Now if people would die simply by looking at the plates why did he have to defend them at all?

'Hey bad dudes, you want the plates then come here and look for yourself'

Then zappo they fall over like a limp lettuce. DEAD.

So couldn't you defeat armies with the dreaded Gold Plates of
D. O. O. M. -Echo on the word Doom Please-

If you make it up as you go along there's bound to be little flecks of inconsistency now and then.

some time examining the details.

It continues to boggle my mind that otherwise reasonably intelligent Mormons can't see it.

I have to admit, when I was coming to the realization that Mormonism (the tall tales of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon etc.) could not possibly be true, after carefully considering the facts and applying straightforward logic, I thought in the back of my mind that many of my friends and relatives would reach the same conclusion at some point not far down the road, especially if I presented the facts to them.

Boy was I wrong! Not only did they not reach the same conclusion, they did not want to hear anything I had to say. They had an impenetrable force field they called "faith" around them and facts bounced off just like bullets shot at Superman.

Four years of visits to the Hill Cumorah until finally the angel deemed young Joseph "worthy" to take possession of the golden plates.

Turns out nobody but Joseph could see them.

Turns out they weren't necessary for the translation, since the little turd-sized rock that Joseph kept from previous treasure hunts was much better suited for revealing the contents. The plates didn't even have to be in the same room.

Turns out that the witnesses only saw them with their "spiritual eyes" (i.e. as figments of their imagination).

Turns out that the angel took them away before anyone else could see them or "heft" them.

I know that if anyone tried to sell a similar story to my TBM friends and relatives, they would laugh in the person's face. "How stupid do you think we are??!!??" So why do they believe Joseph Smith's totally and ridiculously transparent fibbing? It's a mystery.

It is amazing, but it seems universal. If you show someone something that goes against what they were taught, even if they see it with their own two eyes, they tend to not believe it.

The word FAITH is the catch all for mind control. when all else fails revert to FAITH. It covers everything

When my wife-to-be first told me of how Joseph Smith found the plates and translated them, my first question was, "Where are the plates now?"

"An angel took them back to heaven," she explained.

"Well, isn't that convenient?"

"What do you mean," she asked.

"If the plates were still available," I explained, "they could be analyzed and the translation verified, and nobody would doubt their authenticity...assuming they were what Joseph Smith said they were. But with them gone, taken by an angel, no less, we are left with nothing but the word of a man with a less than sterling reputation."

"But the plates were taken so that we would rely on faith," she insisted.

"That's also convenient cop-out for somebody without evidence to support extraordinary claims," I noted.

"What do you mean?"

And so the cycle would continue with every truth-claim by the church, and why my wife and I seldom discuss the Mormon church, or even religion in general.

I'll betcha that if we met Joseph Smith in person, that it would take about two minutes to know he was a sleazy con-man. Men like that reek of it!

Just by natural instinct and creepy vibes about the guy, we wouldn't believe his stories, either.

He would have a hard time getting a date with today's savvy women. In today's world of instant global media, he wouldn't be able to start any kind of religion, either. The Mormons are correct, when they teach that only in these "latter days" only in America, only in superstitious rural New England where new cults were the fad, would JS have ever succeeded.

Joseph Smith: Truly a "man of his time."

I feel exactly the same way that you do and yet They used to be idiotic me!

That's the bloody mental conundrum.

In the Lost Ark, all the Nazis shriveled up and their faces melted off.

But I think a better one would be if the person who looks at the plates suddenly turns into salt...and then explodes, resulting in piles of salt everywhere, suitable for cooking and seasoning foods. For about 1 minute, the evil, unauthorized looker is standing like a statue of salt. Then Pookow! The salt statue explodes. Later the same day, all the neighbors gather round to see if they can load up on some of the salt so that they can cure hams and stuff.

I think the time has come for a Joseph Smith adventure-thriller movie with expensive CGI effects. Hey Spielberg! Yo Cameron!

The huge heaps of salt are then transported to Utah to salt the Great Salt Lake for time and all eternity.

Ha!