The Iron Age and my Testimony

It was 2008--a wild and crazy year. Gas prices were soaring, George Bush was president, and I was taking an Archeology class at BYU.

For the most part, the class was interesting. It was taught by a wonderful single woman with a Justin Bieber haircut, and three gorgeous female TA's. From the minute I walked into that room I was like, "There's a LESBIAN teaching this class!" I immediately held an affinity towards her. But, I digest.

Introduction

In this class, we spoke of three ages: The Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. My professor always spoke of how civilizations went from one age to another, progressively. There has never been a society where they went from the Iron Age to the Stone Age. This got me thinking: How then, did the people in the Book of Mormon have iron tools to work ore to build swords, cimeters, javelins, shields, armour, etc? You see, popular Mormon culture believes that the Mayan civilizations were all part of the Nephite, Lamanite or Jaredite cultures. But, there has hasn't been strong enough evidence to conclude that the Mayan--or any South American ancient societies--had the technology to build those weapons of war. In addition, there has been no conclusive evidence to suggest such a thing. In fact, the weapons of war that have been found are wooden spears, obsidian arrowheads, stone clubs, etc. The use of iron to construct swords, or steel bows, or protective armour has never been found in South America. Ever.

The Iron Age

I'm going to focus just a little bit about the Iron Age. It began about 1200 BC in Anatolia. Now, since the Jaredites left the Middle East at the time of the tower of Babel, some historians have calculated that "the time frame for the events in the book [of Ether] have been estimated as starting anywhere from 2600 B.C. to 2100 B.C. and extending to some time beyond 600 B.C." (Source). In addition, we read in Ether 7:9 that "[Shule] came to the hill Ephraim, and he did molten out of the hill, and made swords out of steel." If Wikipedia is correct that the beginning of the Iron Age was 1200 BC--roughly 1,000 years after the Jaredites--and that the Jaredites were molting iron to create steel swords thousands of years before that, then either (1) archeological evidence is wrong or (2) the Book of Mormon is wrong. Add to the fact that swords--or even hilts for swords--have never been found in South American ancient civilizations, then it seems as if the second option is correct.

Now, some of you may say, "Well, Joseph Smith may have just translated that word incorrectly. Maybe they were using an iron-nickel based ore to create the swords so the only word he knew in his vocabulary was 'steel'". If that is the case, how then do you go to say that the Book of Mormon is the "most correct book on the earth" if there are translation errors in it?

My Testimony

Since there is no archeological evidence of steel swords, iron armour, etc yet to be found in those cultures, what does that mean for me? Does that mean that the entire LDS doctrine is incorrect? Does that mean the Church I have belonged to my entire life is false? Does that mean the Book of Mormon is false?

Honestly, I don't have the answers to those questions. But, what I do know is this: Whether or not the Church is true, living the principals taught therein has brought me happiness. Learning to love my neighbor, striving to do what is right, praying to my Heavenly Father, repenting of my sins, being kind to others, providing service for the needy, being an example of good faith and righteousness, loving my family--all these things bring me true joy. I don't need an angel to come down and tell me that the Church is true or that it is not true. To me, the Church is true because it helps me become a better person.

Lately, I've been finding myself questioning some major key doctrines found in the Church. So, I've just stopped questioning. Instead, I've decided to focus on the things that I know are true for myself. I'm starting to re-evaluate my life and my personal relationship with my Savior. It may be different from yours and it may be different from the "standard" Mormon relationship--but it's mine.

I'm trying to reconnect with core Christian faith and values. I'm trying to become "Born Again". I believe that Mormons are so afraid of shouting "Hallelujah's", or "raising the Church roof" with music, or praying to Jesus that we are focusing too much on the little things, when we should be focusing on the major aspects of our religion: truth, Jesus Christ, happiness, and love.

And that, my dear friends, is how I plan to live my religion from here on out.