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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith/Chapter 3
| Claims made in "Chapter 2: Treasure in the Earth" | A FAIR Analysis of: No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith A work by author: Fawn Brodie
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Claims made in "Chapter 4: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder" |
Claims made in "Chapter 3: Red Sons of Israel"
35
Claim
- Joseph's mother reported that he was "spinning theories" about the mound builders before he was twenty years old
Author's source(s) - Lucy Smith, Biographical Sketches, p. 85.
35
Claim
- Between 1820 and 1827 Joseph decided to write a history of the moundbuilders
Author's source(s) - Author's conjecture.
- Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
- Book of Mormon/Geography/New World/Great Lakes geography/Mound Builders
37
Claim
- Peter Ingersoll claimed that Joseph told him that no one could see the golden Bible and live.
Author's source(s) - Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834). (Affidavits examined)
39
Claim
- The "magic" Urim and Thummim was found with the plates
Author's source(s) - Author's opinion.
- Misrepresentation of source: The author added the word "magic:" Joseph never claimed that the Urim and Thummim had any "magical" qualities.
- Prejudicial or loaded language
- Joseph Smith/Seer stones
- "Magic"
- Loaded and prejudicial language
40
Claim
- The four year period during which Joseph waited to get the plates corresponded with his most intensive money-digging activities
Author's source(s) - No source provided to support the author's allegation of "intensive" money-digging activity.
40
Claim
- Lucy Smith described the Urim and Thummim as "two smooth three-cornered diamonds set in glass and the glasses set in silver bows."
Author's source(s) - Lucy Smith to Solomon Mack, 1831
40
Claim
- Martin Harris described the Urim and Thummim as "white, like polished marble, with a few grey streaks."
Author's source(s) - Tiffany's Monthly, 1859, p. 166.
40
Claim
- David Whitmer described the Urim and Thummim as "two small stones of a chocolate color, nearly egg shape, and perfectly smooth, but not transparent."
Author's source(s) - Kansas City Journal, June 5, 1881.
41
Claim
- Joseph warned his family that it meant instant death to look at the plates.
Author's source(s) - No source provided.
43
Claim
- Joseph was able to translate the plates without unwrapping them by using his stone
Author's source(s) - No source specified.
- The author attributes this to Emma Smith, but does not specify the source.
- Likely source is the interview of Emma Smith by her son Joseph Smith III.
- Book of Mormon/Translation
43
Claim
- Emma said that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim for the first 116 pages and then the seer stone for the remainder of the translation
Author's source(s) - No source provided.
- The author attributes this to Emma Smith, but does not specify the source.
- Likely source is the interview of Emma Smith by her son Joseph Smith III.
- Joseph Smith/Seer stones
43
Claim
- God cursed the Lamanites and all their descendents with a "red skin."
Author's source(s) - No source provided.
- The author's claim is false: There is no mention of "red skin" in the Book of Mormon.
- Misrepresentation of source: Red skin
- Lamanite curse—literal or symbolic?
43
Claim
- A neighbor, Lemuel Durfee. Signed an affidavit in 1833 charging Joseph with vicious habits and an immoral character.
Author's source(s) - Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834), 261-2. (Affidavits examined)
44
Claim
- After each battle in the Book of Mormon, the dead were "heaped upon the face of the earth, and they were covered with a shallow covering" - a reference to the Indian mounds
Author's source(s) - Book of Mormon (1830), pp. 358, 363, 267.
- O. Turner, Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase, p. 38.
- Palmyra Register, January 28, 1818.
- Misrepresentation of source: Note that the word "mound" never appears in the Book of Mormon.
- Book of Mormon/Geography/New World/Great Lakes geography/Mound Builders
46
Claim
- Joseph's familiarity with the idea that the Indians descended from the Hebrews seems to have come primarily from Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews
Author's source(s) - Ethan Smith, View of the Hebrews (1825), p. 184.
49
Claim
- Joseph Smith took the whole Western Hemisphere as the setting for the Book of Mormon
Author's source(s) - Author's opinion. No source provided.