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The Book of Mormon: Fantasy Novel or Word of God?

Discussion in 'Mature Discussion' started by Nova, Apr 27, 2011.

  1. Apr 27, 2011 #1
    Nova

    Nova A Ghost Staff Member Administrator

    Im a mormon, most of my friends are athiest so I'm no stranger to 'religion fights'.
    This one friend of mine and I really had a good long talk on this topic and so I thought I'd bring it here and see what you guys have to say, if many of you have read it.

    Obviously I think theres more behind it than what people think and it's not just because of some magical feeling I get when I read it that 'tells me that it's true' though I won't say I havent ever had that feeling. There is also some physical proof being descovered about the Book of Mormon and things that were going on at the time that are pretty convincing.

    First, chiasmus: chiasmus [ky-AZ-mus] (plural -mi), a figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second. This may involve a repetition of the same words ("Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure" —Byron) or just a reversed parallel between two corresponding pairs of ideas surrounding a main point.

    This form of poetry was used way back in ancient times and wasn't truly explored or descovered until the 1900's. Joseph Smith Translated the Golden Plates in 1829, a really freeking long time before it was even explored. Funny, how in spite of this, the entire book is written in Chiasmus.
    An example of what I'm talking about is in the following quote. It is the first Chiasmus passage found in the book of Mormon:

    This is not the only example of Chiasmus in the book. In fact, nearly every verse is written in this form. Not only that, but if you really pay attention, you'll see that the book itself is a giant chiasmus poem- starting and ending with the same basic idea and the very center of it is the main point: the atonement of christ.

    Interesting how this is so because it would be humanly impossible for Joseph Smith to write in an ancient form of poetry that wasn't even descovered yet by himself. Heck, he wasn't even literate in his own language thats why he had to have people write for him while he red the golden plates.

    I do have more but I'll throw them in later into the discussion so we can try to keep things to talk about in this debate. Sound fair?

    So there you have it. The Book of mormon: fact of fiction? Chiasmus? Thoughts?

    Discuss.
     
  2. Apr 27, 2011 #2
    Desert Warrior

    Desert Warrior Well-Known Member

    The biggest problem I see with the Book of Mormon is how it was made. I wasn't aware of this until I saw an episode of South Park (Which afterwards I did research on it, because I thought that South Park was taking it to ridiculous extremes). But, surprisingly enough, South Park did a decently accurate portrayal about the Book of Mormon being written.

    Anyways, the issue is that Joseph Smith wasn't letting anybody else see the golden plates and his excuse on why there were inconsistencies between the two copies he had written. It doesn't make any sense that he wouldn't let somebody else see the plates, even if only to show that he wasn't making things up.

    And honestly, it doesn't really seem strange, the whole chiasmus thing. Just because it wasn't properly 'discovered' for another hundred or so years after Joseph Smith doesn't mean that there is some special reason he used it. If it is an ancient form of poetry, then somebody else used it. The repetition of ideas isn't really uncommon in human history.
     
  3. Apr 28, 2011 #3
    EtherealSummoner

    EtherealSummoner Lamentations 3:22-26

    ??? Book of Mormon and Chiasmus? Huh? Sorry. Never heard of those two.
     
  4. Apr 29, 2011 #4
    Kitty

    Kitty I Survived The BG Massacre Staff Member Administrator

    Then why are you posting in this DEBATE thread?

    I'm not familiar with the Book of Mormon, so without doing any research I can't write a very detailed response and maybe I'm getting things wrong anyhow, so bear with me, but in regards to the use of Chiasmus before it was rediscovered, I'm inclined to think it could just be a coincidence. Or rather, I believe that it is possible for someone to just put the words down (or hear them in his head, or whatever) and think it sounds good that way, without any knowledge of ancient poetry.

    If this is true, how is the example you provided from Lord Byron (1788-1824) explained?
     

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