Page 51 - Apologetics Student Textbook (3 Credits)

(Ether 3:14). In the category of silly, a man struggles to catch his breath after having his head cut off
(Ether 15:31).

The Book of Mormon teaches that the disobedience of Adam and Eve in eating the forbidden fruit was
necessary so that they could have children and bring joy to mankind (2 Nephi 2:23-25). In contrast, the
Bible specifically declares that Adam’s transgression was a sinful act of rebellion that unleashed the
power of sin and death in the human heart and throughout God’s perfect world (Genesis 3:16-19;
Romans 5:12; 8:20-21).

The Book of Mormon teaches that black skin is a sign of God’s curse, so that white-skinned people are
considered morally and spiritually superior to black skinned people (2 Nephi 5:21). In contrast, the Bible
teaches that God "made of one blood all nations of men" (Acts 17:26, KJV), that in Christ distinctions of
ethnicity, gender and social class are erased (Galatians 3:28), and that God condemns favoritism (James
2:1).

Furthermore, while archeology is a powerful testimony to the accuracy of the Bible the same cannot be
said for the Book of Mormon. Not only is there no archeological evidence for a language such as
“reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics,” there is no archeological support for lands such as the “land of
Moron” (Ether 7:6). Nor is there any archeological evidence to buttress the notion that the Jaredites,
Nephites, and Lamanites migrated from Israel to the Americas. On the contrary, both archeology and
anthropology demonstrate conclusively that the people and places chronicled in the Book of
Mormon are little more than the product of a fertile imagination.

Perhaps the greatest crack in the credibility of the Book of Mormon is that whole sections were derived
directly from the King James Version of the Bible—this despite the fact that according to Mormon
chronology, the Book of Mormon predates the King James Version by more than a thousand years. Little
wonder that Mormons accept the Book of Mormon based on a “burning in the bosom” rather than on
history and evidence. The contradictions between the Book of Mormon and the Bible constitute a most
serious obstacle to accepting the Book of Mormon as Latter-day scripture that is supplemental to the
Bible (http://mit.irr.org/contradictions-between-book-of-mormon-and-bible).

In looking at the Bible and comparing it to other religious books, if God is the author of them all, then
God is not honest with those who read them. The most fundamental law of all thought is the Law of
Non-Contradiction. It states that something cannot both be true and false at the same time in the same
sense.

If a book states a truth, then declares that truth to be false, then the book is not reliable, and God is not
its author for God is totally consistent in everything He declares.

The Law of Noncontradiction

Aristotle’s first philosophy or metaphysics states that without the principle or law of non-contradiction
we could not know that anything is true or can be known. In a simple illustration, what he stated is that
if A equals B, and that is true, then you cannot say that A does not equal B and hold that true at the
same time. If one statement is true, then the other must be false because it would be a contradiction of
logic for both to be true. A dog is a dog and cannot be a cat at the same time.

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