Rating:  Summary: The best book I've ever read Review: This book is amazing. Don't listen to anyone who says this book is true or not true. Read it and find out for yourself. Read Moroni 10: 3-5 for how Mormons say you can know if the book is true (read it, ponder it, pray and have faith that you will receive an answer). This goes along with James 1:5 and other Biblical passages that say that a person can know the truth and receive wisdom from the Holy Spirit if they have faith and ask God if something is true. It really does work.
Rating:  Summary: Good Book Review: You will just have to read it for yourself. Great book.
Rating:  Summary: A fun historical fantasy, but nothing more... Review: I understand that there are a great many people who put their faith in this book for religious purposes, so, I'd like to preface this review by saying that I am not trying to offend or persecute any sort of religion in any way, shape, or form. I am simply sharing the data that I, as well as a great many scholars, have gathered through reading this book. First, we must understand that the historicity of any historical document is dependant upon a corespondance to the archaeological record. Unfortunately, the Book of Mormon has no such corespondance. Upon further investigation, I discovered that the Smithsonian Institute of Washington D.C., one of the most highly regarded scientific and historical institutes in the world, actually speaks out against the historical claims of the Book of Mormon in several ways, one of which being that it claims they had steel (2 Nephi 5:15) in 570 B.C. before steel was even invented. Second, concerning the ancient peoples of the western hemisphere, there have been genetic and phenotypical tests done on the remains of the Native Americans. If the claims of the Book of Mormon are true, these tests should show that the remains have Semetic origin since they would be descendants from the Lamanite tribe that broke away from the Nephite tribe (both of which are Jewish "Semetic" tribes and came from the ancient Mesopotamian region). The results showed that the remains of the Native Americans were of basic Mongoloid origin from Eastern Asia, bearing little to no resemblance to the ancient Semites (Jews). Therefore, the people of the Book of Mormon either dissapeared into thin air some time before 1492 when Columbus sailed over here, or, more than likely, they just never existed. Third, 3 Nephi 13 is clearly a plagiarism of the King James Version of Matthew 6. The big problem lies in the fact that the book of Mormon claims that 3 Nephi was written in the year 34 A.D., before the book of Matthew was even written. Further, how were the ancient Nephites able to obtain the book of Matthew if it was written in the eastern hemisphere and never reached the western hemisphere until after 1492? In light of this, one must conclude that at least the book of 3 Nephi was written several hundred years later than what the Book of Mormon says, most likely by Joseph Smith himself. The list of problems with the Book of Mormon does not nearly stop there; it goes on and on. My advice to you is that, when you follow the advice of Moroni 10:3-5 and pray with a sincere heart to know if the words of the Book of Mormon are true, please do not leave it at that. If it is a true and reliable piece of history, it will be backed up by archaeology and the historical record. So, take action upon your prayer and look at the archaeological record along with the Book of Mormon. I am not an atheist, and I am telling you the plain truth right now: if you read the Book of Mormon and compare it to the archaeological record, your sincere prayer will be answered by the one true God, YHWH, and He will tell you that the Book of Mormon is no more than an intersting work of historical fiction. If you want a truly historical work to put your faith in that is backed up by the archaeological and scientific records, stick with the Holy Bible.
Rating:  Summary: Changed my Life Review: No truer book was ever published than this one. Mormom is simply the man who collaborated multiple books into one. Every single event mentioned in the Book of Mormon really did happen. The verses are very clear about who is to be worshipped- Jesus Christ. The message is simply this: Serve others as Christ has served you. We are all children of God, and we all chose to come down to earth to prove ourselves worthy to live in the Celestial Kingdom and hopefully make planets of our own one day. Life doesn't end when our body dies. Our spirit lives on. We continue to grow and learn. But what we do now determines where we end up after death. For eternity. So there's no turning back and saying "We'll I didn't really mean to do that. Do you think you could just ignore that one mistake?" But by then it's too late. That's why Christ came. Without the atonement, we wouldn't be able to repent. But we can. I can. You can. And we have to right now. I don't know how long I will be alive to keep repenting and trying to be better. And neither do you. I know He lives and the content of this extremely sacred book is completely true. My life has changed for the better. I have no doubt that this book will change your life. With a little faith and prayer, you will become a better person. It's only purpose is to draw you closer to your Heavenly Father so that you may find meaning in your life, make righteous decisions, and one day return home to Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father for eternity. I encourage you just to give it a look, and pust aside all those competitors trying to tell you what's true and what's not true. You should find out for yourself just like I have. I have never felt greater peace from another book. And we all could use a little more peace in our lives these days. You deserve to feel the comfort that I am able to feel every time I read this book. We all do. I would be completely lost with out this divinely inspired book. Reading this book is the most important thing I've ever done and will ever do on this earth. I know Jesus Christ loves everyone. He wants us to be happy. Someday Christ will come again and He wants you to be able live with Him and have eternal life. Until that day comes, I am preparing my self in every way possible and making sure I'm on the right side. I know for a fact who's side I am on. Do you?
Rating:  Summary: A bad drama Review: If I never see the words "great and abominable" again, it will be none too soon.
Rating:  Summary: Ninety Five Cents? Review: Well, you know what they say... "you get what you pay for".
Rating:  Summary: Great Practice Review: If you've never bought anything on amazon.com before, buying this book is a great place to practice your first purchase. You probably won't find any cheaper items on this site. But if you want to keep your "almost full" garbage can from overflowing, have the book sent to someone or somewhere else...it's not good reading material at all...
Rating:  Summary: Reading this book was an arduous task Review: Why suffer? Unless of course you want to make it interesting by doing a little research to discover just where J.Smith really took his inspiration. This claim: "Joseph Smith is not the author, per se, but rather the translator of the Book of Mormon." should read, instead: "Joseph Smith is not the author, per se, but rather a cunning, low-life plagiarizer." Those that are overly impressed that a young man such as Joseph Smith could write this "original" piece of work in such short order... well, don't be, because original it ain't. Also, do yourself a favor and question the myths regarding his lack of formal education. If you must read the BOM and you really want to "know of it's truth", start with world wide web... ask for truth not just on your knees, but in your computer chair and/or at your local library. Do what J. Smith did, branch out and read the metaphysical works of others before and during his time. You can find right here on Amazon.com a book entitled "Heaven and Hell and It's Wonders" written in 1784 by a man named Emanual Swedenborg. The similarities between what this man wrote and what was "revealed" to Jospeph are downright uncanny. Compare the BOM to the bible and discover discover similarities in cadence, as well as parallels between J's stories and bible stories. I would rate this book lower if I could, mainly because it misrepresents itself. Part of the joy of reading for me is in appreciating the creative brilliance and/or exhaustive research of an author that treasures integrity. The BOM and it's writer fall disgustingly short of these things.
Rating:  Summary: I was raised to love this book Review: I read it... over and over as I was told to do. I was bored beyond belief no matter how earnest my attemps at really connecting with the book might have been. I very much wanted to be one of the "special" that received a testimony to it's truth so that I could join the elite gang in the hereafter. I was never hooked, though. If there is one thing I despise, it's repetition and this book is loaded with it. I had to satisfy myself with just having the book... maybe if I held it long enough I wouldn't be so awful for not having been captivated by it's contents.
Rating:  Summary: The price of the book should tell you something... Review: The book is convoluted and weird, and 95 cents is a little much to pay for what you get. As many of the "believers" have pointed out already, you can get it for free. So why, oh why is it for sale here for a mere $0.95? That is a puzzle for even the most faithful mormon (as you can see by some of their comments here). Well, it's really not to do with the value of the book (as I said, $0.95 is a little much for the book but hey, you do wind up with some paper (I dunno, table coasters, handiwipes,,,use your imagination). Back to the "why just $.095?" question. Two answers... Reason one: Promotion. First rule of business (yes, the mormon church is a business....a HUGE business empire), advertise your wares anywhere and everywhere. Displaying the book on one of the most popular websites selling products is no accident. The web is where people come to look at things. The mormon CEO's don't really want or need to sell a book to anyone. Just look for the TV commercials...they're clamoring to give the book away for free. They just want you to read the book. They'd give it away free on the dot com sales sites but ya can't just give away things for free on sites that are designed to produce income. Ya gotta sell it. They really don't care about the $.095. It probably costs more to make a book than that anyway and trust me, they're not trying to recoup their losses with a mere 95 cent charge for the book. And they're not doing a fire sale because of overstocks. All they want to do is get as many people as possible to read the book. Eventually they strike gold and some poor person reads and believes and ends up giving them 10% of his income for the rest of his/her life. That produces the revenue that buys the "church" a lot more books and then some. Be it one person out of a thousand readers or one out of every ten thousand. I don't know what the profit margain is but I guarantee the mormon leaders and accountants do. Reason number two for the price tag: I actually learned this devious tactic as a 19 year old while I was a mormon missionary. We were required to peddle as many books as possible during our 16 waking hours of non-paid missionary work each day. Even way back then, they were doing the $.095 fire sale thing. But it had nothing to do with book revenue. We were actually told that the point of distributing the book to others for $0.95 had nothing to do with recouping printing costs. They were happy to just give the book away for free except for one thing. We were instructed that if you give something to someone for free, they won't value it. It will wind up in the trash can more often than not. So you tack on an optimum price that isn't so high that people won't buy it, but just high enough that they won't throw it away. So there you have it...two explanations to the puzzling riddle of why there's a $0.95 fire sale for a free book of mormon. So, back to the review. I wish I could say the book is original but it's not. Historians have uncovered evidence that the author got his subject material about the roots of the american indian from other sources (scientists have proven through DNA studies that modern day american-indians are not of jewish descent). And I wish I could say it was well written but unfortunately, it isn't despite all the revisions it has gone through. The really interesting thing is not the book, it's the people who believe it's real. The book is boring but harmless if you read it with a sane mind. And it provides interesting insights into the minds of the mormon faithful. The mormon faithful love to quote a passage in the book telling people to read the book and then ask God if it's true or not. You'll see a lot of that in their reviews (or "testimonies") here. Most of their converts do just that. They read the book and somewhere through the book they get a good feeling which over the passage of time, gets pumped up from a good feeling to a personal vision or direct revelation from God. The story gets bigger every time they tell it. This is the foundation of their conversion process. Why does it work so well? Think about it. Aren't most of us looking for some kind of indication that we are special? Wouldn't it be really cool if God talked to you personally? So here's how you can start your own religion: Write a "feel good" book. Make it sound like the bible as much as possible. Aw, what the heck, let's just pluck whole passages directly from the bible, nobody owns the rights to the bible anyway. Find someone who needs to feel special, give them the book (or sell it for $.095 on the internet), then tell them that if they read it and get a good feeling while reading it, that it is God talking to you and letting you know it's true. The reader thumbs through the "feel good" Biblish type book, they get an occasional warm fuzzy, and Voila! You just got your first convert. Now you get his/her 10%, print a few more books and throw the rest in the bank. Then you get your new convert to spend as much time as possible peddling the book to others. Now bake this process for 175 years and you've got a few million people under your belt and a lot of money and power. Re-write your history and your rules as times change and you can perpetuate your religion as long as you want. Conclusion: Don't buy the book for the read (unless you're really curious and want to understand the basis of a modern day cult). Just buy the book to support amazon.com. Amazon is a great company and you can get just about anything you want here. Including revelations from God....if that's what you're looking for....
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