Book of Mormon

Scripture used by LDS Church (Mormons). Subtitled "Another Testament of Jesus Christ." Said to have been translated by LDS prophet Joseph Smith from gold plates given to him by an angel, Moroni. Said to contain a partial history of ancient Christian peoples of America, including Christ's post-resurrection visit to the Americas. Used with the Bible and other "modern revelation." Hotly disputed and viewed almost as blasphemy by other Christian sects.

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, according to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is a book of sacred scripture translated by Joseph Smith, edited almost entirely by Mormon (hence the name of the book), and containing 15 individual books written by various Ancient American prophets almost all of which were written between 600 B.C. and 450 A.D.:

First Nephi
Second Nephi
Jacob
Enos
Jarom
Omni
Words of Mormon
Mosiah
Alma
Helaman
Third Nephi
Fourth Nephi
Mormon
Ether
Moroni

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Some excerpts from The Book of Mormon, relevant to the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

2 Nephi 2:11,16--For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not...righteousness could not be brought to pass, nor wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad....Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.

2 Nephi 2:25--Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.

Mosiah 2:17--And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellowbeings ye are only in the service of your God.

Moroni 10:4-5--And when ye shall receive these things things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

Objectively concerning physical evidence of the Book of Mormons validity:

The "evidences" listed by jgardn above are the kind of things Mormons come up with to ease their minds when confronted with the facts science has uncovered regarding the Book of Mormon. These facts are usually simply never discussed by Mormons, except rarely when in the context of providing an attempt at refutation (see above). Notice that jgardn's evidences (quetzlcoatl, hopi weapons) are not really evidences, but stories and speculation that make one say "Hmmm, that's interesting, maybe the Book could be true". If that kind of thing is all you read, you'll become a believing Mormon too. However, there's a lot better "evidence" available, and when considering it all the Book doesn't fare too well.

In fact, there have been successful refutations of the Book of Mormon's claims; the overwhelming preponderance of evidence suggests that the Book of Mormon is a nineteenth-century work of fiction, when looked at objectively. You can show Mormons an endless stream of historical, geographical, linguistic and genetic evidence proving that the Book of Mormon cannot be what it says, and they will all say the same thing jgardn say in his/her last sentence: "I don't care what you say, I asked God and he told me it's true."

Fine for them, but for those who demand a little more rigor in the test for truth than "God told me so", here is a page that lists several problems with the book. Stories and speculation do little to answer these issues, especially when taken together as a whole as they should be:

http://www.lds-mormon.com/bookofmormonquestions.shtml