Why "Coincidences" and not Evidences?

From the moment that cultural, political, social and religious elements began to be found in the ancient cultures of America that might have some similarity to the Book of Mormon, there has been talk of "EVIDENCE" and little by little over the years words like connections, parallels, similarities and other words have been used to describe things within the Book of Mormon that could be taken as scientific evidence of the veracity of the Book of Mormon.

However, to the detractors of the Book of Mormon the word evidence is like acid in their ears so they go to impressive lengths to prove that such evidences are not evidences but misinterpretations, forgeries and at best just "COINCIDENCES" found by pseudo archeologists or church scientists. In fact, I have seen and heard strong comments disqualifying the academic degrees obtained by these members as if the fact that their academic degrees obtained by BYU were of a lower quality forgetting that in the United States BYU is considered a prestigious university with a history of great scholars in recent years, not to mention that most of these scholars also have postgraduate degrees from other universities in the United States that have no connection with the Church, some of them have even written in archaeological publications in Mexico in conjunction with archaeologists supported by the UNAM and INAH.

And yet such attacks were expected. Haven't some of the most important or incredible discoveries in history been brought to light by people who were mocked or ridiculed because of their physical condition, education or simply because they defied all knowledge to that extent?

For example, Galileo Galilei who claimed to have evidence that it was the earth that moved around the sun and not the other way around, and who for the fact that he challenged all knowledge obtained up to those days was harshly criticized just for mentioning it.

Or for example Colon who claimed that the earth was round when all other scholars said it was flat?

Or a more modern example was that of the self-taught Indian mathematician Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan who, with minimal academic education in pure mathematics, made extraordinary contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, series and continued fractions but who during the development of his most incredible discoveries at Cambridge University suffered bullying and little acceptance among his contemporaries and it was not until after his death that many of his studies were accepted.

That is, without using many more examples, it is remarkable to see how there is a great resistance to new things once a generalized truth has been established by most people and when something appears that challenges that truth so deeply rooted in the mind of the general collective, it provokes defending that truth to the last consequences without even giving the benefit of the doubt.

In the same way all these attacks were to be expected due to the amazing nature of the Book of Mormon and without fear of being wrong I think we have to thank these detractors for their careful interest in demonstrating the erroneous nature of these evidences since in some cases they have forced us to pay more attention to the studies made on the Book of Mormon and not to take for sure anything, they have forced us to go further and use more and better criteria in order to find things that really are evidences and not only interpretations.

In the words of Lehi himself...

because there must be an opposition in all things. For otherwise, my first son born in the wilderness, neither righteousness nor iniquity, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor evil could be brought into effect. So that all things would necessarily be one whole; therefore, if it were one body, it would have to remain as dead, having neither life nor death, neither corruption nor incorruption, neither happiness nor misery, neither sensibility nor insensibility. 2 Nephi 2:11.

So those detractors have fulfilled God's plan and their opposition has become part of our growth.

However, in order to use the words of most of the Book of Mormon's detractors, I decided to do the same as Henry G. Tomkins when he asserted that there were clear signs of the influence of Egyptian culture in the Pentateuch.

In the study of the Pentateuch, scholars pessimistically denied the possible Egyptian influence in the first sacred books of the Bible.

Tomkins came to the following conclusion:

...the point is that it is better to demonstrate, through innumerable small coincidences, what Ebers has rightly called the "Egyptianization" of the Pentateuch, than to attempt to establish any particular historical point by monumental external evidence. Henry G Tomkins "Egyptology and the Bible" PFFQ (1984)

Until the accumulated evidence (countless coincidences) in favor took it upon itself to change things.

So, in the same way I have decided to talk about "coincidences" and not evidences, not because I do not consider them evidences but because it seems to me that it is not me who should decide what they are but the people who are looking for the truth.

So today we can assure that only those hundreds of coincidences found between the Ancient World and more specifically Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon could be "coincidences", but the question I ask myself is: How many "coincidences" would be enough to at least give the Book of Mormon the benefit of the doubt?

5? 20? 100? 300? (I, myself found more than 300)

Going back to the story of Galileo Galilei being on trial by the Inquisition for saying that he had evidence to prove the theory that it was the earth that moved around the Sun and not the other way around he put a microscope in the center of the room and asked them not to believe him but to look at the microscope and just by looking at it they could see for themselves if he was right. However, everyone refused to look into the microscope and claimed Galileo's studies to be false without even looking.

To which Galileo said "Eppur si muove" "and yet it moves."

Today it seems to me that in the same way thousands of people refuse to read the Book of Mormon and test their reading because without even considering it they reject the book and its messages and continue to argue that the book is false.

“YET THE BOOK IS TRUE”

#vacaciones