Smith's reported translation techniques are absolutely fucking ridiculous and invalidates anything he wrote
Right. I brought up that he looked into his hat. He didn't have tablets to translate in the first place. He claims an angel led him to them, and that he gave them back to the angel when he was done with them. There were no techniques of translation. Joseph Smith was illiterate. He claimed to translate the tablets using divination, and he had a loyal church Mormon write down what he dictated while looking into his hat. So not only did Smith not read anything, he didn't write anything either. The Mormon tradition started with the oration of Joseph Smith, which he claimed to be translating tablets that he was led to by an angel by using divine powers. But he never showed anyone the actual tablets. Perhaps he was planning on having some tablets forged eventually but never got around to it and finally gave up and said that he gave them back to the angel. In the 1840s there were some attempts by people to fake Smith's tablets by putting Egyptian hieroglyphs on brass plates, but these were fairly quickly proven to be forged.
They show tablets up here, I saw them in the museum as a kid.
Right, those are artistic reproductions by the church.
Not even the church claims that the tablets they have in the museum are the originals. Because there are no originals. Joseph Smith claimed an angel led him to the tablets, and that he eventually gave the tablets back to the angel, and that nobody else was allowed to see them. I'm sure he would have been shameless enough to steal an indigenous artifact if he had actually found one, but it seems that he didn't actually have any tablets. And the archeological record seems to indicate that most pre-columbian gold metallurgy was done in Central/South America, not in New York where Smith found the tablets. The Nephite tribe that Smith claimed the tablets were from isn't even a real indigenous people group. It's a fictional group of Israelites that he claims fled to the United States in ancient times.
but the modern church definitely has tablets in a museum that I've seen indigenous people claim as their people's tablets.
I'm trying to look into this and I'm finding a lot of controversies between the Mormon church and indigenous peoples, but none of them have to do with the golden plates. Most of them have to do with the church physically and sexually abusing indigenous members. I'm not finding any controversies about the Mormon church stealing an artifact from a tribe. Because there was no artifact to steal in the first place.
I think JS is one of the funniest grifters to ever grift because of how blatantly ridiculous the grift is. The truth of the Mormon church barely even matters because their lies are just so blatantly stupid.
I do think there's an important distinction between him actually stealing an indigenous artifact and no such artifact existing in the first place, but yes, he was a grifter.
Yeah, agree that nephites are bullshit. Nothing Smith says should be taken seriously. Just wanna make it very clear that I'm not trying to defend the truth of Mormon historical accounts because they're clearly bullshit. But mormons over here do claim they found the plates. Remember, I don't live in Utah, I live by THAT tree. I hope you know what I'm talking about when I say that. I can PM you the place, but I can firmly say that I live in a place that facilitates a more disingenuous Mormon. This is a really hard thing to research into because I think I may be talking about things that I heard through word of mouth over the years and a couple articles I remember. I wouldn't be surprised if the church has just done a particularly good job of making people over here ignore the plates. Like I said, regardless of what is true, the plates they show are for people already in the church, not outsiders. They show them so that people get more wrapped up in it. But like I said, nothing has hieroglyphics on it.
I'd be more concerned about keeping things fully accurate, but we're talking about religion where what people believe is literally the whole thing. Joseph Smith loved archaeological finds, if the plates don't exist, he's still a grave digger who stole artifacts from other civilizations. With his history, I find distinctions on him to be unimportant
Right. I brought up that he looked into his hat. He didn't have tablets to translate in the first place. He claims an angel led him to them, and that he gave them back to the angel when he was done with them. There were no techniques of translation. Joseph Smith was illiterate. He claimed to translate the tablets using divination, and he had a loyal church Mormon write down what he dictated while looking into his hat. So not only did Smith not read anything, he didn't write anything either. The Mormon tradition started with the oration of Joseph Smith, which he claimed to be translating tablets that he was led to by an angel by using divine powers. But he never showed anyone the actual tablets. Perhaps he was planning on having some tablets forged eventually but never got around to it and finally gave up and said that he gave them back to the angel. In the 1840s there were some attempts by people to fake Smith's tablets by putting Egyptian hieroglyphs on brass plates, but these were fairly quickly proven to be forged.
Right, those are artistic reproductions by the church.
Not even the church claims that the tablets they have in the museum are the originals. Because there are no originals. Joseph Smith claimed an angel led him to the tablets, and that he eventually gave the tablets back to the angel, and that nobody else was allowed to see them. I'm sure he would have been shameless enough to steal an indigenous artifact if he had actually found one, but it seems that he didn't actually have any tablets. And the archeological record seems to indicate that most pre-columbian gold metallurgy was done in Central/South America, not in New York where Smith found the tablets. The Nephite tribe that Smith claimed the tablets were from isn't even a real indigenous people group. It's a fictional group of Israelites that he claims fled to the United States in ancient times.
I'm trying to look into this and I'm finding a lot of controversies between the Mormon church and indigenous peoples, but none of them have to do with the golden plates. Most of them have to do with the church physically and sexually abusing indigenous members. I'm not finding any controversies about the Mormon church stealing an artifact from a tribe. Because there was no artifact to steal in the first place.
I do think there's an important distinction between him actually stealing an indigenous artifact and no such artifact existing in the first place, but yes, he was a grifter.
Yeah, agree that nephites are bullshit. Nothing Smith says should be taken seriously. Just wanna make it very clear that I'm not trying to defend the truth of Mormon historical accounts because they're clearly bullshit. But mormons over here do claim they found the plates. Remember, I don't live in Utah, I live by THAT tree. I hope you know what I'm talking about when I say that. I can PM you the place, but I can firmly say that I live in a place that facilitates a more disingenuous Mormon. This is a really hard thing to research into because I think I may be talking about things that I heard through word of mouth over the years and a couple articles I remember. I wouldn't be surprised if the church has just done a particularly good job of making people over here ignore the plates. Like I said, regardless of what is true, the plates they show are for people already in the church, not outsiders. They show them so that people get more wrapped up in it. But like I said, nothing has hieroglyphics on it.
I'd be more concerned about keeping things fully accurate, but we're talking about religion where what people believe is literally the whole thing. Joseph Smith loved archaeological finds, if the plates don't exist, he's still a grave digger who stole artifacts from other civilizations. With his history, I find distinctions on him to be unimportant