I think this misses the point in reference to the Mormons. It has not a thing to do with any Mormon scripts whether "Reformed Egyptian" [en.wikipedia.org] or the Deseret alphabet. [en.wikipedia.org] These would not be used to "fake" an inscription because they would be a dead giveaway. Ancient inscriptions were being discovered in the Near East from the mid 1800's and early 1900's which would have been known to an educated Mormon or Mormon fundamentalist (polygamist). We have of course discussed the multiple Samaritan Decalogue inscriptions published during this time which could have been used to construct the language of the Los Lunas Inscription. There is also the Moabite Stone discovered in 1868 in Jordon and written in the "Moabite language in the old Phoenician alphabet". [en.wikipedia.org] Though not a Decalogue it very well could have captured the imagination of certain Mormons of the era as the stone has the same name as the city of Moab in South eastern Utah.

Here is an article from the Maxwell Institute BYU which may help explain why some Mormons zealots may have been eager to manufacture proof that the Hebrews were indeed in America before Columbus.

I have excerpted two paragraphs.

"Let us consider the anti-Mormon position first. If Joseph Smith made the book up, then its peoples did not exist, its events did not happen, and there should be no trace of them anywhere. If, after a reasonable period of diligent searching, material evidence is not found, then the Book of Mormon would be shown to be imaginary, and by implication Joseph Smith would be exposed as a liar and the church he founded unveiled as a hoax.

The Latter-day Saint position is the near opposite. Confirmation of historic details of the Book of Mormon would substantiate Joseph Smith's account of how it came to be and thus validate his seership and the divine origin of both the book and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This brings us to the astonishing possibility of being able to test Joseph Smith's claims through science, a possibility that critics have long tried to exploit. The Book of Mormon is the keystone of Mormonism; destroy this stone and all that it supports will come crashing down. Given the stakes involved, the very possibility of testing the book's historicity and authenticity becomes a moral obligation to do so."
[maxwellinstitute.byu.edu]



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2011 05:13PM by Greg Reeder.