Holy Crap...BYU Study Shows Smith Plagiarized his Bible

[_Jesse Pinkman]

I recently came across a new TBM 'response in the face of facts conflicting with beliefs' the other day. Do they send these down from Headquarters? Let me see if I can adapt it to this case..

"Well, I wasn't there in person to see first hand what Joseph Smith was doing when he was all alone, so I can't really comment as to whether he was actually plagiarizing from his Bible, therefore it wouldn't be appropriate for me to conclude that he did.

Moving on

I'm convinced that the reason members dismiss the overwhelming evidence that Smith was a fraud and the Church isn't "TRUE", is because they are more concerned about what other people will think of them (as an apostate), rather than wanting to know and follow where the truth leads. They want to be seen as stalwart and faithful, which has it's rewards given to them by other members, and no doubt from God also, because many of the Mormon life principles are good and correct.

The higher walk and path, in my opinion, is to seek, learn and accept the truth about any and all things, including Mormonism. I don't view it as honorable to "go along to get along", and just continue to accept and live a falsehood once known, to avoid rocking the boat.

This tendency by members to dismiss and deny any contrary information about Mormonism in order to look good to peers, is in addition to a lifetime of indoctrination, an overall lack of comprehensive study, and a false commitment to seeking truth.

In addition to what you have noted here, what also goes through the minds of members is how much they have invested, both time and monetarily, to the Church. If all of what they have invested over the years is proven to be for a scam, then it makes them look foolish.

Also, particularly in Utah, business connections and social connections are heavily connected in the Church. Remove yourself from the Church, and those connections are lost. Then, there is family to consider. Most family is so ingrained in the importance of the gospel, that they are prepared to turn their backs on fellow family members in favor of it, if that family member rejects it.

ETA--I think that is why Dellin's "middle way" New Order Mormonism became so popular.

[_Fence Sitter]

It's a whole lot easier to dismiss contrary evidence when you encounter it one piece at a time. Taken by itself, this is not that huge a deal. Joseph Smith copied some stuff from a book he had available to him, oh well.

The problem is getting a believer to acknowledge or understand that the preponderance of evidence is against the faithful explanation.

All this study will do is remove one small area where members will no longer be able to ask others to explain how Joseph Smith did something.

[Guest]

Interesting that there are many unique similarities between Clark's Commentary and the Book of Mormon as well. Take for example the unique phrase "Curious Workmanship" Copped form Clark's commentary? Who knows...but found in the Book of Mormon as well.

See Clarks commentary on Genius Chapter 35 , verse 2

http://www.godrules.net/library/IndoEur ... egen35.htm

[_Red Ryder]

The timing is interesting considering the Johnson Brothers found some of the same comparisons to Clarke back in 2011.

So did the BYU researchers borrow from the idea and pursue their own investigation leading to the same results?

What caused the BYU researchers to take up this cause?

[_lemuel]

Joseph said all truth is Mormonism, meaning, he was willing to take truth from any source.

I think a lot of the JST is inspired commentary, but other stuff, like JST Genesis 14 are obviously not taken from the commentary.

[_Fence Sitter]

The timing is interesting considering the Johnson Brothers found some of the same comparisons to Clarke back in 2011.

So did the BYU researchers borrow from the idea and pursue their own investigation leading to the same results?

What caused the BYU researchers to take up this cause?

Do you have any links to the Johnson brothers research?

[_Jesse Pinkman]

The timing is interesting considering the Johnson Brothers found some of the same comparisons to Clarke back in 2011.

So did the BYU researchers borrow from the idea and pursue their own investigation leading to the same results?

What caused the BYU researchers to take up this cause?

This is my question as well. It paints Joseph Smith in a negative light. Why would BYU, of all universities, want to do that? Furthermore, how could such a study be approved?

[_CameronMO]

The timing is interesting considering the Johnson Brothers found some of the same comparisons to Clarke back in 2011.

So did the BYU researchers borrow from the idea and pursue their own investigation leading to the same results?

What caused the BYU researchers to take up this cause?

Do you have any links to the Johnson brothers research?

https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comme ... e_clarkes/

[_RockSlider]

02. Seer Stone a.k.a. Magic Rock: same thing, Sally had one so Joseph dug one up also
......A. but he liked Sally's better so he stole hers.

by the way, is the stone revealed recently by the church Sally's stollen peep stone?

[_Craig Paxton]

Do you have any links to the Johnson brothers research?

https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comme ... e_clarkes/ oops I see CameronMO beat me.