- Joined
- Sep 9, 2011
- Messages
- 13,745
- Reaction score
- 8,546
- Location
- North 38°28′ West 121°26′
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Very Conservative
Assuming that the Abrahamic god exists as a given, what gives you confidence that Mormonism is the accurately recorded version? Of the four holy texts, the Torah, the Bible, the Quran and the book of Mormon, what criteria can you use to assess their individual validity? If you think Islam has been distorted from the original words of a true prophet, how can you be sure the Mormonism hasn't suffered the same fate?
Mohammed was illiterate, as were his contemporary followers. For many generations, his words were simply passed around by word of mouth, which is a notoriously unreliable way to preserve knowledge. This continued until someone was finally able to write it all down. There's really not much reason to assume that what was written down was a very good account of what Mohammed said in the first place.
The records of the prophets in the Old Testament/Torah have been copied and recopied, translated from language to language, edited, compiled, and otherwise manipulated by mortal men. The New Testament also, to a somewhat lesser degree. More reliable than the word-of-mouth method of Mohammed's teachings, but still prone to error.
With the modern prophets of Mormonism, we have direct accounts of their teachings, written by their own hand, or recorded using more modern technology. Very little opportunity is there for their teachings to have been lost or distorted. I don't have time to get into it right now, but the manner in which the Book of Mormon was preserved and brought forth also gives it much less opportunity to have had its contents lost or distorted.