Answering Recent Comments – Part VII

Continuing with the comments previously mentioned in the last post, the first seventeen comments were answered in the previous six posts, the eighteenth and additional comments are answered beginning below:

Comment #18 “I have a simple question. Why aren't animals such as Coatimundis, Deer, Jaguars, Tapir, Monkeys, Sloths, Turkeys, etc.. mentioned in the Book of Mormon when they were animals that existed?” Garth A.

Response: First, the Book of Mormon does not purport to be a book of fauna and flora in the Land of Promise. It mentions only a few animals, and basically all were important to man as domestic animals generally are. Wild animals are mentioned, but not by name except for the wild goat. Again, though, this was never the purpose of the Book of Mormon, nor was it a treatise about much of what critics like to talk about. It mentioned precious metals, gold and silver, but not what it was used for, or how it was used. It mentions coinage and their names, but nothing more about them—and the purpose of mentioning it was merely to show the very large amount of an offered bribe. One needs to consider what the purpose of the Book of Mormon was for and not try to expand into areas the scriptural record does not, and was never meant, to include. To criticize a book for not including what it never claimed to have included is simply foolish.

Comment #19 “It is inconceivable how you or anyone else could promote a model of the Land of Promise outside of Colonial America and Western New York with all the fulfilled land prophecies there. Please read the Spiritual Geography next time you visit the true Book of Mormon Geography site.”

Endless Mountains in New York—more like a series of rolling hills. When we drove through these endless “mountains” it was an easy, almost level drive most of the way. While they do appear endless, they are certainly not mountains

Response: This question sounds familiar, and numerous posts have been devoted in this blog to answer this question. For some odd reason, Great Lakes and eastern U.S. theorists like to contend that only the United States could be the Land of Promise, which is an extremely narrow view of the Lord’s plan—and not one General Authorities have ever suggested. I’ll tell you what—if you can show me just one mountain in Western New York to be one “whose height is great” as Samuel the Lamanite prophesied, I’ll seriously consider your comment and claim. As an example, the highest elevation in all of Erie County is a hill in the Town of Sardinia that tops out at around 1,940 feet above sea level—Lake Erie itself is at 571 feet above sea level, which makes the hill under 1400 feet high. Also, Niagara County 680 feet; Orleans County 672 feet, Monroe County 890 feet, Wayne County 675 feet; Oswego County 561 feet, Jefferson County 1991 feet. The highest peak in the region of the Endless Mountains is the North Knob Elk Mountain at only 2693 feet. Alma Hill is considered the highest point in western New York, at 2,548 feet, with the highest peak in all of New York state Mt. Marcy at 5,344 feet in the Adirondacks. Perhaps you should read Samuel's statements given to him by an angel, and read Nephi's descriptions of the destruction, the next time you visit the scriptures.

Top LtoR: Mountains outside my middle son’s home; Mountains looking out backyard of my sister’s home; Middle LtoR: Mountains looking out back yard of my home; Mountains looking east from my youngest son’s home; the Wasatch Mountains looking east in Utah. All mountains are between 8,000 and 10,000 feet, with the ground level of the pictures shot between 5500 and 6000 feet elevation

I live at an elevation of 6000 feet in the Rocky Mountains, and that is not considered all that high since we have peaks all around us above 9,000 feet, and some as high as 11,000 feet. In fact, I have driven through western New York and there are no real mountains there—certainly nothing “whose height is great.” So either you are right about Western New York and Samuel the Lamanite and the Angel who told him are wrong, or Samuel and the Angel are correct and you are wrong. You choose.

Comment #20 “You write about bows and arrows used by the Nephites, yet bows and arrows were not invented in America until A.D. 1000." Christine.

Response: I defy anyone to say with absolute conviction and unquestioning proof when bows and arrows were first used in the Western Hemisphere. Other than the Book of Mormon, there is not one single word written about the entire Western Hemisphere in historical documentation of anything that took place in all this vast land prior to the arrival of the Spanish. As for the Book of Mormon, bows and arrows were a very familiar part of military combat in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East long before Lehi left Jerusalem. The first mention of a bow in the Book of Mormon is around 600 B.C. with Nephi and his brothers taking them from their home at Jerusalem into the wilderness. Obviously, if someone came from the Middle East in 600 B.C. to the Western Hemisphere, they would have brought with them bows, arrows, knives, swords, etc. Since science does not accept the Lehi story, there is no reason why they would work that into their equation as to when such weapons showed up in the Americas.

Comment #21: “Archaeologists and other scholars have long probed the hemisphere's past and the societies there, and does not know of anything found so far that has substantiated the Book of Mormon."

The ancient city of Chan Chan in northern Peru. One of the hundreds of cities built in the Andean area by an ancient people in B.C. times

Response: I always find some statements unbelievable. Who do archaeologists and anthropologists think created the vast network of cities, palaces, temples, roads, and civilizations whose ruins are found today in the Andean area of South America, which date well into B.C. times? What civilization(s) does science think built those fascinating ruins? Archaeology has no clue who built anything in the Andean area, or later in the Mesoamerican area. Not even the Inca knew who built the vast network of cities they occupied or the roads they traveled. The Book of Mormon tells of a people who built such edifices as palaces, cities, temples, etc., and that they date them from the time the Book of Mormon claims the Jaredites and later Nephites lived in the Land of Promise in the Western Hemisphere—vast cities housing hundreds of thousands, a civilization numbering in the millions. Artifacts, ruins, etc., have all been found in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and northern Chile dating to the time of the Book of Mormon, with a vast network of roads, etc., as mentioned. It is understandable when people don’t want to accept the Book of Mormon because of their own different religious views—but to ignore all the evidences of the facts is absolutely absurd!

Comment #22 “American Indians had no wheat, barley, oats, millet, rice, cattle, pigs, chickens, horses, donkeys, camels before 1492.” Jackson.

Response: The Book of Mormon is not about the American Indian. It is about the Jaredite nation from Mesopotamia which was ultimately wiped out, and about the Nephite nation from the area of Jerusalem, which was eventually wiped out. The Lamanites, a degenerate group who descended into barbarism, pillage, murder and sacrificing of humans were a far cry from the level of Nephite culture once achieved there. What the Lamanites became—some of the indigenous people of the Americas found by the Spanish, is in no way representative of the culture of the Book of Mormon. For some reason, though that culture was wiped out and those left involved in “civil wars, killing and murder,” are expected to have had the same level of culture, animals, crops, etc., as those gone more than 1000 years by the time the Spanish arrived, is beyond understanding. If one were to actually read the Book of Mormon, one would be in a better position to criticize it.

(See the next post, “Answering Recent Comments – Part VIII,” for more comments made about different posts on this website)