When I first started noticing all the glaring problems with church history, I read a church book called Opening the Heavens. It gives every contemporary account of the first vision, priesthood restoration, BoM translation, BY transiguration, etc... Reading it only made my doubts grow and start to look deeper. In the translation section, there are multiple quotes about the seer stone used for translation. Martin Harris said that Joseph told him he could see anything he wanted through it, and that Martin Harris would die if he looked in it and couldn't control his desire to want to see God. Then there's a quote, maybe from David Whitmer, that said that Joseph gave the stone to someone when he was done with the translation. This shocked me. His magical stone would allow him to see anything he wanted...past, present, future, to see God himself, etc... and he just gave it away?! Joseph had this stone for several years before he actually started "translating" and during the translation he was quoted as saying something like, "Everyone on the earth would/could have a similar seer stone (find their own in the ground) if they were worthy, etc..." So, why did he give it away? Why did Moroni take back the Urim and Thummim when it had previously been passed down from one prophet to another? The book of Mormon actually shows that there was more than one Urim and Thummim...one was sealed up with the Jaredite record, but it wasn't recovered and taken to Alma with the record. Alma said that Mosiah already had the Urim and Thummim. Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum...
I don't know how anyone could read it and consider it faith promoting. I thought that the authors must be secretly anti and are trying to spread seeds of doubt. It includes every contemporary account of the first vision. It doesn't point out the differences, but they're pretty obvious to those that don't read it with blind faith and awe. It's clear from the accounts that nobody had heard of the first vision until well after the first draft was written in Joseph's journal. There is no evidence that he told his family or anyone else, and there is no evidence that he was persecuted in any sense of the word.
I wonder if any GA has tried out the peep stone in a hat - I would, why not of you believe JS. The only thing in JS's head when he used that peep stone were peep shows of naked 14 year olds.
There was more than one seer stone that Joseph owned. At least one was said to be a paper weight on the President's desk at the COB. Can't remember when, but it was reportedly, eventually moved to a safe... or so I heard. I would think, if they truly had nothing to hide, it would be on display in the Visitor's Center right next to his Jupiter Talisman and a replica of the Golden Plates. When hell freezes over.
They probably don't have "the" exact hat that JS used but that wasn't the "magic" anyway...it was the rocks.
But i can guaran-dang-tee you that every night before Tommy Monson goes to bed he fondles that "seer-stone" over and over in an attempt to get it to "light" up somehow!!!
The community of christ claim to have the hat spoken of by David Whitmer. No pics, display, or many references other than verbal claims from the previous leadership.
I think they have it all. Back in the 1950's and 1960's, there was a small church museum on Temple Square. I could swear that they had the Jupiter talisman there, but can't confirm it. Anyway, he's Holy Joe, and it's not like they're going to toss anything that was his, no matter how embarrassing. Remember that it wasn't that long ago when they featured is peep stones. Anyway, that's one of the reasons they have the 1st Presidency vault--to hide it all away so that people don't know this stuff.