Fair Dinkum

It was a joke Robert.

Huh? Oh brother, Relax, someone takes me way too seriously. I was #1 making a joke and #2 using humor to expose the ridiculousness of Bro. Smith's assertion. Of course there is a Hill Cumorah in upstate New York and everyone except Robert knows that.

And this dear people is why the Hill Cumorah Pageant was cancelled. There was no actual known "Hill Cumorah" to hold the pageant at .

An interesting article on this subject: https://www.dialoguejournal.com/themencode-pdf-viewer/?file=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V46N03_412b.pdf and yes both Meroni and Comore can be seen in 18th century Pre-Book of Mormon Publication date map's

But Smith certainly knew of the hill and did in fact name it the Hill Cumorah when recounting his story of the famed white warrior Lamanite Zelph "He was a warrior and chieftain under the great prophet Onandagus, who was known from the Hill Cumorah or eastern sea to the Rocky Mountains." - Joseph Smith (As quote by Wilford Woodriff)

Then you'll be shocked to learn, as I was, that there is not one or two but actually three Cumorah's. Now renamed Comoros, whose capitol city is named...wait for it...Moroni, coincidence? https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Moroni_(Comoros)

Coincidence? I just watched Citizen Kane Last night. But I'm only guessing that this Rosebud is not a sleigh.

I just finished listening to the MS multi hour long interview series between John Dehlin and Jim Bennett, author of a faithful response to A Letter to a CES Directer. I found the series very refreshing and an example of how communication could take place between a believer and non. The interview represented a template for how all of us could model communication with the opposite of wherever we may personally fall on the belief spectrum. The tone between the two men was reverential and courteous. On one occasion, Dehlin did mention Kate Kelly in very positive terms, so now having read

I’ll be brief and offer one example. I don’t accept the church’s explanation in its essays for lack of DNA in native Americans. If BoM people existed their descendants would exhibit DNA

G'day. Where in Oz you from mate?

I have read Livy, very interesting history of Rome but it's been about 30 years ago and I'm not attempting to convince anyone one way or the other regarding the BoM...I was asked what were some of the seeds of my own doubts and i merely shared one of the causes.

A most excellent article.

Sorry for the delay in my response, I've been away and to be honest haven't given much thought to Mormonism. I'm sure my reasons for loss of belief in a literal BoM would be found in most of the reasons most would give, but I'll share one that I've yet to hear anyone offer. The one denominational, black and white character of the principle protagonists in the book. As an avid reader of historical books, I've never read a book of history with such thin characters. In other words there is no depth to these characters. They feel, at least to me, plastic and fictional. That my opinion. All o

This is plausible...not too much head scratching for it to have happened this way

Actually the BoM does say that in1 Nephi 1:4 (my father, Lehi, having dwelt at Jerusalem in all his days), so the book doesn't give any clues of any other residences. Another question is by the 1st year of the reign of Zedekiah, Jerusalem had already been through one Babylonian siege 8 years earlier...what exactly was Lehi warning the people of and had they already gone through an earlier siege and suffered the consequences of that siege why would they be so resistive of Lehi's warning? Surely the citizens of Jerusalem, by that time, would have known that such a warning was possible woul