Recent Posts

  • Epistemological Considerations

    Epistemological Considerations

    (or how do we know what we think we know) I am by no means a Philoso­pher, but I think it is cru­cial to address this top­ic here. It can get quite com­pli­cat­ed, and peo­ple have spent life­times, writ­ten dis­ser­ta­tions and count­less books on this sub­ject. But basi­cal­ly, what is need­ed…

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  • Factual Claims

    Factual Claims

    The Church makes many spe­cif­ic claims about mat­ters of his­to­ry (both its own, and that of oth­er peo­ples), the migra­tion of peo­ple from one con­ti­nent to anoth­er, the trans­la­tion of ancient doc­u­ments, etc. These are per­fect­ly legit­i­mate sub­jects to be exam­ined using the tools and log­ic of Science. I do…

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  • Introduction to Examining Church Claims

    Introduction to Examining Church Claims

    The Church was orga­nized in Man­ches­ter, New York, on April 6, 1830. The orig­i­nal name used on that date was actu­al­ly the “Church of Christ.” This was changed in 1834 to “The Church of the Lat­ter Day Saints,” and then changed again in 1838 to “The Church of Jesus Christ…

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  • So, you want to help someone going through a faith crisis…

    So, you want to help someone going through a faith crisis…

    The odds of you know­ing of some­one going through a faith cri­sis seem to be increas­ing. Per­haps that is because more peo­ple are going through faith crises. Per­haps the inter­net pro­vides an avenue for those peo­ple to be more vocal about it. Or, per­haps it is a com­bi­na­tion of both. In any event, you…

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  • Navigating Death

    Navigating Death

    One of the hard­est things to try to come to terms with — NOT know­ing. Is there life after death? Will we see our loved ones again? It was­n’t as scary when I ‘knew’. When I had my head in the sand. Feel­ing these fears is part of expos­ing myself,…

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  • Conclusion to Why I No Longer Believe

    Conclusion to Why I No Longer Believe

    I’ve focused most­ly on the Book of Mor­mon, since I accept that it is the key­stone of the reli­gion, just as Joseph Smith, Jr stat­ed. The Book of Abra­ham and his oth­er trans­la­tions are close behind. Some of the oth­er top­ics that have affect­ed my testimony: Polyg­a­mous mar­riages of Joseph…

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  • Other translations by Joseph Smith, Jr

    Other translations by Joseph Smith, Jr

    I had pre­vi­ous­ly been able to con­vince myself that the rea­son we don’t have the gold plates is because Joseph Smith, Jr would have been hunt­ed to an even ear­li­er death if he had kept them. Still, I, and I think every mem­ber, has a secret wish that the Lord…

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  • Book of Abraham: Facsimile 3

    Book of Abraham: Facsimile 3

    Fac­sim­i­le 3 is described by Joseph Smith as “Abra­ham sit­ting upon Pharaoh’s throne, by the polite­ness of the king, with a crown upon his head, rep­re­sent­ing the Priest­hood, as emblem­at­i­cal of the grand Pres­i­den­cy in Heav­en; with the scepter of jus­tice and judg­ment in his hand.” Once again, this is not about…

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  • Book of Abraham: Facsimile 2

    Book of Abraham: Facsimile 2

    Fac­sim­i­le 2 is actu­al­ly a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of a “hypocephalus”. Egyp­tians would put these under the head of mum­mies, like a pillow. Here are lots of real hypocephali as they are in abundance: You’ll notice that I’ve cir­cled cer­tain sec­tions. Go back and study what’s inside the red cir­cle first. Four…

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  • Book of Abraham: Facsimile 1

    Book of Abraham: Facsimile 1

    This is Fac­sim­i­le 1, locat­ed at the front of the Book of Abra­ham in the Pearl of Great Price. Joseph Smith described this scene as “The idol­a­trous priest of Elke­nah attempt­ing to offer up Abra­ham as a sac­ri­fice,” mean­ing, the man with the knife is a priest of Elke­nah and…

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  • Book of Abraham

    Book of Abraham

    The major­i­ty of mem­bers don’t know where the Book of Abra­ham (found in the Pearl of Great Price) comes from. Here is a brief his­to­ry from Wikipedia: Sev­er­al papyri and eleven mum­mies were dis­cov­ered in Thebes by Anto­nio Lebo­lo between 1818 and 1822. Some­time between 1822 and his death on…

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  • Book of Mormon Issue 6+: Everything else

    Book of Mormon Issue 6+: Everything else

    Quoted Isaiah Scriptures Schol­ars divide the book of Isa­iah into three parts. There is very lit­tle dis­agree­ment about this fact. Here are the three parts and when they were written: Chap­ters 1 to 39 (First Isa­iah, Pro­to-Isa­iah or Orig­i­nal Isa­iah): the work of the orig­i­nal prophet Isa­iah, who worked in…

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