DIAMONDS
You
will find that you can use logic to make it conflict with just about
anything.that you choose. The truly important things in our lives, health,
happiness, feelings of joy or love or protectiveness for parents spouse or
children, hopes, fears, enjoyment of activities, feelings etc cannot always be
adequately explained or described in terms of logic alone If we are honest with ourselves, we realise
that logic is often used to prove or support what we already feel to be true. On
the other hand, when logic and reason dare to contradict our cherished
assumptions, our response can often be ludicrously illogical and irrational.
“A young man once long ago claimed he had found a large diamond in his field as he was ploughing. He put the stone on display to the public free of charge, and everyone took sides. A psychologist showed, by citing some famous case studies, that the young man was suffering from a well-known form of delusion. An historian showed that other men had also claimed to have found diamonds in fields and had been deceived. A geologist proved that there were no diamonds in the area but only quartz: The young man had been fooled by a quartz. When asked to inspect the stone itself, the geologist declined with a weary, tolerant smile, and a kindly shake of the head. An English professor showed that the young man in describing his stone used the very same language that others had used in describing uncut diamonds: He was, therefore, simply speaking the common language of his time. A sociologist showed that only three out of 177 florists’ assistants in four major cities believed the stone was genuine. A clergyman wrote a book to show that it was not the young man but someone else who had found the stone.
Finally an indigent jeweller pointed out that since the stone was still available for examination the answer to the question of whether it was a diamond or not had absolutely nothing to do with who found it, or whether the finder was honest or sane, or who believed him, or whether he would know a diamond from a brick, or whether diamonds had ever been found in fields, or whether people had ever been fooled by quartz or glass, but was to be answered simply and solely by putting the stone to certain well-known tests for diamonds. Experts on diamonds were called in. Some of them declared it genuine. The others made nervous jokes about it and declared that they could not very well jeopardize their dignity and reputations by appearing to take the thing too seriously. To hide the bad impression thus made, someone came out with the theory that the stone was really a synthetic diamond, very skilfully made, but a fake just the same. The objection to this is that the production of a good synthetic diamond, for the farm boy, would have been an even more remarkable feat than the finding of a real one.” - Hugh Nibley
In 1830 an obscure, practically destitute and illiterate farm boy living on the frontiers of civilization claimed to have translated an ancient record he found engraved on metal plates. Although the metal plates are no longer available, the boy’s translation of the plates is still available for examination. If (as many suppose) it is a hoax, it should be a very trivial quick and easy matter for anyone of moderate intelligence to expose it as a fraud.
The record translated by Joseph Smith is called The Book of Mormon. It runs to some 500 pages of text. It covers a period from about 600 BC to 400 AD and is a record of a people that migrated from the middle east to the Americas. It confirms the message of the Old and New Testaments..
Although
historical events can afterwards become subject to “spin”, facts are not so
easily dismissed and can be annoyingly awkward and stubborn things.
Here are 5 just awkward facts – there are hundreds more.
1. The boy Joseph was especially derided for suggesting that the ancient record had been written on metal plates, because at that time no such records had ever been discovered. Ancient records on metal plates predating 600 BC are now commonplace and can be viewed at many museums.
2. The first few sentences of the book contain an ancient literary device in the form of a colophon. A typical example from the ancient world might read something like “My name is John. I witnessed the events I now record, and I make this record with my own hand.”
3. The book includes a perfect example of an obscure form of desert Arab poetry called a qasida. Even today this form of poetry is not widely known among western scholars.
4. The book contains many examples of chiasmus, a literary style that is now recognized to exist throughout the Bible and other ancient Hebrew documents. It is doubtful that the very existence of chiasmus as a literary structure was known to anyone in 1830 when the book was published..
5. The book quotes several passages from Isaiah that “just happen” to agree precisely with the most recently discovered ancient texts of Isaiah.
Joseph Smith therefore was either an honest man or, he just happened to “get lucky” with his fantasy translation by including so many things that would and could not be verified until nearly 200 years later.
“The Book of Mormon is tough. It is like a football. You can kick it about as much as you like and it will wear you out long before you can even make a dent in it.” - Hugh Nibley
For further information open the link below and click on the tab Videos(1) and then play the video