Posted by:
The Oncoming Storm - bc
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Date: January 11, 2013 11:12PM
Fairly often people on this board ask the question - what's the best evidence that the church is false? Occasionally they are asking for themselves in working through their faith. Other times they are asking for information in talking to someone else.
I also suspect there are a number of lurkers who are here that are interested in an answer to this question - for themselves or for others.
(My apologies to those who just read this in my response to Fred's thread.)
So here's my answer to this question:
1) Logically - the Book of Abraham has no outs. There is no reasonable counter argument to "Joseph Smith fraudulently invented this." None. (I've read the apologetic arguments by Nibley, Rhodes, Lindsey, etc - they are all just grasping at straws.)
http://www.mormonhandbook.com/home/book-of-abraham.htmlhttp://www.bookofabraham.com/boamathie/BOA_TOC.html2) Emotionally - reading about Joseph Smith and his wives. It's not just that he has them - it was reading the actual journal entries of the angst he caused the girls, their parents, and their husbands that made it real. This is what emotionally made me feel like: "Joseph Smith was a true scumbag and I want to have nothing to do with his church."
http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/Top 4:
http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/05-ZinaHuntingtonJacobs.htmhttp://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/23-LucyWalker.htmhttp://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/26-HelenMarKimball.htmhttp://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/2021-EmilyandElizaPartridge.htm3) Top 10 Mormon problems explained video. For some reason this simple, straightforward video presentation is the most effective thing I've seen at going through the major issues and just completely putting my mind at ease that it's all made up. (Note: the narrator of this video is a regular poster here on rfm - he used to post as "stunted" but changed his rfm name because he doesn't want it too directly tied this video - Dear awesome narrator: I hope you are OK with me disclosing that.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ac_fLUHiBwHonorable mentions:
4) Mormon think - the site is almost overwhelming in the breadth and depth of information - Unfortunately it's also almost as overwhelming in it's poor navigability ;) But wow, it's excellent!
http://www.mormonthink.com/5) I find the links about Utah statistics and wacky things church leaders have said to be VERY telling:
http://www.mormonprobe.com/index.php?topic=By%20Their%20Fruits6) This article does a fantastic job of exposing the approaches Mormon apologists take and helps clarify things:
http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon441.htm6a) Along these lines, this helps explain why some really smart people still believe Mormonism:
http://www.michaelshermer.com/weird-things/excerpt/Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2013 11:20PM by bc.