Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Studies of the Book of Mormon/Book of Mormon Difficulties: A Study

< Back to FAIR Answers Index

Response to claims made in "Book of Mormon Difficulties: A Study"

A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books, a work by author: B.H. Roberts, edited by Brigham D. Madsen

A Book of Mormon Study

Response to hypotheses made in "Book of Mormon Difficulties: A Study"

Jump to details:

• Response to hypotheses proposed in Book of Mormon Difficulties: A Study- Linguistics

Response to hypotheses proposed in Book of Mormon Difficulties: A Study- Linguistics

Jump to details:

• Response to hypothesis: 63 - "The current diversity of Native American tongues would not exist if they were all the descendants of ancient Hebrews"
• Response to hypothesis: 65 - "It should be remarked that there was contact with no other people or source of literature that would influence the character of Nephite and Lamanite language than this national literature of the Jews"
• Response to hypothesis: 66 - "this people of Zarahemla came in contact with the last survivor of the race which had previously occupied the region of what we now call Central America"
• Response to hypothesis: 91 - "there are a large number of separate language stocks in America that show very little relationship to each other"
• Response to hypothesis: 91- "it would take a long time...to develop these dialects and stocks where the development is conceived of as arising from a common source of origin"
• Response to hypothesis: 91 - "there is no connection between the American languages and the language of any people of the Old World"
• Response to hypothesis: 92 - "the time limits named in the Book of Mormon...is not sufficient to allow of these divergencies into the American langauge stocks and their dialects"
• Response to hypothesis: 92 - "if there have been migrations from Asiatic, African, or European countries in the period from the destruction of the Nephites...then such immigrations were sufficient in volume or frequency, as to affect the language or culture of American peoples"
• Response to hypothesis: 92 - "Can we in the face of the authorities here presented say that the independent language stocks and their inclusive dialects do not exist?"

Response to hypotheses proposed in Book of Mormon Difficulties: A Study- Animals, metal, grains and textiles

Jump to details:

• Response to hypothesis: 112 - The use of the word "cimeter" is dated to about 450 A.D., but the Book of Mormon mentions it around the middle of the fifth century B.C.
• Response to hypothesis: 113 - "it will be said...that silk is unknown among the Americans"
• Response to hypothesis: 114 - "Can we...say that the domestic animals, the horse, the cow and the ox, sheep, goats, and swine, were known and used by Americans within historic times, previous to the discovery of America?"
• Response to hypothesis: 114 - "Can we successfully assert ...that it was an iron and steel age civilization...rather than a stone age culture...?"

Response to Book of Mormon Difficulties: A Study- Origin of Native American Races and Their Culture

Jump to details:

• Response to hypothesis: 116-117 - the Book of Mormon “postulates those lands as uninhabited” for the entirety of the North and South American continents
• Response to hypothesis: 119 - "according to the Book of Mormon; they speak of no other with whom they came in contact"
• Response to hypothesis: 142 - the Book of Mormon requires “an empty America” in 3000 years B.C.