA. You can come visit my area and see the city I live in; but does that city mean that my words are true?

Likewise the bible can't be proven with research because you'll never dig up personal evidence of God's love for you as an individual.

The same is true with the Book of Mormon. I suppose we could find details about it if it were a historical book, it's not, it's religious. It testifies of Jesus Christ; He holds the proof and will give to all who ask.

See the south park on mormonism. But first, ask yourself how much historical evidence there is for the Bible. Have we found thousands of Chariots on the bottom of the Red Sea? Have we found the stones with the ten commandments written on them?

Also, ask yourself what the evidence we do have proves. Lets take a third religion into the discussion: Greek Deism. We have evidence that there was a city right about where Troy should be and that it was destroyed. Does this mean that Achilles and Hector battled on earth as the Gods played favorites on Mount Olympus? Of course not.

I'll grant you that parts of the Book of Mormon are particularly poorly backed up. But that's a common theme with all religion. Archaeological evidence can only prove that people were in a certain region and that they might have lived using certain tools in a certain fashion. Lack of evidence proves nothing more than a lack of evidence.

There are many indications that Christ visited the Americas. For one, the Spanish Conquistadors were met by the native peoples of this land who fell and worshiped them, believing that they were the bearded white God who had promised to return one day.

In my own personal experience, My anthropology teacher in high school was an amateur archaeologist in the Columbia River Gorge. He came to school one day shaking his head with amazement because a calendar he had dug up dated from Christ.

I also saw an Indian mural in Vancouver B.C. depicting Christ coming to the native people and their religious beliefs regarding death which correspond to I Corinthians 15:41.

I have heard the stories of three different native American people from different parts of the United States. Two of them (one in Portland Oregon, one in Santaquin Utah) said that when they read the Book of Mormon, they knew it was a true record because they were the same stories that were told to them as they were growing up that had been handed down from one generation to the next. As of this day, one of them is writing her story for me. She has written over 56 pages, and I am anxious to be able to read it.

I have another written record of a friend from a Northern California tribe who told me that they had always known and worshiped God and Jesus Christ without any outside influence.

I subscribe to Ancient American and there are a lot of interesting articles to read in that magazine along with pictures of relics. http://www.ancientamerican.com/articles.htm

There are a lot of finds documented that you don't hear anything about in the news. There are two stones on which are inscribed the 10 commandments in Hebrew, one in Newark Ohio, one in Los Lunas, New Mexico, and I read about an ancient copper smelter that was found in Michigan.

I saw a documentary the other night on TV where archeologists had obtained satellite imagery over S. America and had noted with interest that there were variances in the coloration of the vegetation. Intrigued, they set about making excursions to the lighter colored areas and each time they found evidences of ancient structures, so more information will be coming in time when they get a chance to explore these areas more closely. Based on the imagery they showed viewers and the inferences made, there is a huge area that indicates that there must have been a large population in the region.

I joined the Church many years ago, being led by the voice of the Spirit. It is important to gain a witness from God to know the truth of all things, or you cannot endure; that is more important than earthly relics, over which much controversy arises, in part because there are always people of different faiths who cannot abide evidences that put their long held beliefs or assumption of authority in jeopardy. Indeed, the Dead Sea Scrolls contained a passage that said the correct title for the community at Qumran should be "Latter Day Saints" but the church (that had possession of the scrolls) could not change their name to that because "unfortunately, it had been pre-empted by a so-called Christian sect." (George Molen, "Die Söhne des Lichts", p. 146)

Exactly. Where are the chariots and weapons and bones? If that many people had lived and had homes and families and then had been slain, there would be evidence. The BOM makes reference to steel. At the time they say the BOM was being written, steel had not been made yet. It also talks about horses - The last prehistoric North American horses died out between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene, but by then Equus had spread to Asia, Europe, and Africa.

FAIR and FARMS are apologetic sites - they must stay up nights thinking of this cr*p.

I am always amazed when they tell me that God hid the evidence and that is why we have to go on faith. Sigh............

According to the Book of Mormon, we would be looking for a place where Gold, Silver, and Copper were abundant. It would be near a narrow neck of land. We would find highways and cities and cememt buildings and fortifications. We should find towers and temples and thrones. Human sacrifice should be evident, and legends of a light skinned and a dark skinned people should remain. Money should be found, and evidence of massive wars. We are looking for a place that once supported millions of people. We are looking for the remains of a literate society, with established governments and religion.

All of these qualifications are satisfied in Mesoamerica.

P.S. - Specifics are a little harder to come by. Out of the thousands of books that the Maya had in their libraries, all but four were destroyed by the Catholic church. On top of that there is a language problem. The Nephites no longer exist, and there is no evidence that their conquerers spoke the same language, or wrote in the same script. Millions of people have lived on Mesoamerican lands since then, using a wide variety of spoken languages, and several written languages. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Never-the-less there have been some intriguing finds. One of the cities of the Maya, whose ancient name we actually know was named Lamanai, which is very close to Laman, the Elder brother of Nephi and son of Lehi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamanai

Another interesting find was recorded by a non-mormon team of archaeologists. The Mayan geneology includes a man named Jawbone who came across the ocean by boat, and became one of the forefathers of the Maya. Lehi is Hebrew for jawbone, and according to the Book of Mormon, Lehi brought his family to America by boat.

Another non-member archaeologist spent many years of his life studying the legends of the Maya. Apparently, according to tradition, and rock carvings, a ship arrived from across the sea with white people who brought civilization to the Maya. These white people wore strange clothing, and quickly became the leaders of the native people. After a while, they split up, some going north with their native followers, and the others going south. The ones that went north became known as the Toltecs, or builders, and the ones going south became known as the Ulmecs, or rubber people. You can read about them in the book "People of the serpent;: Life and adventure among the Mayas".

You seem a little obsessed with money. Money in the time of Lehi isn't the same as money today. Everything was measured according to weights. If you read the Book of Mormon account, it becomes clear that they used this ancient system of barter. These were not coins, but the names of certain weights. These weights were used as money. There is no way that Joseph Smith would have known this. It is a strong evidence of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Similar weights are still used today among the Maya.

The Book of Mormon mentions horses and elephants living in the Americas. I do not know of either being found that dates to Book of Mormon times. Carvings of both can be found among the Maya. Why did the Maya carve animals they had never seen? Obviously, they were familiar with these animals, and these animals once lived upon the American continent.

http://www.sitchin.com/elephant.htm

Steel is another anachronism. Why is it mentioned in the Book of Mormon, when it hadn't been invented yet? The Bible also mentions steel long before it was invented. That is because Steel means hard or durable. Steel was a hard or durable metal, typically an alloy of copper, either bronze or brass. The Maya had a method for hardening copper, and used it to make weapons. The Book of Mormon is absolutely correct in its mention of steel among the native Americans.