Criticism Of The Book Of Mormon
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Criticism Of The Book Of Mormon
The origins, authenticity, and historicity of the Book of Mormon have been subject to considerable criticism from scholars and skeptics since it was first published in 1830. The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith as ''The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi'', who said that it had been written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as "reformed Egyptian" engraved on golden plates that he personally transcribed. Contemporary followers of the Latter Day Saint movement typically regard the text primarily as scripture, but also as a historical record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas. Mainstream scholarship does not conclude the Book of Mormon is of an ancient origin and ...
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Book Of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude dated by the text to the unspecified time of the Tower of Babel. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith as ''The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi''. The Book of Mormon is one of four standard works of the Latter Day Saint movement and one of the movement's earliest unique writings. The denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement typically regard the text primarily as scripture and secondarily as a record of God's dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas. The majority of Latter Day Saints believe the book to be a record of real-world history, with Latter Day Saint denominations viewing it variously as an inspired record of scripture to the lynchpin or ...
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Martin Henderson Harris
Martin Henderson Harris (September 29, 1820 – February 14, 1889) was a Mormon pioneer, LDS Church leader, early Utah horticulturalist, and early colonizer of Harrisville, Utah (for whom the community was named) and Fort Lemhi, Idaho. Biography Born near Mehoopany, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, Harris was the son of Emer Harris and Deborah Lott. He was a nephew of Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, and a descendant of Thomas Harris, companion in exile of Roger Williams, and one of the founders of Providence, Rhode Island. Harris was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in September 1842, by Milton Stow, near Nauvoo, Illinois. Harris served as a guard in Nauvoo to protect Joseph Smith against mob violence. He also served in the Nauvoo Legion and witnessed the laying of the cornerstone of the Nauvoo Temple. After being driven with other Latter-day Saints from Nauvoo in 1846, he resided temporarily in St. Louis, Mi ...
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Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)
Martin Harris (May 18, 1783 – July 10, 1875) was an early convert to the Latter Day Saint movement who financially guaranteed the first printing of the Book of Mormon and also served as one of Three Witnesses who testified that they had seen the golden plates from which Joseph Smith said the Book of Mormon had been translated. Early life Harris was born in Easton, New York, the second of the eight children born to Nathan Harris and Rhoda Lapham. According to historian Ronald W. Walker, little is known of his youth, "but if his later personality and activity are guides, the boy partook of the sturdy values of his neighborhood which included work, honesty, rudimentary education, and godly fear." In 1808, Harris married his first cousin Lucy Harris. Harris served with the 39th regiment of the New York State Militia of Ontario County, New York in the War of 1812. He inherited 150 acres. Until 1831, Harris lived in Palmyra, New York, where he was a prosperous farmer. Harris' ...
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Signature Books
Signature Books is an American press specializing in subjects related to Utah, Mormonism, and Western Americana. The company was founded in 1980 by George D. Smith and Scott Kenney and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is majority owned by the Smith-Pettit Foundation. History In the late 1970s, Scott Kenney decided there needed to be a Mormon-related press that didn't have ties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Among those present at Signature Books's inception were George D. Smith and Scott Kenney, assisted by a board of directors composed of historians and business leaders: Eugene E. Campbell, Everett L. Cooley, David Lisonbee, D. Michael Quinn, Allen Dale Roberts, and Richard S. Van Wagoner; and an editorial board consisting of Lavina Fielding Anderson, Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Davis Bitton, Orson Scott Card, and Jay Parry. In 1980 Kenny and a few investors created Signature Books. In 1981 they published their first book, the satire '' Saintspeak ...
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View Of The Hebrews
''View of the Hebrews'' is an 1823 book written by Ethan Smith (clergyman), Ethan Smith, a Congregationalist minister in Vermont, who argued that Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans were descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, a relatively common view during the early nineteenth century. Numerous commentators on Mormon history, from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, LDS Church general authority B. H. Roberts to Fawn M. Brodie, biographer of Joseph Smith, have noted similarities in the content of ''View of the Hebrews'' and the Book of Mormon, which was first published in 1830, seven years after Ethan Smith's book. Content Ethan Smith suggested that Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel; according to Mormon historian Richard Lyman Bushman, this theory was held by many theologians and laymen of his day who tried to fit new populations into what they understood of biblical his ...
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The Wonders Of Nature
Josiah Priest (1788–1861) was an American nonfiction writer of the early 19th century. His books and pamphlets, which presented both standard and speculative history and archaeology sold in the thousands. Although Priest appears to have been poorly educated, he attempted to portray himself as an authority in his books. Priest is often identified as one of the creators of pseudoscientific and pseudohistoric literature. Although his work was widely read and several of his works were published in multiple editions, his books were characterized by theories that were used to justify the violent domination over both the Native American and African-American peoples. Priest's works were among the most overtly racist of his time. Priest's offensive works help set the stage for the Trail of Tears and the defense of slavery that contributed to the conflicts of the American Civil War. Early life Priest was born in Unadilla, New York. He grew up during a time when the United Sta ...
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King James Bible
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of King James VI and I. The List of books of the King James Version, 80 books of the King James Version include 39 books of the Old Testament, an Intertestamental period, intertestamental section containing 14 books of what Protestantism, Protestants consider the Biblical apocrypha#King James Version, Apocrypha, and the 27 books of the New Testament. Noted for its "majesty of style", the King James Version has been described as one of the most important books in English culture and a driving force in the shaping of the English-speaking world. The KJV was first printed by John Norton and Robert Barker (printer), Robert Barker, who both held the post of the King's Printer, and was the third translation into Englis ...
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Sidney Rigdon
Sidney Rigdon (February 19, 1793 – July 14, 1876) was a leader during the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement. Biography Early life Rigdon was born in St. Clair Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on February 19, 1793. He was the youngest of four children of William and Nancy Rigdon. Rigdon's father was a farmer and a native of Harford County, Maryland. He died in 1810. According to an account by his son John M. Rigdon, young Rigdon "borrowed all the histories he could get and began to read them. ... In this way he became a great historian, the best I ever saw. He seemed to have the history of the world on his tongue's end and he got to be a great biblical scholar as well. He was as familiar with the Bible as a child was with his spelling book. He was never known to play with the boys; reading books was the greatest pleasure he could get. He studied English Grammar alone and became a very fine grammarian. He was very precise in his language." Rigdon remained ...
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Oliver Cowdery
Oliver H. P. Cowdery (October 3, 1806 – March 3, 1850) was an American Mormon leader who, with Joseph Smith, was an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836. He was the first baptized Latter Day Saint, one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon's golden plates, one of the first Latter Day Saint apostles, and the Second Elder of the church. In 1838, as Assistant President of the Church, Cowdery resigned and was excommunicated on charges of denying the faith. Cowdery claimed Joseph Smith had been engaging in a sexual relationship with Fanny Alger, a teenage servant in his home. Cowdery became a Methodist, and then in 1848, he returned to the Latter Day Saint movement. Biography Early life Cowdery was born October 3, 1806, in Wells, Vermont. His father, William, a farmer, moved the family to Poultney in Rutland County, Vermont, when Cowdery was three. (Cowdery's mother Rebecca Fuller Cowdery died on September 3 ...
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FARMS Review
''Mormon Studies Review'' is an annual academic journal covering Mormon studies published by the University of Illinois Press. Previously, until and including its 2018 issue, the journal was published by Brigham Young University's Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. In November 2018, ownership transferred to the University of Illinois Press, which continues to publish the journal. History The ''Review of Books on the Book of Mormon'' was established in 1989 by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), with Daniel C. Peterson as founding editor-in-chief. It was renamed to ''FARMS Review of Books'' in 1996, to ''FARMS Review'' in 2003, and finally to ''Mormon Studies Review'' in 2011, as the FARMS brand had been phased out after being absorbed into the Maxwell Institute in 2006. Under Peterson's editorship, the journal specialized in Latter-day Saint apologetics. When FARMS joined with BYU in 1997, Peterson said to the ''Salt Lake Tribune,' ...
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Religious Studies Center
The Religious Studies Center (RSC) is the research and publishing arm of Religious Education at Brigham Young University (BYU), sponsoring scholarship on the culture, history, scripture, and doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The dean of Religious Education serves as the RSC's director, and an associate dean oversees the two branches of the RSC: research and publications. History The RSC (sometimes called the Center for Religious Studies in its early years) was founded in 1975 by Jeffrey R. Holland, dean of Religious Education at BYU. Upon the recommendation of BYU president Dallin H. Oaks, the establishment of the RSC was approved by BYU's Board of Trustees in early 1976. Holland became the RSC's first director, with Keith H. Meservy, assistant professor of ancient scripture, as administrator. In 1976, Holland was appointed Commissioner of Church Education, and Ellis T. Rasmussen replaced him as dean of Religious Instruction and general ...
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Painesville, Ohio
Painesville is a city in and the county seat of Lake County, Ohio, United States, located along the Grand River northeast of Cleveland. Its population was 19,563 at the 2010 census. Painesville is the home of Lake Erie College, Morley Library, and the Historic Downtown Painesville Recreation Area. History Painesville was settled shortly after the Revolutionary War. It was still considered part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. General Edward Paine (1746–1841), a native of Bolton, Connecticut, who had served as a captain in the Connecticut militia during the war, and John Walworth arrived in 1800 with a party of sixty-six settlers, among the first in the Western Reserve. General Paine later represented the region in the territorial legislature of the Northwest Territory. In 1800 the Western Reserve became Trumbull County and at the first Court of Quarter Sessions, the county was divided into eight townships. The smallest of these townships was named Painesville, f ...
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