Addressing the objection the plates would have been too heavy to lift/carry, Reynolds and Sjodahl noted a similar problem with the Bible:
Similar Objections to Bible
Statements. Curiously enough, at one time certain critics of the Bible used
to raise objections to the Old Testament description of the Tabernacle
furniture on the ground that gold was too heavy to handle. We are told that
Bezaleel made an ark or box of wood, in which the Law was deposited. It was
overlaid with pure gold “within and without.” The cover of this box was a lid
made of pure gold (Exodus 25:17); two and one-half cubits long and one and
one-half cubits wide. That is, it was an immense gold plaque four feet three
inches by two feet seven inches, or about eleven square feet in size. On this
lid two cherubs were placed, one at each end. These figures were hammered of
pure gold. Their wings covered the lid, and they must have been of considerable
size. This box, we are told, was carried by the priests before the Camp of
Israel during the wanderings of the Children of Israel, but the critics
referred to, used to tell us that was impossible. The box, with its solid gold
lid, and immense solid gold statues, its stone tablets, its gold rings and
staves, was too heavenly to handle, except with machinery. But that kind of “criticism”
is old and obsolete, whether applied to the Bible or Book of Mormon. (George
Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols.
[Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976], 2:314-15)
Something tells me Bill McKeever et al., won’t be making a prop
asking their fellow Protestants to try to heft/carry these biblical objects . . .
Speaking of McKeever, see:
Top 17 Reasons Bill McKeever Doesn't Understand the Latter-day Saint Faith