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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Index: Difference between revisions
 
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''Main Article:'' [[An Insider's View of Mormon Origins]]
#REDIRECT [[Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins]]
 
This is an index of claims made in this work and links to responses within the FAIRwiki.
 
===Chapter 1: Joseph Smith as Translator/Revelator===
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
!width="5%"|Page
!width="55%"|Claim
!width="40%"|Response
|-
| style="width:5%"|1||Joseph claimed to translate the Kinderhook plates||[[Kinderhook Plates]]
|-
|1||Illustrations show Joseph Smith translating the plates directly||[[Church art and historical accuracy]]
|-
|2||Joseph Smith used a seer stone that he placed in his hat||[[Joseph Smith and seer stones]]
|-
|2-3||The plates were often not nearby while Joseph translated them||[[Book of Mormon translation method]]
|-
|6||Oliver attempted to translate using a divining rod||[[Joseph Smith and the occult#Working with the rod]]
|-
|6||Oliver would ask questions of his divining rod in faith and it would move||[[Joseph Smith and the occult#Source of the power?]]
|-
|7||Alterations in a different handwriting on the 116 pages would have been readily apparent.
|-
|8||Joseph was brought to court three times for stone gazing||[[Joseph Smith's 1826 glasslooking trial]]
|-
|9||After he lost the manuscript, Joseph became more vague regarding the method of translation
|-
|9||Joseph altered the Book of Mormon to modify description of God and Jesus to be separate beings
|-
|10||Scholars have determined that Joseph consulted an open Bible during translation||[[Book of Mormon plagiarized from the Bible]]
|-
|10||Joseph copied errors from the King James Bible||[[Book of Mormon anachronisms:Translation Errors from the KJV|Translation Errors from the KJV]]
|-
|11||None of Joseph's changes to the Bible have been supported by manuscript finds||[[Joseph Smith Translation as a restoration of the original Bible text]]
|-
|11||Some of Joseph's changes to the Bible contradict LDS beliefs
|-
|12||Joseph evolved his concept of the Father and Son||[[Joseph Smith's early conception of God]]
|-
|12||The hieroglyphics next to facsimile 1 state that Hor is the deceased man lying on the altar||[[Book of Abraham papyri]]
|-
|12||Joseph used this papyrus as his source for Abraham 1 through 2:18||[[Book of Abraham papyri]]
|-
|13||Near facsimile 3, Hor's name appears at the top and bottom||[[Book of Abraham papyri]]
|-
|17||Joseph expanded Abraham's curse to include denial of priesthood ordination to blacks||[[Blacks and the priesthood]]
|-
|17||Joseph got the story for the Book of Abraham from Josephus
|-
|19||Joseph's interpretations have been shown by Egyptologists as a mis-reading of the papyri||[[Book of Abraham papyri]]
|-
|19||A primary source for much of Abraham is Genesis
|-
|21||From 1820 to 1834 Joseph believed in one God.
|-
|21||The astronomical concepts in Abraham were common in Joseph Smith's environment
|-
|22-24||Joseph's theology was influenced by Thomas Dick's ''Philosophy of a Future State''
|-
|29||It is easy to identify the Book of Joseph from the papyrus fragments||[[Book of Abraham papyri]]
|-
|31||Kinderhook plates||[[Kinderhook Plates]]
|-
|34-35||Joseph translated a Greek psalter
|-
|36||Joseph mistranslated a number of documents
|}
 
===Chapter 2: Authorship of the Book of Mormon===
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
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!width="55%"|Claim
!width="40%"|Response
|-
| style="width:5%"|39||The church has encouraged the questioning of Book of Mormon authorship
|-
|40||Joseph Smith was intellectually capable of writing the Book of Mormon himself
|-
|40||B.H. Roberts wondered if the Book of Mormon stories were just inspirational tales||[[B.H. Roberts' testimony of the Book of Mormon]]
|-
|41||B.H. Roberts questioned whether it was history or the product of a "pious but immature" mind||[[B.H. Roberts' testimony of the Book of Mormon]]
|-
|41-42||The story of Zelph||[[Zelph]]
|-
|42||Joseph reported that the Kinderhook Plates contained a genealogy back to Ham||[[Kinderhook Plates]]
|-
|42||Joseph gave many descriptions of heroes and their treasures hidden in the New York hills
|-
|42||B.H. Roberts concluded that Joseph Smith was capable of writing the Book of Mormon||[[B.H. Roberts' testimony of the Book of Mormon]]
|-
|46||The Book of Mormon reflects evangelical Protestantism
|-
|48||The story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is the source of for Alma 19
|-
|48||Alma 19 is derived from evangelical conversion experiences common in the 19th century
|-
|49||Alma 32 is derived from Jesus's parable of the sower
|-
|49||The Book of Mormon was an amalgamation of ideas from Joseph Smith's own environment
|-
|50-53||Many Book of Mormon stories are derived from the New Testament
|-
|55||The decapitation of Laban parallels the story of Judith in the Apocrypha
|-
|57||LDS position is that the Lamanites are the principal ancestors of the American Indians||[[Search for the Truth DVD:DNA]]
|-
|57||No Hebrew or Egyptian writing has been discovered in the New World||[[Book of Mormon anachronisms:Reformed Egyptian]]
|-
|57||The Book of Mormon provides too short a time for the disappearance of the Nephite/Lamanite language
|-
|57||No indigenous American language has a Hebraic or Egyptian origin.
|-
|58||B.H. Roberts thought that View of the Hebrews could be a basis for the Book of Mormon||[[Book of Mormon and View of the Hebrews]]
|-
|58||Roberts investigated the possible connection between the two books because he recognized the utility of having a ground plan to work from to contextualize theological issues||[[Book of Mormon and View of the Hebrews]]
|-
|58||Roberts concluded that there was a great probability that the Smith family read View of the Hebrews||[[Book of Mormon and View of the Hebrews]]
|-
|60||Roberts concluded that a copy of View of the Hebrews could have been supplied by Oliver Cowdery
|-
|60-64||B.H. Roberts' parallels between View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon||[[Book of Mormon and View of the Hebrews]]
|-
|65-66||Joseph Smith received a revelation to send people to Canada to sell the Book of Mormon copyright for $8000. After expenses, the money was to go to the Smith family.
|-
|66||The writing of the 116 pages served as an "apprenticeship" to writing the Book of Mormon
|}
 
===Chapter 3: The Bible in the Book of Mormon===
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
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!width="55%"|Claim
!width="40%"|Response
|-
| style="width:5%"|70-71||Joseph Smith Sr.'s 1811 dreams are similar to Lehi's "first" vision and his "tree of life" dream||[[Joseph Smith, Sr.'s dream and Lehi's vision]]
|-
|82||There are no original motifs in 3 Nephi that are not found in the Gospels||[[Book of Mormon plagiarized from the Bible ]]
|-
|82||Joseph had the words of Christ available to him, but "curiously chose not to use them" for at least half the verses in 3 Nephi 11-28.||[[Book of Mormon plagiarized from the Bible ]]
|-
|82||Joseph may have used a blanket to screen his use of the Bible from his scribe
|-
|83||Oliver "neglected to mention" the use of a Bible in the translation
|-
|83||The Book of Mormon contains twenty-six full chapters from a 1769 edition of the KJV||[[Book of Mormon plagiarized from the Bible ]]
|-
|83||The Sermon at the Temple includes modern errors found in the KJV||[[Book of Mormon anachronisms:Translation Errors from the KJV|Translation Errors from the KJV]]
|-
|90||The Aramaic word "raca" would not have been intelligible to a Nephite
|-
|90||The three days of sunlight is not mentioned in the Bible even though North America and Israel are both in the Northern hemisphere.
|}
 
===Chapter 4: Evangelical Protestantism in the Book of Mormon===
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
!width="5%"|Page
!width="55%"|Claim
!width="40%"|Response
|-
| style="width:5%"|95||Elements from Joseph Smith's own life form the basis for a portion of the Book of Mormon
|-
|96||One would not expect to find "camp meeting" elements among ancient Americans
|-
|97||King Benjamin's farewell speech parallels that of Methodist leader "Bishop M'Kendree"
|-
|100||King Benjamin's speech includes elements of typical "revival" meetings
|-
|106||Alma's conversion parallels that of Darius Williams and Abel Thornton
|-
|107||Alma's missions are similar to those of traveling preachers
|-
|114||The Book of Mormon includes hundreds of popular phrases from frontier preaching
|-
|116||There are "recognizable evangelical phrases" contained in Amulek's and Alma's
preaching
|-
|118||The Book of Mormon is simply "revival literature" cast in a different setting
|-
|120||The Book of Mormon teaches that all men are evil as a result of the Fall
|-
|121||Joseph changed his view from human nature being evil to it being "inherently good"
|-
|121-122||Joseph evolved his view of the Godhead over time||[[Joseph Smith's early conception of God]]
|-
|122||The Book of Mormon "vividly" portrays the Father and Son as the same God.
|-
|123||The Book of Mormon is closer to Evangelical Protestantism than ancient Jewish or modern LDS beliefs
|-
|123||Most of the Book of Mormon's theological issues are of little or no interest to Americans today
|-
|124||The Book of Mormon contains no information about temple ordinances, exaltation or baptism for the dead
|-
|129-130||B.H. Roberts concluded that Joseph Smith created the anti-Christs Sherem, Nehor and Korihor
|-
|131||Feelings attributed to the Holy Ghost are simply edifying feelings||[[Burning in the bosom]]
|-
|131||Edifying feelings are not sufficient to determine truth||[[Burning in the bosom]]
|-
|131||Many people believe in the truthfulness of their own religion because of similar confirming experiences
|-
|132||It is possible to feel "the sprit" even when listening to a hoax||[[Burning in the bosom]]
|-
|132||The LDS church claims exclusive receipt of the Holy Ghost as a gift.
|-
|133||The Holy Ghost is an unreliable means of proving truth||[[Burning in the bosom]]
|-
|133||The Spirit does not confirm the historical reality of the Book of Mormon||[[Burning in the bosom]]
|}
 
===Chapter 5: Moroni and "The Golden Pot"===
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
!width="5%"|Page
!width="55%"|Claim
!width="40%"|Response
|-
|138||The story involves the copying and translation of ancestral records||[[Book of Mormon and the Golden Pot]]
|-
|139-142||Luman Walters likely informed Joseph Smith about story of "The Golden Pot"||[[Book of Mormon and the Golden Pot]]
|-
|157||Joseph is told to bring Emma to the hill Cumorah on "the next fall equinox"
|-
|157||Joseph's father said that Joseph married Emma in order to ensure success in obtaining the plates
|-
|163||Joseph regarded the autumnal equinox as a special day
|-
|172||Variants of the Moroni story were told and then standardized after 1830
|-
|172||Joseph's later narratives talk about a more biblical-type angel
|-
|173||Many of the magical elements of the Moroni story began disappearing around 1830
|}
 
===Chapter 6: Witnesses to the Golden Plates===
{| valign="top" border="1" style="width:100%; font-size:85%"
!width="5%"|Page
!width="55%"|Claim
!width="40%"|Response
|-
|175||The witnesses had a "magical mindset" and believed in "second sight"
|-
|175-176||The witnesses believed in the ability to see spirits and their dwelling places within the local hills
|-
|178||Martin Harris participated in his own "treasure adventures" after meeting Joseph Smith
|-
|178||Martin Harris said that he could "see things" in the Hill Cumorah
|-
|178||Martin Harris informed Joseph Smith about the gold plates
|-
|179||The Whitmers all believed that they could see things with stones and dowsing sticks
|-
|179||Oliver Cowdery was a treasure hunter and "rodsman" before he met Joseph Smith
|-
|179||William Cowdery (Oliver's father) was associated with a treasure seeking group in Vermont
|-
|179||Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris saw the plates in a vision before meeting Joseph Smith
|-
|181||David and possibly John Whitmer owned seer stones
|-
|186||The Smith's talked about being able to see subterranean chambers in the hills
|-
|186||Joseph often told neighbors stories about treasures he found in the earth
|-
|188||Joseph claimed to know the location of Captain Kidd's treasure
|-
|194||Martin Harris said that marvelous things appeared to Hyrum, Joseph Sr. and Joseph Jr. while they were treasure hunting
|-
|194-195||The gold plates that the witnesses saw disappeared when place on the ground at the hill Cumorah
|-
|195||The witnesses believed that there was a toad the turned into something else hiding in the box that held the plates
|-
|197||The testimony of the Three Witnesses was a vision rather than an actual visit by an angel||[[Book of Mormon witnesses:Spiritual or literal]]
|-
|197||David Whitmer indicated that the visit of the angel was spiritual rather than real
|-
|198||Martin Harris claimed to see the plates with "the eye of faith."||[["Eye of Faith"/"Spiritual Eye" statements by Martin Harris]]
|-
|198||Some of the three witnesses claimed that they handled the plates during the angels visit
|-
|200||David Whitmer claimed that he handled the plates in vision, but not physically||[[Book of Mormon witnesses:Spiritual or literal]]
|-
|204||The testimony of the Eight Witnesses does not describe a physical incident||[[Book of Mormon witnesses:Spiritual or literal]]
|-
|204-205||Martin Harris claimed that none of the witnesses saw or handled the plates
|-
|205||Martin Harris claimed that he never saw or handled the plates
|-
|206||The Eight Witnesses hesitated to sign their testimony because their experience was not physical
|-
|206||The gold plates belong to another world rather than this one
|-
|206||The plates were able to sink and glide underground
|-
|206-207||Viewing the gold plates "too soon" would cause physical death
|-
|207||The declarations of the witnesses "sounded more physical than was intended."||[[Book of Mormon witnesses:Spiritual or literal]]
|-
|207||Joseph may have fabricated a "plate-like" object to sustain belief in the plates
|-
|208||James Strang also produced witnesses to metal plates||[[Book of Mormon witnesses:Strangite parallels]]
|-
|211||Joseph appointed James Strang as his successor||[[James Strang]]
|-
|213||All the living witnesses except Oliver Cowdery accepted James Strang's leadership||[[James Strang]]
|}

Latest revision as of 06:17, 27 June 2017

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