Quote:
Originally Posted by Mormon Red Death
I guess it would depend on how they or you found out the plates were never there
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Here are a few simple points.
Regarding the Pearl of Great Price:
1) We have the document from which the Pearl of Great Price was translated.
2) The document from which the Pearl of Great Price was translated is a funerary scroll.
Therefore, we know that Joseph Smith's translation of the scrolls was not literal. This does not exclude the possibility that the Pearl of Great Price is an inspired text.
Regarding the Book of Mormon:
1) We don't have the Golden Plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, but there were 11 witnesses who claim to have seen the plates.
2) The Book of Mormon mentions all kinds of things that are literal impossibilities. (e.g. horses and elephants in the Americas, etc.)
So, we have the word of 11 men who saw some plates. However, we can't exclude the possibility that these people saw the plates in a vision, nor can we exclude the possibility that plates were generated and then shown to these witnesses.
We have the words of the Book of Mormon, which are tremendously inspiring to me personally (and I believe the book to be inspired by God). Unfortunately, the Book of Mormon makes certain claims which are historically impossible. Therefore, what is the likelihood that the Book of Mormon was a literal translation from Golden Plates which we do not have, given what we know about the translation of the Pearl of Great Price?