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"[Don't you know that there are] many who have invented civilizations on the pages of books?

by Jeff Lindsay

Are there other examples of fraudulent or fictional works about an ancient time or era which become stronger and more plausible as we learn more about the era they treat? There is so much in the Book of Mormon that was laughable in 1830 that is taken seriously today: writing records on metal plates (utterly ridiculous then, well documented now), construction with cement, transoceanic voyages, ancient knowledge of steel, barley in the New World, kingship rites, Lehi's discovery of "Bountiful" on the shores of the Arabian peninsula, climate and geography in central America, etc., etc. A few sci-fi stories get a stray detail about the future right sometimes, but nothing like the Book of Mormon does with the past. The more we learn, the stronger it becomes - (although there have been surprises for the LDS community as well, challenging some popular misinterpretations of the Book). Lord of the Rings - produced by a Ph.D. over a lifetime - doesn't even come close in that sense to what Joseph Smith translated in 65 days, without rewriting. And is there anyplace on earth that could offer a plausible setting for the geography referred to in Lord of the Rings? :) Book of Mormon succeeds on that point!

(See The Book of Mormon home page; Response to Criticism home page; Accusatory Questions home page)