This is an archived copy of a post written by Conflict Of Justice (conflictofjustice.com). Used with permission: Conflict Of Justice may not agree with any alterations made.
“Archaeology: There is absolutely no archaeological evidence to directly support the Book of Mormon or the Nephites/Lamanites who numbered in the millions.”
(CES Letter)
Plentiful Evidence
Many scientific volumes have been written about evidence for the Book of Mormon civilizations. It is a thriving field of study, with hundreds of pieces of evidence that correlate the Book of Mormon with archaeology. Why don’t we hear about it? Probably because it undercuts every religious and non-religious narrative in existence except Mormonism?
Friar Diego de Landa noticed baptism rituals in the Americas in the early 16th century. He and other early Spanish explorers wrote accounts which Joseph Smith did not have access to and could not read, but which correlate the Book of Mormon in striking detail. Mariano Veytia said the natives told of great natural catastrophes during the same year as the death of Jesus Christ. Bernardino de Sahagu told of native legends that they had originated from ships across the sea.
Anti-Mormons argue that it is just coincidence. Mayans practiced a purifying ritual with water like the Nephites, but that’s just coincidence. The legends of origins across the ocean are just coincidence. That’s the problem. Every time we show evidence they call it coincidence. Really, there is all kinds of evidence that is common knowledge to us today but which Joseph Smith had never heard about in the 1800’s: sacred towers, cement buildings, human sacrifice, legends of a white sky god, etc. Anti-Mormons discount the long list of correlations between Native Americans and Book of Mormon peoples, because archaeologists have not discovered absolute concrete evidence.
What is concrete evidence? Archaelogists have even found physical objects with names like ‘Nahom’ and ‘Sariah’, which anti-Mormons said Joseph Smith made up. Oh, those are just a very similar names that sound a lot like ‘Nahom’ and ‘Sariah’… Nothing will do, short of a set of metal plates that read: “Hello, my name is Nephi, I’m a Mormon, and I came from Jerusalem.” Well, that is never going to happen because the Nephites were wiped out long before Columbus sailed to America. It was a relatively tiny tribe of Natives (not in the millions), and there is no reason why any unique smoking-gun piece of evidence should remain after their extinction.
Central America Is Most Likely Setting
“This is one of the reasons why unofficial apologists are coming up with the Limited Geography Model (it happened in Central or South America).”
(CES Letter)
Here, CES Letter implicitly admits evidence exists. This about it. Why would they point out LDS archaeologists say it took place in Central America if there isn’t valid evidence for this? And there is valid evidence, lots of it. Well in fact, Mayan lands are a very likely setting with lots of correlating evidence, though evidence is to be found among United States tribes as well. Many models have been theorized–but again, there is no smoking-gun piece of evidence. I would say the strongest evidence is for Central America, or some kind of bridge that includes Central America and the Midwest.
Early Mormons had all kinds of theories about the Book of Mormon setting, all over the place. But the only quote from Joseph Smith about it is in favor of Central America. In response to the book Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, Joseph Smith wrote: “I received your kind present by the hand of Er Woodruff & feel myself under many obligations for this mark of your esteem & friendship which to me is the more interesting as it unfolds & developes many things that are of great importance to this generation & corresponds with & supports the testimony of the Book of Mormon; I have read the volumes with the greatest interest & pleasure & must say that of all histories that have been written pertaining to the antiquities of this country it is the most correct luminous & comprihensive.” (Times and Seasons 3 no. 9)
Relics Don’t Build Faith
Why does there need to be smoking-gun evidence? We are not a church that deals with relics, like pieces of Noah’s ark or the cup of Jesus Christ. CES Letter sets the narrative that we need to have some kind of physical objects, like the Catholic crusaders who scoured the Holy Land for objects from the bible. Well, the Mormon church does not do this, because any archaeological finding could be called a fraud, or dismissed as a coincidence, and real faith is not built on this kind of physical pursuit.
Superstition is spiritual belief built on a physical premise. Why is there lightning in the sky? Must be a manifestation of the gods! I think a better path toward truth is physical conclusions based on physical evidence and spiritual conclusions based on spiritual evidence.
Does CES Letter believe in human evolution? Well, plenty of bones have been found to support this scientific model but there is no smoking gun; there are missing pieces of the puzzle, and it has not been reproduced in a laboratory or demonstrated in real life. It is still just a scientific model for what could have happened. The same goes for Book of Mormon archaeology. So many physical pieces of the puzzle have been found, but there are always going to be missing pieces, because we are talking about an ancient civilization that got wiped out. Anti-Mormons can always fall back on the missing puzzle pieces and claim “no archaeological evidence exists.”
CES Letter Logical Fallacies
| Falsehood | 112 Archaeological Evidences For The Book Of Mormon CES Letter uses the present tense “apologists are coming up with the Limited Geography Model”, as if it is currently being developed and hasn’t been around for over a century, which it has. |
| Strawman Argument | CES Letter is incorrect that the Nephites and Lamanites “numbered in the millions.” The Book of Mormon numbered them many fewer. |
| Ad Hominem Attack | CES Letter discounts this vast field of study by calling scholars and investigators mere “apologists.” |
| Tu Quoque | CES Letter discounts theories about the Book of Mormon civilization as “models,” but that is what every scientific theory, law, or conclusion is: a model. The fact that a valid model exists means that there must be evidence for it. |
| Non Sequitur | CES Letter claims that the scientific Limited Geography Model is being theorized because no evidence exists for the ‘real’ claim. Does that make sense? |
| Argument From Ignorance | Just because physical evidence for distant history isn’t in a museum doesn’t mean it didn’t actually happen. |
| Kafkatrapping | The fact that Mormon scholars come up with multiple models for Book of Mormon geography implies guilt, that it is all made up. How is the existence of ‘alternative theories’ evidence of falsehood? |
Innuendo Rather Than Logic – In the previous argument, CES Letter cherry-picked a list of 13 animals or technologies which they falsely claimed did not really exist in the Americas and which the Book of Mormon claimed did. Now, CES Letter claims no evidence exists. So we went from 13 things that haven’t been found to nothing has been found! Suddenly, everything in the Book of Mormon conflicts with what science says.
This is how CES Letter works. They give a few bits of incorrect leading evidence and we connect the dots in our mind. We are more likely to believe something if we have pieced together the logic on our own. CES Letter can then push it to a sweeping generalization. If there were any evidence for the Book of Mormon, why haven’t horses been found in pre-Columbian America? People are much more likely to believe this incredibly insensible string of logic because hey connected the dots out on their own, subconsciously. They are also more likely to believe the evidences for that deduction, which in this case are falsehoods.
Contradiction Strategy – CES Letter uses fake science–or in this case a ridiculous generalization–to point out an inconsistency regarding LDS belief, and then presents science as the superior alternative source for truth. CES Letter uses the contradiction strategy by narrowing a physical issue down to a binary context: either there is concrete evidence for the Nephites or they never existed. No other choices. They then appeal to “science” and deconstruct the ‘outdated’ Mormon belief.
Anti-Mormons typically present evidence for their binary context as self-evident and irrefutable, with no need for further explanation, and then they rapidly move on to other attacks that bolster the constrained definition. The purpose is not really to discuss Nephite evidences, which would actually be an interesting discussion, but to shift the narrative from faith to binary science, and quickly move on to more effective attacks to strengthen this narrative.
Big Lie Tactic – The outrageous claim that “absolutely no archaeological evidence” exists is backed up by a string of illogical arguments and the logical fallacy that Mormons created the Limited Geography Model because they have no valid evidence. Their restricted scope of evidence does not tolerate reasonable investigation.
They can get away with this incredible claim because it is the consensus among so many people that Nephites never existed, and because it takes so long to explain the evidence. It is like claiming that the Library of Alexandria never really existed because we have no physical evidence today, apart from some alleged ancient tales. An archaeologist can give plenty of convincing evidence, but it would take hours. By providing zero evidence to support their own claim, CES Letter makes it appear self-evident, like the Book of Mormon must be false because it takes so long to explain it.
CES Letter tells this Big Lie early on, and each following argument that relies on the Big Lie further bolsters the illogical claim, as if they are further evidence for it.
Creating Superstition – CES Letter reinforces their narrative that Mormons need science to validate every single detail of their faith. They frame the Book of Mormon as a “model” that has no evidence for it–an easy trick for them to play when it comes to ancient history as they discount every piece of evidence as coincidence, forged, or unfounded.
This narrative led the crusaders to seek out physical objects from the holy land to validate the bible, pieces of the cross or the cup of Jesus Christ. It always leads to superstition, because no amount of science can prove without reasonable doubt that a historical object is what it purports to be. The Shroud of Turin? If a book of metal plates titled “Nephi’s Journal” were discovered in Mexico City today, do you think CES Letter would change their minds? No amount of scientific testing would convince them. Even if it couldn’t be denied as legitimate, they would pass it off as coincidence.
It would actually be detrimental to Mormonism if metal plates of Nephi’s journal were found, because it would shift our narrative away from matters of faith toward unspiritual confirmation of a historical event from physical evidence. And that’s what CES Letter is trying to do. The shift away from faith serves Satan’s intentions because a person who relies on superstition is not practicing personal agency, but being total reliant on others for his beliefs and actions.
Joseph Smith explained: “Mormonism is truth; and every man who embraces it feels himself at liberty to embrace every truth: consequently the shackles of superstition, bigotry, ignorance, and priestcraft, fall at once from his neck; and his eyes are opened to see the truth, and truth greatly prevails over priestcraft. “…Mormonism is truth, in other words the doctrine of the Latter-day Saints, is truth. … The first and fundamental principle of our holy religion is, that we believe that we have a right to embrace all, and every item of truth, without limitation or without being circumscribed or prohibited by the creeds or superstitious notions of men, or by the dominations of one another, when that truth is clearly demonstrated to our minds, and we have the highest degree of evidence of the same.” (Teachings of Joseph Smith) Complete answers to CES Letter questions about Mormons: