Helpful Score: 3
Mark Twain once reffered to the Book of Mormon as chloroform in print. I have tried for 10 years to read it. In all that time I completed it once...I've fallen asleep countless times in the attempt. a previous ewveiwer mentioned that there is no archeological evidence to support this book. She is correct. There is none. There is also no DNA link between native American peoples and Jews. To a devout Mormon these are either unimportant facts or evidence of either God's decision to hide this "Truth" or a conspiracy to hide the "truth" I will leave you to judge.
The book is in good condition. This book is a continuation of the bible as written by Joseph Smith.
It is very good reading, not only spiritually, but emotionally as well.
It is very good reading, not only spiritually, but emotionally as well.
As spiritual text, it is the best that is out there. As literary text, it is a heartbreaking story. Either way, the beauty is there.
It is really too bad that some people can not recognize a good thing, even when they are staring right at it. This book as it says on the front cover is "Another Testament of Jesus Christ." It is not to be used instead of the Bible, but is to be read along with the Bible. This book is just as "important" to me as my King James version of The Holy Bible. For those of you that seem to need DNA proof and apparently missed National Geographics program on DNA, how would you explain their ability to medically trace us all back to a common ancestor in Africa? The Native Americans did not just sprout up from nowhere. They came from somewhere. Science is ever changing as new things are realized and our technology advances. Do not ever think that what we know to be true today because of faith can not be proved to be true someday in the future by science!
If you've truly read and studied the Bible, you'll know right away that this is a farce. Or just check out the lack of historical, archeological and DNA evidence. No way it's possible.
f you've truly read and studied the Bible, you'll know right away that this is a farce. Or just check out the lack of historical, archeological and DNA evidence. No way it's possible.
This book has changed my life. It goes hand in hand with the Bible and brings greater clarity and understanding about Jesus Christ. As with the Bible, when I read this book I feel the spirit of God. To those with apprehensions about reading a "Mormon book", I would say just read it with an open, searching mind. Pray to God about it and see what happens.
In response to a previous reviewer who claimed that this book was racist, I would simply say that it is similar to the Bible in explaining why a certain segment of the society had darker skin. This group of people known as the "Lamanites" were at times good and bad, just as another group of people, the "Nephites" were good and bad.
The same reviewer went on to list many other things that were wrong with the Mormon church. Certainly no group of people is perfect, and if you took a fine tooth comb to any religion, you would find many mistakes. But as Christ said, the physician goes to those who are ill, not the healthy. We all stumble on our path to Christ, but that does not mean we should stop trying. This book motivates me to keep trying and rely on His grace.
In response to a previous reviewer who claimed that this book was racist, I would simply say that it is similar to the Bible in explaining why a certain segment of the society had darker skin. This group of people known as the "Lamanites" were at times good and bad, just as another group of people, the "Nephites" were good and bad.
The same reviewer went on to list many other things that were wrong with the Mormon church. Certainly no group of people is perfect, and if you took a fine tooth comb to any religion, you would find many mistakes. But as Christ said, the physician goes to those who are ill, not the healthy. We all stumble on our path to Christ, but that does not mean we should stop trying. This book motivates me to keep trying and rely on His grace.
Reading and following the principles and precepts of this book will bring you greater joy than anything else you could do.
A companion to the Bible, The Book of Mormon tells of Christ's visit to the Americas...
A terrible, terrible book. Not only is it painfully boring, but once you're mentally free of its accompanying cult, it's obviously a complete fabrication.
Viewed as a historical object--as a book very influential on the settling of the American West and very representative of nineteenth century Utopian societies, it does have some merit--but knowing the harm it can do, the racist ideas it continues to perpetuate, and the intense hold it can have on the minds of people indoctrinated from birth to believe that its contents are divine truth, I cannot give it anything close to approval or recommendation.
If you do read it, be sure to check out some pertinent criticism of it as well.
Here are some good starting points.
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/BOM/index.htm
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4043
And remember: Native Americans are not Jews who sinned and got cursed to look nothing at all like Jews; they came from Asia, via a land bridge, as verified by genetics and archeology. Horses and steel and apiaries (beehives) did not exist in the Americas 600 years B.C. The Ohio Mound Builders and the Navajos and the Mayans were not all one civilization. And there's no reason an American kid in nineteenth century New York would need to translate an ancient American record into Ye Olde JACOBEAN ENGLISH.
If you are investigating the Mormon Church, thinking of joining, I would just say, KEEP INVESTIGATING. (Until you've learned enough to change your mind.) Read about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The Kinderhook Plates. The Danites. Joseph Smith's thirty-plus wives. The real early history, not just the cleaned-up Church-approved stuff. Read about Church leaders' opposition to desegregation, the Equal Rights Ammendment, and gay marriage. Read about the sheer weirdness that goes on in the temples--the bloody threats that have, in recent years, been removed from the temple ceremonies; the might-as-well-be-naked Washing and Anointing ceremonies; et cetera!
And if you're IN the Mormon Church, and think this book is The Truth, well, if it is the truth, no amount of study of other challenging viewpoints and FACTS should change that. Please, don't just dismiss everything that's not Church-approved as "anti-Mormon" because a lot of very sincere and earnest people have written a lot of well-documented things that might shake your faith, and it deserves to be shaken. Not Church Approved DOES NOT EQUAL Anti-Mormon--so unless it comes from an opposing religious viewpoint, realize most of it's just history.
In conclusion, I do not recommend this book.
Viewed as a historical object--as a book very influential on the settling of the American West and very representative of nineteenth century Utopian societies, it does have some merit--but knowing the harm it can do, the racist ideas it continues to perpetuate, and the intense hold it can have on the minds of people indoctrinated from birth to believe that its contents are divine truth, I cannot give it anything close to approval or recommendation.
If you do read it, be sure to check out some pertinent criticism of it as well.
Here are some good starting points.
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/BOM/index.htm
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4043
And remember: Native Americans are not Jews who sinned and got cursed to look nothing at all like Jews; they came from Asia, via a land bridge, as verified by genetics and archeology. Horses and steel and apiaries (beehives) did not exist in the Americas 600 years B.C. The Ohio Mound Builders and the Navajos and the Mayans were not all one civilization. And there's no reason an American kid in nineteenth century New York would need to translate an ancient American record into Ye Olde JACOBEAN ENGLISH.
If you are investigating the Mormon Church, thinking of joining, I would just say, KEEP INVESTIGATING. (Until you've learned enough to change your mind.) Read about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The Kinderhook Plates. The Danites. Joseph Smith's thirty-plus wives. The real early history, not just the cleaned-up Church-approved stuff. Read about Church leaders' opposition to desegregation, the Equal Rights Ammendment, and gay marriage. Read about the sheer weirdness that goes on in the temples--the bloody threats that have, in recent years, been removed from the temple ceremonies; the might-as-well-be-naked Washing and Anointing ceremonies; et cetera!
And if you're IN the Mormon Church, and think this book is The Truth, well, if it is the truth, no amount of study of other challenging viewpoints and FACTS should change that. Please, don't just dismiss everything that's not Church-approved as "anti-Mormon" because a lot of very sincere and earnest people have written a lot of well-documented things that might shake your faith, and it deserves to be shaken. Not Church Approved DOES NOT EQUAL Anti-Mormon--so unless it comes from an opposing religious viewpoint, realize most of it's just history.
In conclusion, I do not recommend this book.
