Introduction to the list of claims and evidences of the Book of Mormon
Welcome to EvidencesOfMormon.org. This site is provided to give you an overview of what reasonable evidences there may be of the Book of Mormon. This site contains an index of scientific, historical and archeological claims made by the Book of Mormon, and compares them to available archeological and scientific findings.
My goal is to provide you with a neutral viewpoint on what possible evidences there may be of these claims so that you can come to your own conclusions instead of relying on the information presented by critics and apologists.
Why?
Well, it turns out that there are a lot of critics that are so adamant in their dislike of the Mormon faith that they will distort accurate data in order to get you to agree with what they believe. At the same time, there are also many apologists who are incredibly zealous of their faith that they will take any reasonable stretch that they can find to defend their beliefs. I am not ok with that. I want data, not opinions. Therefore I have set out to gather what credible data I could find using some specific guidelines.
Guidelines for research
It's good to have guidelines.
The research on the claims and evidence page is done using the following rules:
- I will not form my opinion based upon another apologist's or critic's opinion. I may research their resources; I may mention their viewpoint; but I will not be swayed by their opinion in my own research.
- Most critics believe that research done by the LDS church or its affiliated schools cannot be credible, even though they are the only group that may be looking for it. Therefore I have decided not to use any research from any LDS affiliated organization in my research either, unless it was done in collaboration with another research organization that was not affiliated with the Mormon Church. Not a single piece of evidence found in the evidence list uses a Mormon affiliated school or research organization as a reference.
- I will not use resources unless I can identify and get my eyes on them. Sometimes this may be just a cover page to a scientific article, but I will make sure that I can get to the resource and verify that it is valid before I use it within this site. If someone quotes a book, I will not use it as a reference unless I can get my hands on the book, or a copy of it, and I can verify it for myself. If it is a website, I will do my best to verify the author's credentials before using them as a source.
- Though I may share my viewpoint, I will attempt to remain neutral on any evidence that I find. I am not going to try and convince you that this is the way that it is. A mountain of evidence doesn't mean much in comparison to a belief, whether in favor or against it. All things can be dismissed as circumstantial. If you are attempting to determine truth in a religion, I am expecting you to follow Biblical council. If you are not actually looking, then no amount of evidence will make any difference.
- These guidelines apply to the articles of evidence listed on the claims list. It does not necessarily extend to the rest of the site. So this is fair warning that there are pages on this site that talk about what I believe and why I believe what I do.
Other projects
In addition to the list of claims and evidences of the Book of Mormon, this site also has a section called 'Why of what Mormons believe'. This is a project designed to accurately reflect not only what Mormons believe but also the logic behind Mormon beliefs. This section is well referenced to LDS sources to verify its accuracy. The goal of this section is not to convert or persuade someone to believe in these things. It is to dispel some of the inaccurate information that is spread about Mormon beliefs and to show the logic behind that belief. Eventually this area will also contain additional information.
This site is made to be easily quoted
This site has been made to be easily quoted. I am encouraging you to copy, quote, bookmark, reference and use this site to help dispel some of the rumors and false information about the Mormon faith that is out there. Most sections and articles have a quotable block at the top of them. I am also encouraging you to let as many people as you can know about this resource. Bookmark it, link it, and spread it around. The more that people know about it, the faster they can respond to questions, copy and paste information into online conversations, and help to clear up some of those blatant falsehoods.
Here are the conditions and guidelines for quoting this site
Link to this site
 | If you have a website or a blog and you want to link to EvidencesOfMormon.org, there are several easy to use templates that you can use.
The more often that you link to this site the higher up this site appears in search results, and the more often people will get correct information about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. |
Easy to copy short lists
You can also use the "short lists" as the need arises. The short lists are condensed versions of what you find in the list of claims and evidences. They are useful when answering a question like, "What evidences are there of the Book of Mormon?" or "Is there any evidence to help support the Book of Mormon?"
Go to the short lists
About the claims and evidence list
The list of claims and evidences is categorized and color coded. You should make sure you are familiar with how things are rated, and what the different colors mean.
The legend can be found here
When you see an evidence tile below linked to another tile, it means that one page addresses both those tiles, and clicking either link will take you to the same page.
This site is not even to its beta version yet. There are claims made by the Book of Mormon that have not yet been added and still need to be researched. There are some basic things that still need to be referenced (I covered anything that I considered "uncommon knowledge", or hard to find). Eventually you will also be able to contact me through the site, but that will not be available until later.