Here’s the next segment of The Book of Mormon Challenge (originally found here). I’ve added a few links for further research and clarification, as some of his points of logic show no backing evidence. And I do my best to furnish evidence when possible.

11. You must claim that your smooth narrative is not fiction with moral value, but true and sacred history.

The claims of the author are entirely beside the point. Mohammed claimed that the Koran was dictated to him by the angel Gabriel. Are we to believe him without proof as well?

12. You must include in you book fifty-four chapters dealing with wars, twenty-one historical chapters, fifty-five chapters on visions and prophecies. Remember, when you begin to write visions and prophecies, you must have your record agree meticulously with the Bible. You must write seventy-one chapters on doctrine and exhortation, and you must check every statement with the scriptures or your will be proven a fraud. You must write twenty-one chapters on the ministry of Christ, and every thing you claim he said and every testimony you write in your book about Him must agree absolutely with the New Testament.

This is actually extremely easy to do, if one is brought up in a Christian household, and quotes voluminously from the Bible as well. Indeed, it must be said that it would be difficult to fail on this point, given the circumstances surrounding the origin of the Book of Mormon.

[NOTE: Here is a page showing problems between the Bible and the Book of Mormon:

Contradictions Between the Book of Mormon and the Bible
Bible and Book of Mormon contradictions
The Book of Mormon contradicts Itself AND the bible!]

There is a further underlying problem here, however. The Book of Mormon, it is true, does agree in meticulous detail with one particular sect of Christianity (Protestantism), but completely fails to agree with Old Testament Judaism.

13. Many of the facts, claims, ideas, and statements given as absolute truth in your writing must be entirely inconsistent with the prevailing beliefs of the world. Some of these worldly beliefs must be the direct opposite of your claims.

It is extremely difficult to see the relevance of this point. Are we to conclude that L. Ron Hubbard was a visionary because his ideas on psychology completely contradict any scientific model of the human mind? It is very easy to dream up wild and unsubstantiated theories: it is far harder to arrive at the truth.

14. Included in your narrations will be authentic modes of travel; whether or not those ancient people used fire; description of their clothing, crops, mourning customs, and types of government. You must invent about 280 new names that will stand up under scrutiny through the years as to their proper application and derivation.

The Book of Mormon completely fails on this point. We know of no ancient American culture that made use of horses, cattle, goats, elephants, chariots, silk, linen, wheat etc.

In addition, the Book of Mormon names seem to have a far more mundane origin than is here suggested.

15. You will have to properly use figures of speech, similes, metaphors, narrations, exposition, descriptions, oratory, epic lyric, and parables.

Again, this is irrelevant. Many works of fiction display these exact qualities, many times with far greater literary power than the Book of Mormon.

16. You must invite the ablest scholars and experts to examine the text with care, and you must strive diligently to see that your book gets into the hands of those eager to prove it a forgery, and who are most competent to expose every flaw in it.

This has been done time and again with the Book of Mormon, and time and again it has been denounced as a fraud.

17. Thorough investigation, scientific and historical evidence, and archeological discovery for the next 125 years must verify its claims and prove detail after detail to be true, for many of the details you put in your history are still buried beneath the soil of Tibet.

As already noted, the Book of Mormon has failed every archeological test applied to it. This author is aware of no non-Mormon archeologist who would regard the Book of Mormon as a reliable guide to thepre-history of America.

[Note: for MUCH more evidence about the falseness of the "historical" aspect of the Book of Mormon, here are some references:

Questions on the Book of Mormon, its Author and his Work
DNA research and Mormon scholars changing basic beliefs
Answering the Book of Mormon DNA apologetics
A desert traveler's journey through the Arabian desert?

And even Mormon scholars admit to problems, in this case the term "horses":
Horses in the Book of Mormon]

18. You must publish it to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people declaring it to be the word of God and another witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Once again, the claims of the author are entirely beside the point. What matters is whether these claims can be substantiated.

19. The book must not contain any absurd, impossible, or contradictory statements. Your history must not contain any statement that will contradict any other statement elsewhere in the volume.

Ether 15:31 describes how the unfortunate Shiz, after having his head severed by a sword-stroke, struggled for breath and eventually died. In the 1830 version of the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 21:28, King Benjamin is said to be able to interpret engravings. Unfortunately, he was dead by this time. II Nephi 19:1 puts the Red Sea beyond the Jordan, in Galilee. In fact, it is well over 250 miles to the south of Galilee, in Egypt.

[Note: Here is another site that poses many unanswerable questions dealing with contradictory stories in the Book of Mormon:

More Questions on the Book of Mormon and the LDS faith?]

20. Many theories and ideas as to its origin must arise, and after discovering and examining the facts, they must fail. You have claimed that your knowledge had come from divine origin, and this claim continues to stand as the only possible explanation. The strength of this explanation must not decrease as time passes, but actually increases to the point where it becomes the only logical explanation.

As already noted, the only people who still believe that the Book of Mormon had a divine origin are ardent Mormon believers. The rest of the world, after "examining the facts" have arrived at a far more prosaic and simple explanation of its origin.