Posted by quinn on January 29, 1999 at 07:41:52:
Another possible response to Paine's Age of Reason in the Book of Mormon (?) ... In AoR part 2 Paine criticized the author of Joshua for commanding the sun to stand still rather thant he earth; "for he should have commanded the earth to have stood still." The Nephites, however, get it right (Hel. 12:15). "Yea, if he say unto the earth--Thou shalt go back, that it lengthen out the day for many hours--it is done; And thus according to his word the earth goeth back, and it appeareth unto man that the sun standeth still; yea, and behold, this is so; for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun." Even by itself that strikes me as a little too convenient. Taken together with the other apparent responses to Paine's criticisms of the Bible (Moses' authorship of Pentateuch, etc.) plus Lucy Mack's admission that Asael Smith threw AoR at Joseph Sr. one day and bade him read it until he believed it . . . makes one wonder.