Thursday, November 17, 2005
In several of my recent posts, references to interesting evidences in favor of Book of Mormon plausibility often elicit questions about horses, among other things. The mention of horses in the Book of Mormon is one of the more challenging issues for the Book of Mormon since scientists generally believe that horses in the Americas were extinct by Book of Mormon times. LDS folks have suggested that pockets of horses as well as mastodons could have been survived into Book of Mormon times, but there is little evidence for this. And I mean that: there may be a little evidence for that, but it's not a solid case. However, it's important to consider what the evidence actually is (yes, there are reports of actual non-fossilized horse remains apparently from pre-Columbian times in Mesoamerica and elsewhere, opening the possibility that actual horses were present during Olmec or early Mayan times). We should also consider the possibility that a different species than the modern horse may have been meant. Just as Europeans called the hippo a "river horse" when they saw it, it's possible that Nephites used a Hebrew term for horse to describe a native species that could run and jump. Before you get into mocking mode, please read the interesting and well documented discussion on these issues in a book review by Daniel Peterson and Matthew Roper on Stan Larson's Quest for the Gold Plates. Search for the second occurrence of the word "horse" in that article and begin reading there until the header "Metals." Actually, please read the whole article - a very helpful one in dealing with several objections to the Book of Mormon.
Posted by Jeff Lindsay at 7:04 AM