{"id":47710,"date":"2024-08-10T05:57:51","date_gmt":"2024-08-10T11:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.timesandseasons.org\/?p=47710"},"modified":"2024-08-10T07:32:22","modified_gmt":"2024-08-10T13:32:22","slug":"being-a-mormon-without-believing-in-a-historical-book-of-mormon-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2024\/08\/being-a-mormon-without-believing-in-a-historical-book-of-mormon-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Being a Mormon without Believing in a Historical Book of Mormon, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Again I make no pretenses to \u201cresolving\u201d this complicated topic and expect plenty of pushback, but, like I said in my last pos<\/a>t, I see these conversations as important. It does appear to me that the evidence is contrary to the BoM being historical (I\u2019ll post about that more), and yet I see Mormon practice as highly valuable (though often frustrating!)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen related conversations over the years on the Bloggernacle and people often point to the value of literature and even the parables of Jesus. And yet those examples aren\u2019t REALLY presented as historical the way Smith and the Book of Mormon present the Book of Mormon. I saw on Paul Dunn\u2019s Wikipedia<\/a> page that Dunn pointed to Jesus\u2019s parables as defense of his fabrications. I think a lot would find that distasteful, as, again, Dunn presented his stories as real (and seemingly working for Dunn\u2019s own aggrandizement). The Book of Mormon is different than bragging about oneself, but it did found a religion that gave Smith a very prominent position.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At the same time, the founding of the religion did a lot more than Dunn\u2019s stories (I\u2019d argue), and in previous posts<\/a> I\u2019ve listed out many of the aspects<\/a> that of a great value to me. I see such aspects as vastly more important than debates over ancient history of the Americas. I do love history, and do consider it important, but, again, I see the aspects I listed as much more important.<\/p>\n

No doubt lots of readers will find such a statement distasteful as though I\u2019m saying that Smith (or someone) felt the need to trick people for \u201cthe greater good,\u201d which sounds like something totalitarian regimes do. But as I mentioned in the comments in my last posts, Nephi tricks Zoram to get the plates \u201cfor the greater good,\u201d and even convinces Zoram to come with them. \u201cSurely the Lord hath commanded us to do this thing; and shall we not be diligent in keeping the commandments of the Lord? Therefore, if thou wilt go down into the wilderness to my father thou shalt have place with us.\u201d (1 Nephi 4:34). And Zoram goes.<\/p>\n

Again, I understand that many will find the \u201ctricked for your own good\u201d really distasteful, but Plato talked a lot about that idea<\/a>. Like I said in the video I linked to<\/a> in my last post, I see Plato as a major influence on Joseph Smith, and I\u2019ll post more about that. But I guess I could present my own experience as Zoram-like: I was happy to stick around after coming to believe the Book of Mormon was not historical. And I really like being in a faith with so much Platonic teachings (again, see the video I posted).<\/p>\n

More to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Again I make no pretenses to \u201cresolving\u201d this complicated topic and expect plenty of pushback, but, like I said in my last post, I see these conversations as important. It does appear to me that the evidence is contrary to the BoM being historical (I\u2019ll post about that more), and yet I see Mormon practice as highly valuable (though often frustrating!) I\u2019ve seen related conversations over the years on the Bloggernacle and people often point to the value of literature and even the parables of Jesus. And yet those examples aren\u2019t REALLY presented as historical the way Smith and the Book of Mormon present the Book of Mormon. I saw on Paul Dunn\u2019s Wikipedia page that Dunn pointed to Jesus\u2019s parables as defense of his fabrications. I think a lot would find that distasteful, as, again, Dunn presented his stories as real (and seemingly working for Dunn\u2019s own aggrandizement). The Book of Mormon is different than bragging about oneself, but it did found a religion that gave Smith a very prominent position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10406,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latter-day-saint-thought"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10406"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47710"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47716,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47710\/revisions\/47716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}