Series: My Search for Truth - Wes T
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Why I No Longer Believe
I have always appreciated that LDS members are taught to value intelligence and truth. I want the church to be true. It has generally been a positive force in my life. I would appreciate discussing this with anyone who reads through this document.
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Should We Avoid Doubts and Questions?
There is a real fear among the some faithful that questioning the veracity of the church or the Book of Mormon is a sure way to lose your soul to the devil. I think this mindset is at odds with the more central, key teaching of the LDS church, which…
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Nature of Spiritual Confirmation
I would first also address hopefully briefly why I don’t just rely on a spiritual inspiration as the confirmation of the trueness of Book of Mormon or any other church teaching, as most members do. As I stated earlier, we believe that the Holy Ghost will confirm the truth of…
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The Book of Mormon: Keystone
I will be presenting and explaining what issues have most troubled me as I investigated the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Interestingly enough, most of the issues that follow may not be new to anyone who reads this, as they were not for me, either. The difference is that…
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Book of Mormon Issue 1: Animals
The Book of Mormon is very clear that there were particular animals among the Nephites and Lamanites. Thanks to paleontologists and other researchers, we now know which animals actually did live in the Americas during the Book of Mormon period of history. Here are good summary verses from the Book of Mormon:…
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Book of Mormon Issue 2: Agriculture
Zeniff records some of the Book of Mormon seeds: Mosiah 9:9 And we began to till the ground, yea, even with all manner of seeds, with seeds of corn, and of wheat, and of barley, and with neas, and with sheum, and with seeds of all manner of fruits; and we…
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Book of Mormon Issue 3: Technology
We already discussed the chariots which I think is a huge problem. Several additional technology advances are completely out of place. I’ll go through these more briefly than the previous sections, but I am happy to discuss any of these in depth if you have any questions. Silk The Book…
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Book of Mormon Issue 4: Language
The text of the Book of Mormon indicates that the peoples within the narrative took great care to preserve their language from evolving or fracturing into different dialects. They wrote in Reformed Egyptian to supposedly “save space” and spoke and read Hebrew. In 1st Nephi, Nephi is commanded to get…
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Book of Mormon Issue 5: Hebrew DNA
I will go into this in more depth at some time, but until just recently (2006), the introduction page in the Book of Mormon said all of the people chronicled in the book “were destroyed, except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.” The new…
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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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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 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…