The Book of Mormon raises questions when we examine its accounts of warfare. Where is evidence of the great mounds of weapons, the steel-smelting operations necessary for their production, and the warfare technologies described in this book? LDS apologists grasp at straws with their allusions to things that could “possibly” support its scenarios. (One apologist suggested that the steel mentioned in the Book of Mormon could have been from another metal than iron, for instance: another example of redefining the English terms that were the “correct” translation. Other apologists suggest that perhaps the swords were made of really hard wood with obsidian edges.) But no reputable non-LDS scholar has ever even hinted that there is archaeological evidence of Nephite/Lamanite warfare with the weapons and the scope that the Book of Mormon depict.
The Book of Mormon says that the warlike Lamanites killed off all the good Nephites, and that they loved war. Are we to believe that this warlike group of people suddenly forgot how to make the superior steel weapons of the BofM and resorted to bows and arrows?
Here's the crux of the whole question about the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. There is no non-LDS archaeologist who would ever assert that the culture of any civilization anywhere on the two American continents before Columbus resembles as a whole the culture presented in the Book of Mormon.
For more information, see The Mormon Mirage 3rd Edition: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today (Zondervan, 2009). Also available as an audiobook and as an expanded-text E-book for Nook, Kindle and other reading devices.
