American Moses

[Snow]

Originally posted by serapha@Mar 29 2004, 04:38 AM

You may say whatever you please.... since you have "dismissed" Moses from the Bible because there is no proof of his existence.

May I ask a question in return? When the bom speaks in first person, then obviously, that is no indication that the person authored the book, correct? Or, since there is no proof of the existence of Lehi, or any other bom personage, that they, too, are to be dismissed?

Thus, the bom is just "supposed writings"??

Now, before you reply, take a step back and read what you wrote, applying the same rules that you administer to the Bible as authenticity to the bom.

~serapha~

Serapha,

I do not dismiss Moses at all. I simply acknowledge the truth of the matter - a truth which is not disputed - that there is no historical evidence for the existence of Moses and indeed there is no non-biblical historical reason to suspect that he never existed as the character described by the Bible.

That's the realistic intellectual position. But, in addition to facing the facts of Moses existence, I exercise faith that there really was a Moses. Whether or not said Moses was just as described in the Bible, I don't know. In this case, since Moses's existence is unsupported by and facts, I am dependent entirely upon dogma, faith, tradition and hopefully the Holy Spirit.

Same for Lehi and the Book of Mormon. I beleive that there are some evidences (literary, linguist, etc) for the Book of Mormon but, for now, the veracity of the Book of Mormon seems to my mind to be mainly reliant upon faith, dogma, and tradition.

Interestingly though, the Book of Mormon has a unique facet to it compared to the Bible. If one part of the Bible is shown to be true, for example, that such and such archeological location were discovered thus showing that the Biblical account happened in a real place - it would do nothing to prove the supernatural claims of the Bible (angles, prophets, the Savior); but if something were simiarly proven about the Book of Mormon then that would be strong evidence that the supernatural claims of the Book of Mormon were also true.

[Tr2]

Brigham Young : a kingdom builder with dreams as grandiose as those of Sam Houston or John C. Fremont, only BY was sucessful at it. He was a brillant social planner, a towering and fully human figure, captain of people and religion.

oooooooooooook.............

Moses: no evidence that he actually ever existed. No surviving known writings

There is more evidence, to suggest that Moses lived, than there is proof of an angel that came to Joseph Smith or any golden plates that brought forth the book of mormon. Care to explain why you have faith in one thing but not the other? There is really no good reason why we have no proof of golden plates.

[Snow]

Originally posted by Tr2@Mar 29 2004, 01:23 PM

There is more evidence, to suggest that Moses lived, than there is proof of an angel that came to Joseph Smith or any golden plates that brought forth the book of mormon.

Note the complete and utter dearth of said evidence in Trident's post. Wonder why that is. Okay, okay, I'm joking. I know why already.

Btw Trident, who said I don't have faith in Moses?