Book of Mormon conundrum?

The Book of Mormon is so nutty that even creationist Christians don't believe it.

It is also possible to read the book of Mormon from Laman and Lemuels' point of view. God doesn't speak to them, and it just seems to reinforce their worst fears when they are starving in the desert. To them, their father is a dreamer, doing all this ridiculous stuff to fulfill a dream. Laman, as the oldest, feels entitled to reign when Lehi dies; should he take his younger brothers' word that It was he, Nephi who was called of God to be king? Try reading the Book of Mormon from Laman and Lemuel's point of view, and you get a different story. This is the same thing that people struggle with today; some believe in God and some believe that God is imagination. It hardly seems like a crime worthy of death.

The Book of Mormon conundrum exists because the book is a fabrication by Joseph Smith.

Joseph Smith was a con man and he got his "inspiration" and his primary material for the Book of Mormon from View of the Hebrews, or the Tribes of Israel in America, a specious work published in 1825 by Ethan Smith (no relation to Joseph Smith), a pastor in Poultney, Vt.

Curiously (or not so), Oliver Cowdery, who would become Joseph Smith's scribe, lived in Poultney at that same time, and his family belonged to Ethan Smith's church.

Ethan Smith theorized that part of the tribes of Israel had come to the Americas in ancient times and divided into two rival factions: a savage faction and a civilized faction. After long wars between them, the savage faction annihilated the civilized faction and came to be the American Indians.

That is also a short synopsis of the Book of Mormon. Furthermore, many of Ethan Smith's descriptions and beliefs about the ancient Americans are also found in the Book of Mormon.

It is clear that Joseph Smith, perhaps with a collaborator, used Ethan Smith's descriptions and ideas and expanded on them by bringing in other material from the Bible and other sources, and used his imagination to work it all up into the Book of Mormon.

Here are some examples.

VoH:

"And we find a special branch [of Israel]… having been lost from the knowledge of ... the Jews."

"And the places ... are noted [where they are to be found]; among which are ‘the isles of the sea’ [meaning America].…"

BoM, 1 Nephi 22:

"... there are many which are already lost from the knowledge of they which are at Jerusalem. Yea, the more part of all the tribes have been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon the isles of the sea...[including America]"

VoH:

"And nothing appears more probable than that ... the greater part of their brethren became savage and wild."

"[the savage faction] fell into a wandering idle hunting life."

"[The] savage tribes... were intent on the destruction of this better part of their brethren."

BoM, Enos 20:

"... [The savage tribes] became wild, ... and wandering about in the wilderness..."

2 Nephi 5:

"And...[the savage tribes] did become an idle people, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey."

Enos 20:

"And they [the savage tribes] were continually seeking to destroy us [the civilized tribes]."

VoH.

Ethan Smith described the earthwork mounds found from Ohio to New York State, including this:

"Not far from this tumulus [earthwork mound] was a semi-circular ditch…. At the bottom lay “a great quantity of human bones.” These are supposed to be the remains of men slain in some great battle."

BoM, Alma 49:

"Now when they found that they could not obtain power over the Nephites ..., they began to dig down their banks of earth ...; but ... they were swept off by the stones and arrows which were thrown at them; and instead of filling up their ditches by pulling down the banks of earth, they were filled up ... with their dead and wounded bodies."

VoH:

"... he ascended the walls [of the city], and in a voice still more tremendous than ever, he exclaimed, “Wo, wo to this city ... and this people!” "

BoM, Helaman 13:

"... he went and got upon the wall [of the city] ... and cried with a loud voice... "... yea, wo unto this great city... ... yea, wo unto this people.” "

VoH:

"It is highly probable that the more civilized part of the tribes of Israel … continued for many centuries; that tremendous wars were frequent between them and their savage brethren, till the former became extinct."

BoM

Alma 45, a "prophecy" about the result of the war between the two groups:

"… behold the time very soon cometh that those which are … now numbered among the people of Nephi …, shall the Lamanites pursue, even until they shall become extinct."

VoH

Ethan Smith's message to the American people:

"Go, thou nation highly distinguished in the last days; save the remnant of [Israel who are the Indians]."

"Teach them the story of their ancestors…. Tell them ... they must return to the God of their salvation ... and receive his grace by Christ…."

"Send them the heralds of salvation....All your volume of salvation was written by the sons of Jacob. And by them it was transferred from Jerusalem ... to you.... Restore it to [the Indian remnant of Israel].'

BoM, Mormon 7:

“And now, behold, I would speak somewhat unto the remnant of this people [the future Indians]"

"Know ye that ye must come to the knowledge of your fathers, and repent of all your sins and iniquities, and believe in Jesus Christ…."

"Therefore ... lay hold upon the Gospel of Christ, which shall ... come unto the Gentiles from the Jews, which record shall come from the Gentiles [the future American people] unto you."

Those are only a few of the great many parallels between the two books. For more, see Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon.

Also see my answer here for more information about Joseph Smith.

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You spelled conundrum correctly, but you added an M to moron.

Huh what