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Dear Friends,

For context on this post, please see the previous one. Basically, we’re analyzing LDS (Mormon) beliefs.

Challenge 1: “A farrago of nonsense”

The Book of Abraham is a fraud.

This is important because the Book of Abraham, Joseph Smith’s “inspired” translation of ancient Egyptian papyri, is considered to be part of LDS scriptures (23).

Because Smith identified in several places the original Egyptian characters and his translation thereof, Egyptologists have had little trouble refuting his work. Here’s a handy summary by Dr. Arthur Mace, of the Department of Egyptian Art in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, written in 1912 (24):

“Joseph Smith’s interpretation of these cuts is a farrago of nonsense from beginning to end.”

You can spend hours and hours digging through this material, but let’s just look at a couple brief examples and move on.

The excerpt below comes directly from the Book of Abraham, from the LDS website (25). Below the vignette, you will see Smith’s translation (ignore blue highlighting, it’s a leftover link) of some of the Egyptian characters at the top of the vignette. In figures 2, 4 and 5, he specifies which set of characters he is looking at, and then tells us what they mean.

I’m going to quote Yale Egyptology professor Robert Ritner, but you can find lots more critical responses here (24). The table below shows how far off Smith’s translation was…for figures 2 and 4, he didn’t even get the gender right! Talk about erasing women…

A riposte! 

It’s worth mentioning that the LDS church does respond, indirectly, to this challenge. They say, “…there is not unanimity, even among non-Latter-day Saint scholars, about the proper interpretation of the vignettes on these fragments.” (23) And from my brief survey, they are correct…not all of said scholars agree on every detail of the vignettes. Some of this disagreement might indeed reflect continuing uncertainty regarding the vignettes, and some of the disagreements may have recently been resolved due to advances in the field. I haven’t done enough investigation to know.

But notice their subtle attempt to parlay the lack of unanimity into a hermeneutical free-for-all. In other words, the presence of some edge cases makes it OK to discard all certainty about the correct interpretation. If you have been paying attention to contemporary western culture, this tactic should sound familiar.

If there really was significant and relevant disagreement on this topic among non-LDS scholars, I find it strange that the church cites zero examples. They merely point, in a footnote, to the work of two LDS scholars. Hmmm. Could the significant lack of unanimity among non-LDS scholars only exist in the minds of…LDS scholars?

What a big mess looks like 

As a counterpoint to the sneaky approach of (23), consider this candid statement from a senior research scientist who studies human evolution at the American Museum of Natural History (30):

“When you look at the narrative for hominin origins, it’s just a big mess—there’s no consensus whatsoever.”

So, is that the state of the field when it comes to deciphering the vignettes? Is it a big mess? Let’s check in with Ritner again (26):

“…the basic understanding of the papyrus remains unchanged from Baer’s interpretation of thirty-five years ago…The implications, basic symbolism, and intent of the text are certain.”

Nope. Not a mess. The non-LDS Egyptologists are agreed on the basic meaning of the vignettes, and that basic meaning is completely different from what Smith claimed it was.

And now for something completely different!

I already wrote a blog post showing the much higher level of respect shown towards the gospels, as well as the epistles of the Apostle Paul, by the average New Testament scholar (28). For now, I will just give you one little excerpt from that post. Here is atheist, Princeton-trained, New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman making a surprising statement about the Bible:

“To dismiss the Gospels from the historical record is neither fair nor scholarly.”

Can you see the contrast between that statement and “a farrago of nonsense from beginning to end”?

So, no, the evidence bases for Christian and LDS beliefs are not similar. The Christian one is superior.

Challenge 2: Did God really tell him to take the beautiful teenage maid as a plural wife?

The basic LDS narrative is that Joseph Smith was commanded by God to marry women in addition to his first wife, Emma. In obedience to this command, LDS presume that he married Fanny Alger, a beautiful young maid in his household (8)(9).

I think I speak for just the average guy on the street when I say this narrative already raises a host of red flags. I don’t believe it.

In addition, at least two of the Three Witnesses rejected this narrative also (they were both excommunicated, by the way, and at least one of them was excommunicated for said rejection (18)(19)(20)):

• Oliver Cowdery, who was also second elder of the restored Church, given the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood by heavenly messengers, and Joseph Smith’s scribe during the translation of the plates (11)(13), called the Smith-Alger connection “dirty, nasty, filthy” (14)
• David Whitmer said, many years later: “That I do not endorse polygamy or spiritual wifeism. It is a great evil, shocking to the moral sense, and the more so, because practiced in the name of religion. It is of man and not God, and is especially forbidden in the Book of Mormon itself.”(15)

Again, this is not just a random stumble by Smith. Because he grounded plural marriage in revelation, this whole creepy story calls the revelations themselves into question.

So, my takeaway from the Alger story is not, “Ah ha! Smith is not infallible!”

Rather, it is: Smith’s revelations are not credible.

And now for something completely different!

The apostle Paul endorsing singlehood:

[1Co 7:1 KJV] 1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: [It is] good for a man NOT to touch a woman.

Paul forbidding church leaders from having multiple wives:

[Tit 1:6 KJV] 6 If any be blameless, the husband of ONE WIFE, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.

Putting it another way, Christianity is not, in any way, shape or form, a path towards polygyny (having multiple wives). For the apostles, their repeated eyewitness testimony of the risen Lord Jesus, the One True God, was a path towards persecution and martyrdom, not polygyny, power, or wealth (21)(22). Their steadfastness really only makes sense under the hypothesis that their testimony was…wait for it…true.

So, no, the evidence bases for Christian and LDS beliefs are not similar. The Christian one is superior.

Challenge 3: Martyrdom or Clash of Clans?

The last thing I want to challenge is Joseph Smith’s “martyrdom”.

LDS sources call Joseph Smith’s death a martyrdom (16), and even Habermas and Licona concede that Joseph Smith “willingly suffered and died for his beliefs”.

Here is a short account of his death from the History Channel, emphasis mine (2):

“A group of dissenting Latter-day Saints began publishing a newspaper that was highly critical of the practice of polygamy and of Smith’s leadership; Smith had the press destroyed. The ensuing threat of violence prompted Smith to call out a militia in the town of Nauvoo, Illinois. He was charged with treason and conspiracy by Illinois authorities and imprisoned with his brother Hyrum in the Carthage city jail. On June 27, 1844, a mob stormed in and murdered the brothers.”

Note two of the key actions in the above account: Joseph Smith destroying a printing press and calling out a militia (and you can verify both of these facts using LDS sources (17)). That (plus some of the other Mormon history I’ve looked at recently, including their history in Missouri) sounds a lot more like a garden-variety conflict over territory and power than a doctrinal issue. Oh hey! Just noticed at least some partial confirmation of this, again from LDS sources:

I remember my anthropology professor (at a secular university) telling us that many “religious” wars are really just territorial disputes wherein religion is a convenient tool for picking teams. The Mormon wars seem like a great example.

So, I don’t think Joseph Smith was martyred, and therefore, I don’t concede to him the associated credibility bump.

And now for something completely different!

Consider this edict from Roman emperor Trajan regarding treatment of Christians, emphasis mine (3):

“They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it—that is, by worshiping our gods—even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon through repentance.”

THAT is what actual persecution for your beliefs looks like. Neither Joseph Smith’s death, nor his various, earlier close shaves with death, add to his credibility in my mind. By contrast, the martyrdoms of the Christian apostles do add to their credibility (21)(22).

So, no, the evidence bases for Christian and LDS beliefs are not similar. The Christian one is superior.

In the next post, I’ll propose my own theory of LDS history, and try to wrap up this mini-series on the LDS church.

God bless, and thanks for reading!

Links:

(1) The opening salvo

(2) Joseph Smith on History Channel

(3) Trajan at worldhistory.org

(4) Quotations from respected LDS scholar Richard Bushman

(5) Joseph Smith looking for treasure using seer stones

(6) William Smith discussing Lucy Mack Smith impressing on her children their responsibility in their own salvation

(7) Joseph Smith’s father making barrels

(8) LDS Ben Johnson calls Fanny Alger “a very nice and comely young woman about my own age”

(9) Fanny Alger lived with the Smiths and is considered to be Joseph Smith’s first plural wife

(10) “the Lord” commanding men to marry additional women whether their first wife liked it or not

(11) Oliver Cowdery anointed

(12) Translation of the Book of Mormon using stones

(13) Oliver Cowdery as scribe and Second Elder

(14) Bushman on Cowdery

(15) Whitmer on Whitmer

(16) Joseph Smith’s death called a martyrdom

(17)  LDS on death of Joseph Smith

(18)  Oliver Cowdery excommunicated

(19) Cowdery excommunicated for, among other things, accusing Joseph Smith of adultery

(20) David Whitmer excommunicated

(21) Martyrdom of Peter

(22) Martyrdom of Paul

(23) LDS discussion of Book of Abraham

(24) More skeptical responses to the Book of Abraham

(25) Book of Abraham

(26) Robert Ritner doing work

(27) A farrago of nonsense (go to page 27)

(28) Mad respect for the Bible

(29) He shall save His people

(30) What an actual scientific mess looks like