If I could ask them one question about
the Church’s Book of Mormon, Come Follow Me, Lesson 3
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For Jan. 13-19, 2020
1 Ne 8-10
If I wanted to encourage thought and try to understand devout believers better, I might ask:
“Why do you think Lehi’s vision of the tree of life is so similar to the vision Joseph Smith Sr. had apparently 19 years prior to the Book of Mormon publishing”? (This LDS Living Article)
Things to consider:
- Principle of parsimony and Occam’s razor: TL;DR - the least complex hypothesis with the fewest assumptions required is the most reasonable conclusion. Applied to Lehi’s vision, if one does not presume the Book of Mormon is what it claims, what would be a rational conclusion about the source for Lehi’s dream?
- Burden of proof: Book of Mormon claims of veracity are extraordinary (to say the least). Those who doubt Book of Mormon claims do not have a burden of proof to prove it is false. Merely suggesting more plausible conclusions is enough to satisfy the burden of the doubter, assuming they even care and want to be rational about it.
- Mormon apologist Terryl Givens admits “Smith’s prophetic vocation included inspired borrowings” (Epilogue to book, “Standing Apart”).
- BYU researchers also admit to such borrowing in the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible: “The number of direct parallels between Smith’s translation and Adam Clarke’s biblical commentary are simply too numerous and explicit to posit happenstance or coincidental overlap. The parallels between the two texts number into the hundreds” (“A Recently Discovered Source”).
Tangent:
Anybody try the New Tree of Life Augmented Reality App and have some feedback to pass on?
If you could ask believers questions about this week’s Come Follow Me lesson, what would you ask?
Have fun studying!
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If I could ask them one question, Lesson 3
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