Quest for the Gold Plates: Thomas Stuart Ferguson's Archaeological Search for the Book of Mormon [Paperback]

I had the good fortune some years past to meet the author of this book. He gave a presentation on his findings with regards to Ferguson. I came away from that presentation somewhat amazed at the chameoleon nature of Thomas Stuart Ferguson. He had no faith in the Book of Mormon and even indicated so to Jerald and Sandra Tanner. Yet, he still continued to attend church regularly. To those who had questions about the Book of Mormon, he could give answers in either direction. To faithful Mormons seeking faith building material, he could and would give out much information that would confirm them in their faith. To Mormons questioning the historical veracity of the Book of Mormon, he could and would give out much information that would demonstrate the historical and archeological problems involved in the Book of Mormon.

He was a complex character. However, his story is very much worth telling. He is fortunate to have found a sympathetic biographer in Stan Larson.

This book, as described in the Preface "focuses on the efforts of Thomas Stuart Ferguson to verify the authenticity of the Book of Mormon through archaeology." The story in fact shows not only Ferguson's failure to identify a single Book of Mormon city, mountain, or river, but ends in Ferguson's disillusionment with Joseph Smith and his loss of faith in Smith as an alleged prophet, not only because of the years wasted in central America looking for evidence that wasn't there, but also by Ferguson's realization that the exposure by renowned Egyptologists of the "Book of Abraham" papyri, accepted as canonical by the LDS church, as nothing more than pagan funeral texts, proved the supposed prophet Smith very much in error, and certainly unable to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Earlier in his search, Ferguson had apparently encouraged himself with the publication in 1958 of "One Fold and one Shepherd" as described on page 59 of this book. This earlier work was supposed to present evidence of the antiquity of the Book of Mormon, but, as reported in the book, in actual fact gave evidence only of 16th century post-Conquest Spanish Catholic misssionary influence, even down to the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity ( whch is rejected by Mormonism). So it was quite meaningless for Ferguson to cite this sort of material as evidence for the antiquity of the Book of Mormon. That, and the "shopping list fallacy" mentioned on page 62 (that is, the idea that parallels between cultures, such as idols, sacrifices, slaves, are supposedly significant is erroneous because the parallels are either not complex or not uniques to the two cultures under consideration) effectively destroy any claim of archaeological support for the Book of Mormon.

At the end of the book is given a list of tests for the Book of Mormon, under the categories Plant Life, Animal Life, Metallurgy, Script, and Others. It is quite noteworthy to see that the evidence required to substantiate the Book of Mormon is found failing in every category.

I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who is Mormon or to anyone who is considering converting to the LDS church, as it contains information that missionaries will not readily admit.