(the following information was taken from www.religioustolerance.org) "History of the Book of Abraham: In 1835, Joseph Smith, founder of the original Mormon church -- the Church of Christ -- purchased several Egyptian papyrus scrolls and fragments from the owner of a traveling road show which exhibited Egyptian mummies and documents. After translating them, he stated that they were a copy of a book by the biblical patriarch Abraham. This "Book of Abraham" was first published in 1842, and was recognized by the Utah branch of the Mormon church as scripture in 1880. It became part of "The Pearl of Great Price" one of their four divinely inspired and authoritative source texts -- the "Standard Works." The work, including pictures adapted from the papyri, totaled about 15 pages. It appears that the translation was never completed, as it ends suddenly at the beginning of the Garden of Eden story. Smith "...claimed that he received divine inspiration, not in writing a new book of scripture, but instead in having discovered and translated an existing ancient work." 2 He would have had to have been divinely inspired, because only a few academics could read some ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic text at that time. Translation only became possible following the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799-JUL, in Rosetta, Egypt (near Alexandria). The stone included a decree that was translated into three languages: Ancient Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Demotic (a later Egyptian script). The Greek writings could be translated by Egyptologists. Over time, this led to the deciphering of the other two. By 1822, Jean Francois Champollion (1790-1832), the "Father of the Decipherment of Hieroglyphs," 3 was able to identify the names of a few pharaohs on some monuments. 4 The ability to translate hieroglyphics symbol-by-symbol came later -- long after Smith claimed that he translated the Book of Abraham. M. Theodule Deveria, a French Egyptologist inspected the copies of the original images on the papyri. He concluded that they were typical Egyptian funerary documents. He was able to decipher the name of the priest who authored the work, and of some Egyptian gods. He "dismissed Joseph's explanations as rambling nonsense. His comments first appeared in French in a two-volume work by Jules Remy entitled Voyage au Pays des Mormons (Paris, 1860)." In 1912, the Rt. Reverend Franklin S. Spalding, Episcopal Bishop of Utah, sent copies of the three facsimiles from the Book to world-class Egyptologists and Semitists. Eight responded with uniformly negative appraisals: the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City: "Joseph Smith's interpretation of these cuts is a farrago of nonsense from beginning to end...five minutes study in an Egyptian gallery of any museum should be enough to convince any educated man of the clumsiness of the imposture." "...difficult to deal seriously with Smith's impudent fraud." "Smith has turned the Goddess into a king and Osiris into Abraham." "...very clearly demonstrates that he (Joseph Smith) was totally unacquainted with the significance of these documents and absolutely ignorant of the simplest facts of Egyptian Writing and civilization." "...the attempts to guess a meaning are too absurd to be noticed. It may be safely said that there is not one single word that is true in these explanations." One of Joseph Smith's wives, Emma Smith, sold the material to a man who later sold it to the Chicago Museum. It was believed to have been destroyed in the Great Chicago fire of 1871. However, in early 1966, Dr. Aziz S. Atiya, a professor of Arabic Studies from the University of Utah was visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He stumbled across 11 papyrus fragments and a letter from Emma Smith certifying that they belonged to Joseph Smith. The papyri had been glued to a paper backing which included a map of the Kirtland, OH area. They were returned to the LDS church the following year." Bob Blaylock wrote: "However, it is not established that these fragments are the source from which the book of Abraham was translated, and evidence is very strong that these are not the source." I am not aware of there being ANY evidence that supports the idea that the papyrus fragments found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art were NOT the/a source for the book of Abraham. There is, however, evidence that supports the idea that the papyrus fragments WERE INDEED the/a source ... For example, IF the papyrus fragments WERE NOT the/a source for the book of Abraham ... (the following information was taken from www.lds-mormon.com) ... "1. Why would Joseph Smith and his scribes have bothered to put characters from the Sensen portion next to the translation in Joseph Smith's Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar if the Sensen fragment was not the source for the Book of Abraham? 2. Why would Joseph Smith have used a piece of the papyrus as a source for the Book of Abraham that was not directly next to Facsimile 1 (which is where the Sensen portion is) when Facsimile 1 is what we have as the beginning of the Book of Abraham? 3. Why would only the supposed papyrus from 2,000 BC be destroyed in the fire? In other words, if Joseph Smith supposedly purchased two sets of papyrus, some from 2,000 BC containing the writings of Abraham and some more recent than 500 BC containing the existing Book of Breathings, why aren't any of the 2,000 BC papyrus remaining when numerous portions from post 500 BC are? 4. Why would the Book of Breathings be buried and unearthed with papyrus over 1,500 years older than it to begin with? 5. Why were the "restored" portions of the facsimiles incorrectly restored and why aren't they translated correctly? 6. How could Hebrew show up in a document that was supposed to be a translation of Egyptian?" Therefore, the papyrus fragments WERE the/a source for the book of Abraham ... and are nothing more than "typical Egyptian funerary documents", thus showing the fraudulency of Joseph Smith's prophetic claims. Also, please consider this: over 5,000 copies of the ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament exist today. Although there may be small grammatical differences when comparing certain copies to one another, they are not the SAME differences ... and therefore we can verify the accuracy and integrity of the copies down and through the centuries. The LDS church does NOT have this same luxury. The "golden plates" from which Joseph Smith "translated" the book of Mormon were "returned to the Angel Moroni in 1829" (the Encyclopedia of Mormonism) ... and therefore CANNOT be verified. "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." (Matthew 7:15) "Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many." (Matthew 24:11) "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves." (2 Peter 2:1) To watch video clips from a DVD titled "The Lost Book of Abraham" regarding this subject ... please visit: http://www.bookofabraham.info/VideoClips.htm

I sincerely hope so.

Can't prove it by me... :)

yes i am in true love w/ my gf the story aint long but i've asked her out a week after i met her and now here we are in out 7th year we had gone through a lot of troubles but somehow we were willing to fight for it and stay together no matter wut cuz my life would be lonley and senseless and vice versa for her

"...FROM WHICH we can verify the accuracy of the translations of the Holy Bible that we have today." The word "verify" above should be replaced with "disprove". There are many, many discrepancies between ancient manuscripts and the Bible, and among ancient manuscripts. The whole of Christianity rests on just as shaky a platform as the LDS church. In the end, it all comes back to faith.

I do. I also beleive that true love always has to have work with it too. It isn't a story book love where it is gushy love all the time. True love is real.

Damn, I hope so.

Yes, for God truly loves us all, and there is someone for everyone, and you could do a lot worse than prepare yourself for them, if you have yet to meet them, and that can include praying for them.

It has to. Otherwise this is all meaningless.

Yes it does I had to find out the hard way but it was worth it.

I do because I married my true Love, don't figure it would have last all these yrs though the many tough times we have been though if it wasn't. It has been 33 yrs of marriage, 3 yrs of going together, illness, children, money problems, death of close family members yet we just keep getting stronger. Must be true LOVE.....

Nope. No true love.. for me at least.

I believe love exists, and it doesn't get any truer than that.

I don't belive there is such a thing as true love

yes. is there such thing as false love? no.

Although I believe that love is a biological motivation for procreation and that what often follows or is attempted to maintain doesn't fit the general definition, it doesn't mean that its ephemeral state isn't authentic, for whatever that's worth, and no, its initial birth certainly doesn't merely revolve around lust even though its only purpose is to further the human race.

Yes i do. I give and receive true love many times a day. I am witness to many others doing the same. It's a thought, an action, a presence, an example, an effect, a hope, a prayer, a kindness. I see a whole world full of people who love and care about other people and to me that is true love. Love is everywhere. It is around us and within us and we need only open our eyes, our minds and our hearts, in order to see it, touch it, feel it and live it.

When you find someone ... a special someone who consumes 99% of your thoughts when you are apart ... When your phone or doorbell rings and your stomach is overcome by nervous butterflies ... Then ... you have found love

I am very sure true love exists in this world. I believe it to be so because I know confidently that God who is the great and wonderful Creator of this world exists. True love which is love without conditions can only come from God Himself because He is love. Jesus who condescended some 2,000 years ago came to show us the very essence of true love which is the attribute of God.

True love is an illusion. No one loves each other unconditionally, usually it is due to the fact that they have a specific kind of butt or body shape, type of voice, etc. This is really known as lust which a large portion of this world gets confused with.

I really have started to question that. I honestly hope so...

I believe it is only a temporary state of mind. It will go away. Sort of like having a bad cold, you'll get better.

Yes, it's right here at home with me :)

Yes it sure does. I think everyone will experience true love at one point in time in their lives, and fall in love with that destined one. If you haven't experienced it yet, don't worry. Love just takes time to arrive, and is worh waiting for! It also is alot of hard work, but the relationship gets stronger when you conquer hurdles together. So just hang in there, i'm, sure you'll find someone! Good luck, be happy 8o)

Of course it does.

Yes it really does. The problem is most people get tired of looking and settle for less.

Yes,it does....sigh...

Of course. Its a Pat Boone song.

Yes, but it is elusive to find and hard to grasp. The trick to catching it is to let it catch you.

I AM IN LOVE WITH MY BF AND TO ME ITS TRUE LOVE. ITS BEEN NOT A LONG TIME TOGETHER(ONLY 1 YEAR) HE ALREADY PROPOSSED TO ME AND WE ARE GETTIN MARRIED SOON!!! ONCE YOU FIND IT, DONT EVER LET GO OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yes it does, eventually it will find you..

I can't decide if I prefer lefty or righty more.

No one can convince me that the current definition of a love relationship is not in fact a delusion of those involved. When I see a relationship where the two individuals involved contribute to any sort of catalystic change upon this wonderful planet will I be convinced that it is a true love relatonship. Unless a couple contributes to humanities progression towards enlightenment will I consider or respect a love relationship. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are probably the closest couple the public can relate to that almost reaches that pinnacle but I am yet to see evidence that they are making inspired changes to the world because of their unity. I don't believe they are the couple that God has chosen to make this catalystic change to the ambience of the world. I believe they in our consciousness at present to prepare us for the divinely bless couple that God intends for us to know.

I believe it does, but I think its' form varies from person to person. We all have different ideals.

It's like a Bond Movie!Everything should be in it...

Yes! But we are trained to think it looks like what is in the movies. "Love means never having to say you're sorry." WHAAAAT?! Life is messy, baby! Life is struggles and pain and hard times and falling flat on your face and wondering if you will EVER make it up that next hill. And if you're lucky, you find someone who can make you smile through the pain, wipe the wetness off your tear-stained cheeks and accompany you on that journey, because sure as hell, you are GOING to have to go.

You'll know it when you find it!

So far I've seen my parents define it to its meaning.Sorry,I don't have any other examples to give.

I think it does. Whether most people find it in the end is another thing though. I think that if you don't give up, you will find your true love sooner or later =]

yes true love exist in this world. Its just that you must find the right person. When you'll find it you'll start believing it

Of course it does!!!!!

dont know, hope it does for poeple

Well, Ive been with the same woman for over 15 years and we still love each other after all the spats we've been through and all of my mis-deeds. If she can still even tolerate me, let alone love me, then I would have to say yes, true love DOES exist.