Posted by:
ificouldhietokolob
(
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Date: July 17, 2018 09:13AM
No, that was Scientology. And it was more of a bet, really...maybe, anyway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_controversies#L._Ron_Hubbard_and_starting_a_religion_for_moneyBut, yeah -- Joe knew it was a scam. Personally, I think he kind of fell into the religion business.
He had been pulling his treasure-hunting scams for a long time, but he hadn't made much money at it, and it had gotten him thrown in jail at least once. When he came up with the idea to claim he'd found "gold plates," that his treasure hunting had finally paid off, I'm not sure he knew where exactly he was going to go with that. Then Harris turned out to be so damn gullible, Smith thought there might really be something to this religion thing. Then Cowdery and Rigdon got involved -- one smarter and more educated than Smith, the other more radically/nuttily religious, and they had themselves a gang that could fleece the gullible in several states. So they did.
And no, I don't think he ever actually believed his own garbage. The attempts (often successful) later on to get women to sleep with him by claiming angelic visions clearly show he was aware of his fraud, and didn't believe any of it, but knew how to lie to get what he wanted.