Jared Diamond's book "Guns, Germs, and Steel". While not dealing with the Book of Mormon at all, it is a double-edged sword dealing the death blow to Book of Mormon historicity:

http://www.mormonism101.com/2015/05/book-guns-germs-steel-jared-diamond.html

Book of Mormon historicity is not just about what IS in the Book of Mormon but SHOULDN'T but also about what SHOULD be in it but ISN'T. The Book of Mormon as a true story in a pre-Columbian American setting simply does not rise above the level of a crackpot theory and, as history, can be legitimately dismissed prima facie.

Or as Bob McCue, another exmo oldtimer, once put it: asking a scientist to debunk the BoM would be equivalent to asking her to debunk the notion of a flat earth.

Been there, done that, not worth the time and effort.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2015 10:21AM by rt.

I still enjoyed it, though. Common sense is overrated.

people in the 1830s and 1840s debunked Mormonism at the time of its founding -- just as people alive now would expose a false made up religion. The "Book Of Mormon" story is not only patently false but logically inconsistent.

Indeed. It's like I always say: the non-Mormon assessment of the BoM has remained the same ever since its publication in 1830: a nineteenth-century work of religious fiction. It's the Mormons' own assessment of the cornerstone of their religion which keeps on changing with every major scientific discovery.

We had Jerald and Sandra Tanner and Utah Lighthouse Ministry.

More accurate mormon history than LDS ever wanted revealed.

"Mormonism shadow or reality", by the Tanners, despite the slightly weird title, was an absolute tour de force. Far more devastating than anything else I've ever read about the Mormon church. Hundreds and hundreds of pages, thousands of quotes, clear and well-reasoned.

Even without its impact on the BoM, I loved reading Guns Germs and Steel. It seemed like I interrupted my husband about every third page with some fascinating insight from the book.

The BoM was so obviously written in New England in the early 1800s that it is frightening. How can people be so blind? I guess we all really wanted it to be true, but sheesh. It's embarrassing.

The BoM, JS's predatory sexual nature and the lack of inspiration in leadership from 1830 to 2015 are my trifecta.

What a crock.

Heresy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Even without its impact on the BoM, I loved
> reading Guns Germs and Steel. It seemed like I
> interrupted my husband about every third page with
> some fascinating insight from the book.

Divorced now, I assume?

Yes, the Tanner's book, with its odd "microfilm" style had me saying "Whaaat!?" Someone gave it to my mom in the late '70's and ooooh did my newly RM convert TBM brother hate that. But at the same time, the strange format made it easy for people to discredit because it looked...well...weird and fringe.

But it had pretty much all the ammunition needed that holds up today.

After my mom died I looked for the book, but it was gone. I suspect only one person.

"Guns, Germs, and Steel" was on the reading list for my EvPsych class at the Y.

It doesn't purport to be a comprehensive history, nor does it directly address LDS history. Most LDS students (and most people, generally speaking) are fully capable of compartmentalizing.

It is thought-provoking in some regards, but I've not heard of anybody deconverting on its account.