The Tree of Life Stone
Many LDS members have seen this famous stone carving as evidence to the veracity of The Book of Mormon. Many members of the church believed that this stone represents Lehi's dream of the tree of life as described in the Book of Mormon. The leaders of the church didn't confirm this assertion, but they didn't deny it either, leaving people to believe that it was in fact the so called "Tree of Life Stone". In 1960, an Apostle named Marion G. Romney was hopeful that it was a representation of Lehi's dream, but didn't take an official stand on it.
However, LDS scholars now agree that the stone does not represent Lehi's Dream at all. It is a carving of a tree for crying out loud. There are trees all over the place, it isn't that far-fetched that there is a carving of a tree. LDS scholars are reluctant to admit that it isn't Lehi's dream, and they certainly don't announce it from the pulpit, but the evidence is conclusive that the original assertions were incorrect.
Skeptical Mormon
5 comments:
Even granting a ‘tree of life’ interpretation to the stone would provide far from strong evidence for Mormon truth claims. The ‘Tree of Life” image shows up in practically every culture, it’s even Talaxin on an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Plus I have the same issue with the ‘Star of David’ showing up on ancient non-Judaic structures, its is after all an image of a star.
I am a non-practicing member of the LDS church and am sceptical of things like this as well. However, I just returned from a trip in the Yucatan where we saw many ancient Mayan structures and this image of the Tree of Life was given to me from another ruin in central Mexico. Just to cast a little more light on this carving, it is much more than just a tree. There is a man kneeling to the left of it holding a ball next to a woman. Two men are facing away from the tree. A man on the right of the tree is knelt down writing in a book. A smaller man is kneeling next to him. There is a river in the background, and behind it a building. A man is walking up to the tree with material covering his face. Below him is a bar. There is also fruit on the tree. Perhaps you could explain these items as well as "just the tree."
Anon, that would lead me to believe even more in it. After all, it goes right along with the description in the Book Of Mormon.
Even though this might become interesting evidence of the veracity of the Book of Mormon, one cannot rely soley on physical/tangible evidence as the foundation for a conviction/committment to the Church. You gotta have faith.....
I am a practicing member of the LDS church. I am not sure if this was made by the Nephites (the good guys, most of the time) or if it was made by the Lamanites, who we now call the aztecs, maya, etc. I think it is the latter, though.
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