Turning a new leaf

I am going to resurrect this blog and let the reader know that I am now atheist.

Comments

Hüffenhardt said…
The nice thing about the Book of Abraham is that we do not have to rely on anyone's opinion or statement about anything. The only statement I use is what Joseph said the Book of Abraham is, which statement is right in our scriptures, then I can use no futher statements from the 1800's to disprove it. I simply use the facsimilies as they appear in the scriptures, "The Philosophy of a Future Stae" by Thomas Dick, the writings of Josephus, the known English translation of the hieroglyphics in the facsimilies, and Joseph's Egyptian Alphabet and Grammer.

We don't have to know anything about Joseph Smith or what his friends or enemies said about him or what they said about the translation process or the documents themselves, or anything.

And the thing that convinces me Joseph was a knowing fraud and not just following the false impressions that came to his mind is his "restoration" of facsimilie #2. (His restoration of facsimilie #1 is incorrect according to Egyptologists and I agree, but he may have felt that what he drew was supposed to be there). However, with facsimilie #2, his restoration is more telling. An honest man might leave the damaged and missing portions of the facsimilie blank as is drawn in the Egyptian Alphabet and Grammer. A fool might notice a pattern, that there were supposed to be hieroglyphics there, and imagine some characters there and draw them in. Perhaps they would be true characters from his memory of looking at the other true characters. Perhaps they would be made up characters, for he had made up some characters in damaged portions of the sensen text as evidenced in the Egyptian Papers. But, Joseph was neither an honest man (for he did not leave the area blank), a fool (for he did not put some random characters in the missing place), nor was he a prophet (for what he "restored" there was not only incorrect judging by the text that is on every other hypocephalus facsimilie that has the surrounding characters, the characters he "restored" were from a different time period, a different developmental stage of the Egyptian written language). No, Joseph was none of those things, he was a knowing fraud because he copied character by character in order from a random section of the sensen text and gave it a different translation in the facsimilie than he gave those same characters in the the Book of Abraham text.

The case is even more clear when you look at what I am talking about. I don't believe a fool following his heart would do that, neither would an honest man, neither would a prophet. IMO, Joseph knowingly, actively defrauded us in that. And for a man that could do that, I have no problem entertaining the idea that he defrauded the Kirtland Safety Society investors with sand filled boxes, that he defrauded Josiah Stowell of his pay by pretending he could see treasure in his stone, or that he defrauded all of us with the Book of Mormon, especially when the Book of Mormon has so much evidence against it.

For a discussion of the reuse of Egyptian symbols, look [L=here]http://p080.ezboard.com/fpacumenispagesfrm47.showMessage?topicID=526.topic[/L]

To see photos of how the symbols line up look [L=here]http://zarahemlacitylimits.com/BOA/BOA_5.html[/L] and [L=here]http://zarahemlacitylimits.com/BOA/BOA_7.html[/L]

OK, I am out of this thread. To me, Joseph never was a prophet, fallen or any other kind. I apologize if I have overstepped the bounds of NOM.
Sat Aug 19, 08:06:00 AM PDT
Anonymous said…
It was good to read your post and also all the comments you received at hatrack.com. I was a very faithful Mormon until 2001 (my senior year at BYU). During that year I did a lot of soul-searching and came to many of the same conclusions you have detailed in your posts. I am married with two children and my wife is still an active member. We lived in Topeka, KS (Sherwood and Lake Shawnee wards) for several years and just moved back West. Wish I had known you while I was out there! It's been difficult finding people in my community who share my beliefs. You are so lucky that your spouse has also seriously considered these issues.... I look forward to any further posts that you might come up with.
Mon Aug 28, 10:35:00 PM PDT
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I left the LDS Church

[Last edited 1/28/10] I was a very deeply spiritual person and easily moved to tears when thinking of the Savior and the sacrifices I believed he made for me and the rich blessings he bestowed upon me. I was born in the covenant to convert parents who were very active in the Church and true believers. I had a strong testimony of Joseph Smith and the restoration even before turning eight for I had recognized the joy of the Spirit and the love for mankind I felt when reading the Book of Mormon. And after turning eight, I had an experience which I considered to be a visitation of an angel. When I was 14, my mother passed away. I felt very much alone and learned through that experience to lean on the Lord even more. I decided that I would do what was right because it was the path to happiness, not to please my dad or because of fear of punishment. I felt particularly close to Heavenly Father over the next few years, having had countless experiences of answered prayers, premonitions that w
Read more

The Most Influential Factor That Led Me To Leave

The following came from a thread on PostMormon: Hiram: While we may disagree regarding some topics, I am interested to hear what the most influential factor was that led you to leave the church. I'm not interested in changing your belief system or world view or arguing doctrines, I just want to respectfully hear the points of view of anybody willing to share them. Hiram, your post makes me very happy. I rejoice whenever I see a person earnestly inviting others to share things that currently go against what that person believes. It is a hallmark of maturity and wisdom when we invite those kind of dialogues, for that is how we set the stage to learn. We listen and consider. It doesn't mean that we will necessarily give up our beliefs, but we will be better for at least having considered and weighed another's point of view. We might even find that we did not know as much as we thought we knew and in light of the new info must change our thinking
Read more

The 'Good News' is only good if we buy the 'Bad News'

I use this analogy. A salesman comes to your town and tells you that everyone in this town has a terrible, awful disease which no one knew about until this salesman shows up. Although the salesman can offer no proof of this disease he swears we will all suffer and die from it. However, he says the "good news" is he has the cure, and one can only get the cure from him, but he will save you and you will be eternally grateful to him if you but buy his product. Meaning: Christians tell us that we all have sin and that sin will bring us a terrible awful fate. Nevermind that until they came along, no one ever suspected we had this terrible condition and the Christians can't offer one shred of proof that we have 'sin' or that a terrible fate awaits us. But, the 'good news' aka Gospel is they have the only cure and we can only get it from them - one can only be saved from sin and hell through Christ, not by living a good life or practicing peaceful Buddhism, etc.
Read more