I stumbled into a website that had many anti-mormon comments. I simply asked them the questions, have you read the Book of Mormon and what did you think about it. They recommended I read: “Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?: The Spalding Enigma.” I do not want to read something I suspect is loaded with misinformation but wondered if you had read their book and what comments you might have about it.
John from Denver,
(This question was posted by someone who decided to join the Church, perhaps thanks in part to answers posted on AllAboutMormons.com. Click here to see other questions posted by Mormon converts.)
2 Responses to “I stumbled into a website that had many anti-mormon comments…”
Daniel Paz
2009-11-01 22:21:43
I've never read that specific book, but I can tell you a little bit about the Spalding theory of Book of Mormon origins. Some years before Joseph Smith, Solomon Spaulding wrote a story about a lost civilization of mound builders in North America. Nehemiah King, after hearing some Mormon preachers, thought that the story of the Book of Mormon resembled the story told by Spalding in his book. When two anti-Mormons named E. D. Howe and Philastus Hurlbut heard of this possible connection, they went around interviewing Spalding's family and neighbors and convinced them that Joseph Smith had plagiarized Spaulding's manuscript when he "wrote" the Book of Mormon.
Howe and Hurlbut later received a copy of Solomon Spaulding's manuscript and discovered, much to their chagrin, that the alleged smoking-gun similarities with the Book of Mormon were in fact absent from the text. Unwilling to abandon their anti-Mormon premise, however, Howe and Hurlbut claimed, without any real evidence, that there must have been a second Spaulding manuscript. This alleged second manuscript has never been found, and there's no real reason to think it even exists.
The original Spalding manuscript was lost for many years, but was rediscovered in 1884. James Fairchild, one of the academics who rediscovered the manuscript, came to the same conclusion that Howe and Hurlbut had come to years earlier: the book of Mormon was not plagiarized from the Spalding manuscript. Juanita Brooks, a historian who does not believe that Joseph Smith received the Book of Mormon through divine revelation, nevertheless dismisses the Spaulding theory because it is based on chronological inconsistencies and dubious testimonies. Richard Bushman, arguably the greatest living scholar of early Mormon history, likewise dismisses the theory.
Given the ridiculous assumptions some anti-Mormons are willing to make in order to discredit the Book of Mormon, I'm surprised that no one has suggested that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from the Lord of the Rings. Couldn't Frodo have been a prototype for Nephi? :)
John, you may be interested in an organization called "FAIR." It's not an official Church organization, but it is made up of church members, many of them professors and academics, who try to shed light on anti-Mormon claims. I've spent hours reading the articles on their website. It's a fascinating page for those who are interested in Mormon history.
Pamela Dean
2009-11-01 12:45:24
"I have a question," Ensign, Jun 1992, 2729 is a great article. That's all I have to say. :)
Howe and Hurlbut later received a copy of Solomon Spaulding's manuscript and discovered, much to their chagrin, that the alleged smoking-gun similarities with the Book of Mormon were in fact absent from the text. Unwilling to abandon their anti-Mormon premise, however, Howe and Hurlbut claimed, without any real evidence, that there must have been a second Spaulding manuscript. This alleged second manuscript has never been found, and there's no real reason to think it even exists.
The original Spalding manuscript was lost for many years, but was rediscovered in 1884. James Fairchild, one of the academics who rediscovered the manuscript, came to the same conclusion that Howe and Hurlbut had come to years earlier: the book of Mormon was not plagiarized from the Spalding manuscript. Juanita Brooks, a historian who does not believe that Joseph Smith received the Book of Mormon through divine revelation, nevertheless dismisses the Spaulding theory because it is based on chronological inconsistencies and dubious testimonies. Richard Bushman, arguably the greatest living scholar of early Mormon history, likewise dismisses the theory.
Given the ridiculous assumptions some anti-Mormons are willing to make in order to discredit the Book of Mormon, I'm surprised that no one has suggested that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from the Lord of the Rings. Couldn't Frodo have been a prototype for Nephi? :)
John, you may be interested in an organization called "FAIR." It's not an official Church organization, but it is made up of church members, many of them professors and academics, who try to shed light on anti-Mormon claims. I've spent hours reading the articles on their website. It's a fascinating page for those who are interested in Mormon history.