“Like many people (not just Mormons), the Bald Coder assumes an oversimplistic, false dichotomy in which comprehensive scientific proof and subjective opinion are the only two options.”
A YouTuber calling himself the Bald Coder (apparently Guarav Agarwal?) has made four videos on the Book of Mormon. His most recent such video, posted September 28, 2025, is entitled “I’m a Data Scientist. I analyzed the ENTIRE Book of Mormon.” He explains that he wanted to come up with objective, quantifiable numbers in regards to three questions: “(1) How much does the Book of Mormon talk about Jesus Christ? (2) How much do the teachings align with the Bible? (3) Does the Book of Mormon bring you closer to God?” Oddly, his data analysis ignores the second and third question (though he does say something about the third question at the very end). The Bald Coder also says he compares the Book of Mormon to the Bible using the same metrics to determine how “Christ-centered” each of those two scriptures are. The analysis for the first question is based on direct mentions of Jesus, references to his teachings, atonement, or resurrection, emphasis on Christian doctrines and principles, and focus on Christ’s role in salvation.
In addition to those three “religious” questions, he asks for the benefit of the “non-religious” whether the book is “ethical” or “moral” in what it says. This question is pursued based on whether the text promotes virtues (compassion, honesty, etc.), condemns vices (greed, violence, etc.), encourages ethical behavior, communicates messages about justice and mercy, and promotes treating others with respect and kindness. For both the “religious” and the “non-religious” questions his analysis will lead to a score between 1 and 10.
After running the numbers, the Bald Coder announces the result. The Book of Mormon has a mean score of 7.89 out of 10 for being Christ-centered, while the Bible’s mean score in this metric is only 5.11. The Book of Mormon’s mean “moral score” is 9.03 while the Bible’s mean moral score is 8.24. He acknowledges that the Bible’s lower “Christ-centered score” is the result of the fact that most of the Bible is the Old Testament in which Christ is never mentioned by name. When he looks at just the New Testament, the score is 9.12, which is higher than that of the Book of Mormon (7.89).
After concluding his discussion of these quantitative findings, the Bald Coder admits that they don’t prove the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. He then quickly asserts that neither the Book of Mormon nor the Bible can be proved to be true. People believe both books “because people feel good when they read it and they have spiritual experiences.” He ends with the suggestion that non-Mormons try reading the Book of Mormon to see how it makes them feel: “And so if you’re curious, maybe try to read it and see if you feel good inside. If you do, great. If not, then don’t worry about it.” So his answer to his third question, “Does the Book of Mormon bring you closer to God?” apparently is, “It depends on how it makes you feel.”
One needs to understand something of the LDS subculture to understand what the Bald Coder is actually doing here (although, oddly enough, I couldn’t find any clear information about whether he is currently a member of the LDS Church). In the LDS milieu, it is perfectly fine to offer rational arguments in support of the Book of Mormon (or of other aspects of Mormonism), but one must be careful to qualify the whole business of giving evidence by saying that the real “proof,” if that term is to be used, is in the subjective experience of the person who reads it. Nevertheless, Mormons offer such arguments in order to buttress or encourage their feelings of the truth of Mormonism as well as to urge non-Mormons to read the Book of Mormon and see if they have a positive experience, which theologically the LDS Church teaches comes from the Holy Ghost.
As for the “data analysis” offered by the Bald Coder, the entire argument proceeds from cherry-picking those aspects of the Book of Mormon that Mormons commonly claim are obviously Christian—especially the frequency of its references to Jesus. To his credit, the Bald Coder admits that the numbers for the Bible as a whole are lower than for the Book of Mormon because the Old Testament makes no direct references to Jesus Christ. (The disparity between the Book of Mormon and the Old Testament in this regard is frankly a function of the fact that the Old Testament books are historically authentic pre-Christian texts while most of the Book of Mormon claims to be but is not. Such considerations play no role whatsoever in the Bald Coder’s assessment of the Book of Mormon.) Still, even with his acknowledgment that the New Testament scores somewhat higher than the Book of Mormon in this regard, his “analysis” ignores “data” that suggest a far less “Christ-centered” character for the Book of Mormon.
For example, while the Book of Mormon contains 489 references to Jesus by name (Jesus, Christ, Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus, or Lord Jesus Christ), it also contains 495 occurrences of the name Nephi. The first man named Nephi is the main character in 1 Nephi and 2 Nephi, and he is mentioned directly some 230 times in the Book of Mormon. In addition, the expression “people of Nephi” occurs 143 times, “children of Nephi” 5 times, and “plates of Nephi” 24 times. This means that there are actually about 300 references to this Nephi. We are also told in the Book of Mormon that subsequent rulers in the community were named Nephi in his honor. (There are over 90 references to other men named Nephi, mostly in Helaman through 4 Nephi.) The people as a whole who follow in Nephi’s train are also called “Nephites,” a term that occurs 384 times in the Book of Mormon. Thus, a strong argument can be made that Nephi is the main human figure in the Book of Mormon narrative. (Mormon is credited with writing more of the Book of Mormon, but he plays no significant role in the narrative, and the name Mormon occurs only 48 times.)
By comparison, the New Testament (KJV) contains about 1,072 references to Jesus by name, more than double the number in the Book of Mormon, even though the New Testament is only two-thirds as long as the Book of Mormon. On the other hand, the New Testament contains about 185 references to Peter (or Simon) and 163 references to Paul. Thus, references to Jesus in the New Testament far outnumber those of any other human being. Indeed, there are more than double the number of references to Jesus by name in the New Testament as compared to the references to the names of Peter, Paul, John the Baptist, John and James the sons of Zebedee, and James the brother of the Lord combined.
Do these numbers prove that the Book of Mormon is not sufficiently “Christ-centered”? No, because being Christ-centered does not mean merely making large numbers of references to Jesus. However, these numbers do refute the common LDS claim that the Book of Mormon must be considered authentically Christian due to its frequent references to Jesus by name. That Book of Mormon apologetic argument is simply a flawed argument.
Warrant for believing that a text or collection of texts is Scripture is neither a matter of scientifically exacting “proof” nor of private subjective feelings or personal experiences. Like many people (not just Mormons), the Bald Coder assumes an oversimplistic, false dichotomy in which comprehensive scientific proof and subjective opinion are the only two options. Christians have inherited the Old and New Testaments as part of the church’s heritage from its founding by Jesus and his apostles—people we know really existed and about whom much can be corroborated—and that has been passed down continuously throughout the past two millennia. We can prove some things scientifically (notably that the universe had a beginning and certain dates tied to astronomical observations) and confirm many things historically, most importantly Jesus’ death and resurrection, but also many other facts going back even well into the Old Testament era. We are not limited to the extremes of either having proof for everything in the Bible or having evidence for none of it. The inspiration and authority of the prophetic and apostolic writings we accept on the authority of Jesus himself, who as a matter of historical fact clearly taught his disciples to view the Old Testament as inspired and who commissioned them to speak authoritatively on his behalf.
The fact that hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of people have experienced personal transformation through accepting the Bible’s message about Christ—the message that the New Testament writers call the gospel—also provides confirming evidence for the truth of the Bible. This evidence of the transforming effects of the gospel is quite different from subjective feelings of “being closer to God” or feeling that a book (even the Bible) is true. Rather, we are talking about the transforming effects of becoming new creatures in Christ through believing in him as Lord and Savior, which has resulted in elevating whole cultures and bringing light into the darkness of a world estranged from its Creator. The Mormon appeal to subjective “testimonies” buttressed by cherry-picked evidence is a modern, flawed imitation of the legitimate teaching that the Christian gospel is both transformative and true.