One example of Krakauer’s futile attempts to transfer his criticisms of Mormonism directly to all religions is his paragraph on the veracity of The Book of Mormon and other religious texts:
“Those who would assail The Book of Mormon should bear in mind that its veracity is no more dubious than the veracity of the Bible, say, or the Qur’an, or the sacred texts of most other religions. The latter texts simply have the considerable advantage of having made their public debut in the shadowy recesses of the ancient past, and are thus much harder to refute.”
Preceding this paragraph, Krakauer lists a collection of scholarly arguments calling into question the veracity of The Book of Mormon: lack of original sources (the gold plates from which the book was translated), lack of archeological artifacts supporting the civilizations described in the book, historical inaccuracies regarding both animals and technologies found in the New World at the time of Christ, and lack of DNA evidences for the claim that Native Americans were originally a Hebraic race. All of these arguments are compelling reasons to question the claim that The Book of Mormon is inspired.
On the other hand, the assertion that other religious texts (including the Bible) are equally unreliable is made without any proofs whatsoever. The one argument made for the unreliability of other religious texts is that it is harder to prove them false because of their age. If this is true, it should also be harder to prove them true–yet one of the religious texts Krakauer mentions has been proven to be correct in multiple instances.
While the Book of Mormon is said to have been “translated” from golden tablets presumably written in the seventh century after Christ, the earliest extant manuscript is Joseph Smith’s single “translation” published in 1830. Compare this with the Bible, which has literally thousands of independent manuscripts and manuscript fragments dating to within a century of the originals.
While no archeological evidence exists to support the Book of Mormon’s claims of a “Nephite” civilization in the Americas, abundant archeological evidence buttresses Biblical claims. Furthermore, while technologies such as iron and animals such as horses are not known to exist in the Pre-Columbian Americas (as the Book of Mormon claims), archeological evidence supports the accuracy of Biblical accounts of ancient Middle Eastern technologies and practices. Cities are where the Bible says they are. Peoples (such as the Hittites) not previously known to exist apart from Biblical records are found to indeed exist as archeology advances. Individuals named in the Bible are also found in contemporary secular accounts, with details that corroborate the Biblical account. The more archeologists find, the more the evidence mounts that the Bible is factually accurate regarding ancient Middle Eastern people, places, cultural activities, and events.
What’s more, while DNA evidence fails to support the Mormon claim that Native Americans are descendant from a Hebraic race, DNA evidence suggests that the Bible just might be right in its own claims of descent. It just so happens that analysis of human DNA finds that the closest common male ancestor of all humanity (the so-called “Y-chromosomal Adam”) is several thousand years younger than the closest common female ancestor of all humanity (the so-called “mitochondrial Eve”). This is exactly what one would expect based on the Biblical account, which indicates that the earliest common male ancestor of humanity is Noah, while the earliest common female ancestor of humanity is Eve.
So, Krakauer’s arguments against The Book of Mormon fail in every account to be transferable to the Bible. Instead of evaluating the evidences for and against specific religions or even religion in general, Krakauer makes blanket statements about all faiths without any rational or logical evidence supporting his assertions.
He is an unashamed bigot, guilty of the same blind faith he accuses all religious believers of and making the same leap into intolerance that he so hates in the religious.
Here ends the Krakauer rants. You’re welcome.