Debate: Is atheism the most logical theistic stance?
Side: Theism is more logical

Source: https://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/01/mounting-evidence-for-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng One of the most established facts about the book of mormon is that Joseph smith did posses the plates. 11 official witnesses, and several unofficial witnesses. None of them, throughout their entire lives, denied it. They all confirmed it every chance the got. I’m not kidding, you can do research on these people from the day they say them to the day they died, and none of them ever denied it. Even after a few of them left the church, they still said that they saw them, never once saying that it didn’t happen. What we also know now is that several ancient documents have been preserved the same way that Joseph Smith found them. The Copper Scroll and other items found by the dead sea are almost a complete parallel, and coincidentally around the same time the book of mormon was placed underground. Several of documents of the same fashon have been found in hillsides to preserve the right before millitary disaster for future generations. But how would joseph Smith had known that? The book of mormon also claims to be written in “reformed egyptian’, and according to historians this means modified egyptian characters, and we now know that several ancient documents have been written precisely in that fashon. But how would Joseph Smith have known that? The title page of the Book of Mormon claims that it was translated “through the power of God”, and this is exactly what would have had to happen. Evidence indicates that Joseph Smith woud have to have written 8.5 pages a day. Additionally, there is no evidence that joseph Smith did very much reading at all before the book of mormon appeared. He may not have even owned a bible at the time of the translation. He spent most of his childhood doing farm and landwork, and revieved at most a few months of schooling. Even his own mother said that he was much less inclined to read books that her other children. His wife in the late 1820s said that he “could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well worded letter, let alone dictate a book like the Book of Mormon. … The larger part of this labor [of translation] was done [in] my presence and where I could see and know what was being done. … During no part of it did Joseph Smith have any [manuscripts] or book of any kind from which to read or dictate except the metalic [sic] plates which I knew he had.” 15 “If,” “he had had anything of the kind he could not have concealed it from me.” Many anti Mormon claims say that, oh, Joseph smith just made up the entire book, perfectly what a teenager with an immagination would write. This is completely wrong. Anybody who reads the Book of Mormon will confirm that an illiterate teenager could most definately not write a book like the book of Mormon. His wife also said that joseph Smith, after an interuption, could just start reading again. No asking, ‘where was i again?”, or “What was the last sentence I said?”. I qoute lds.org, “And research shows that the book does not seem to fit the culture of early 19th-century America. There is little of the military romanticism of Joseph Smith’s America. Instead, we see grimly realistic portrayals of war’s devastation and suffering. And in the story of the Gadianton robbers we have a detailed, realistic portrayal of a prolonged guerrilla struggle—lacking any trace of fife and drum, uniforms, or parades—published well over a century before the guerrilla theorists of the 20th century put pens to paper.”The Book of Mormon’s description of Jerusalem are strangely accurate, and a reaserch proresses everything said beomes more and more possible. The name Saria, Lehi’s wife, has been found on documents of ancient egypt. And the name Nephi belongs to the exact time and place of the time the story takes place. But how would Joseph Smith have known this?Nephi’s visoin is deeply rooted in near eastern symbolism. and , hi predictions are strikingly acurate. His description of Columbus, “And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.” With the publication of Columbas’s private “Book of Prophecies”, quoting lds.org, “He said he was guided by the Holy Spirit, and he was eager not only to spread Christianity but to fulfill biblical prophecies. Among his favorite passages were John 10:16, with its reference to “other sheep,” and the passages of Isaiah concerning the people on the “isles of the sea.” 25 These are the very passages that the Book of Mormon applies to itself.” But how would Joseph Smith have known this?Additionally, Nephi’s description of his families journey across the Arbian pennensula is strikingly accurate. But nobody, not even any 19th centery schollar could have known about this.