Hi Jeanie

One point, though, that I can come up with off the top of my head is that there WERE people's who were here around the time of the Tower of Babel that we have record of because the Book of Mormon people actually met them and were given their records. There were people here, (and evidence that even Vikings had visited) but this particular family who pretty much became the Lamanites (Native Americans and their branches) are the ones who came over around 600 BC. (The remnants of the Nephites, for the most part at least, were killed off).
If the book of Mormon is consistent with the idea that there were well established cultures in America long before 600BCE then it is in accord with the facts as revealed by scientific research over there. There is good reason to believe that native American culture predates 600BCE by many thousands of years. This is established by the consistent nature of their artefacts. If the Lamanites arrived around 600BCE then the evidence strongly suggest that they were not the ancestors of the current Native Americans who have a continuous and consistent culture that dates back far longer than that.

The other point is that they carried these plates around...sometimes literally running from those pursuing them. It wasn't about the amount of gold but the impracticality of carrying around even larger plates than what they already were. They held up, though! (If you wonder about the material.....) But they had plenty of gold down there didn't they~! : )
LOL yes carrying them around while running away from someone would be difficult wouldn’t it. Maybe parchment or even plastic would have been better, gold was far from the best medium for recording words on available at the time, it was certainly impractical if you had to carry it around by hand and if god was supplying the materials anything should have been possible. As I say it strikes me as implausible.

Not sure if the buildings are true pyramids actually, but definitely that style. Lots of things are egyptian style in their culture......
The south American pyramids were indeed pyramids though it’s pretty clear that they did not get their ideas from the Egyptians, except for the gross shape, which was a physical necessity given their level of technology, they were very different in use, design and structure to the Egyptian examples.

My only other thought off the top of my head is that its kind of hard to say a particular family didn't speak a certain language or that they weren't bilingual. It was a family...... It just started out as one family. (With one other man and his daughters). I'm not even sure how it worked - if they spoke two languages or wrote in one and spoke more in the other. The point of it being reformed, I THINK, had to do with the language being altered DUE TO THEIR MANNER OF SPEAKING like it says in the scripture I sent before.... I have to see what I can find on that, though. (And what I'd said about the shorthand issue). We're coming from two different directions here. I already believe it so am trying to back it up when these things (some of them) aren't something that have bothered me before. You question every fine detail of everything.... Nothing wrong with that, but to be fair, you may have to put some things aside and just listen to the spirit. That takes practice and experience I suppose...... (And faith even the size of a mustard seed or even the desire to believe....).
Yes we do come at this from very different angles, I try to look impassionately at the evidence without faith and just see where it leads. I am presented with so many contradictory religious claims that I don’t see a choice to this approach if I wish to have any chance to find the truth. I used to pray and listen to the spirit but they speak really really really quietly in my experience. Maybe I needed a hearing aid.

And yes this sort of examination does get nit picky but then that should not be a challenge to a true word of god. A perfect being should be able to inspire a perfect book.

I never said that they could not have spoken Reformed Egyptian only that the physical evidence suggests that it is very unlikely. At that time there is no record of any Israelites knowing any Egyptian. Of course some might have, it’s a big world, but we have no evidence to support that notion. I guess that’s were we differ, I don’t accept the book of Mormon as a source of good historical evidence. It blew it for me when it said so many physically improbable things. So I look for other sources to support what it says now and I don’t find them. Maybe they did know Reformed Egyptian (being able to write it was by far less common than being able to speak it yet we have no evidence of either among the Israelites of 600BCE. So maybe they did but on the balance of probability we’d have to say that it is very unlikely.

Maybe the modern Native Americans arrived in America around 600BCE but again we are faced with an evidence conflict. Your book says it is so but the physical evidence shows a continuous culture existed here from long before that and it continued uninterrupted until far more modern times with the well known invasion of America from various peoples. Maybe it did happen, maybe they assimilated invisibly into the existing society and replaced all of the people who were already here but there’s no reason to believe so outside the book of Mormon.

Another line of evidence that we should expect to find if this story were true is genetic, such a small starter population would produce a pronounced genetic bottleneck which could be detected by genetic testing. It has not been and in fact the evidence supports the idea that Native Americans have had a long standing and diverse culture in the US for well over 10000 years. Unlike the earlier evidence this piece is harder to explain, it’s not just that we are missing some evidence that would confirm the story we have very specific evidence that no genetic bottle neck such as Joseph Smith described has occurred to the US Native Americans for a far longer time that the book of Mormon allows.

It may sound nit picky but the truth or otherwise of a text is often found in the details.

All the best Jeanie. Good luck with the back and the neck and don’t rush to answer, wait till you feel up to it. I’ll be here.

Russell