Responses To Various Questions About Joseph Smith And The Book Of Mormon

I will try to answer based upon what I believe is most likely.

1. Did Joseph Smith believe that he had visions and revelations or was he lying?

Both. Sometimes I think he really believed it and sometimes he was lying. (and sometimes he truly had them)

2. Did the Smith family believe in the authenticity of Joseph's visions or were they lying?

Both.

3. Did Emma Smith believe in the authenticity of Joseph's visions or was she lying?

At times she believed and at times she probably lied.

4. Did Oliver Cowdery believe in the authenticity of Joseph's visions and the Book of Mormon translation or was he lying?

At times he believed and at times he probably lied.

5. Did Martin Harris believe in the authenticity of Joseph's visions and the Book of Mormon translation or was he lying?

At times he believed and at times he probably lied.

6. Did Joseph Smith construct or acquire something that resembled gold plates?
a. If so, how was this accomplished?

Don't know.

b. Did the Three Witnesses actually handle something that they believed were the plates?
Unlikely, but maybe.

c. Did the Eight Witnesses actually handle something that they believed were the plates?
i. If not, why do you think they claimed to?

Unlikely, but maybe. They could have lied because they so much wanted it to be true, or were convinced they were supposed to perceive them when there was in fact nothing to see.

ii. If not, why do you think they never repudiated their claim?

Somehow I thought that at least one of the 8 witnesses had retracted his testimony, but I don't recall where I heard that. In any event, if none of them repudiated, it could easily have been because they did not want to admit to lying.

7. Did Joseph Smith construct or acquire something that resembled what he described as a Urim and Thummim and breastplate?
a. If so, how was this accomplished?

I don't know, but his magical world view would be consistent with either creating such instruments or else finding some object which he took to have magical properties and using that.

b. If so, why did he only show them briefly to a few and then dispose of them?

One explanation could be that he knew that the general public would not accept their authenticity and/or magical properties if they were permitted to examine them.

c. If not, was Lucy Smith lying or deluded when she claimed to have seen and handled them? If deluded, how was this accomplished, considering the detail in which she described them?
She could have been outright lying or else embellishing her testimony, or she could have been telling the truth. She could have been deluded if she so much wanted it to be true that her imagination got the best of her.

8. Were the Three Witnesses lying or deluded when they claimed to have seen the vision of the angel who showed them the plates and Nephite artifacts?

Don't know. I believe in angels, and I believe JS was a prophet, but I also believe there were a lot of lies and embellishments surrounding those early experiences in Church history.

a. If deluded, how was this accomplished?

b. If lying, why do you think they did this?

c. If lying, why do you think they never repudiated their claim?

d. What do you credit the conviction that they spoke of the experience with throughout their lives?[/indent]

If you desperately want something to be true badly enough, or if you are sufficiently scared of being exposed as a liar, you might sound very convinced and authentic. Ever heard of the phrase, "he doth protest too much"?

9. Who (if anyone), besides Joseph Smith, contributed to the Book of Mormon?

Emma. Sidney Rigdon. Oliver Cowdery. All the scribes.

a. If others contributed, how was this accomplished?

I suspect they had oral conversations with Joseph, not necessarily explicitly about putting things in the BoM, but they raised concerns with Joseph which coincidentally were addressed in the BoM. I suspect Emma conversed with JS about polygamy and that the Jacob chapters were in part dictated during Emma's scribe period.

b. Did the traditional accounts of translation with Joseph using a seer-stone and dictating a scribe take place?[/indent]

Probably, but the accounts are probably embellished.

10. Did Joseph Smith have written sources present during the Book of Mormon dictation?

Maybe not present, but he almost certainly relied upon his own recollection of those writings while dictating the BoM, as evidenced by Abinidi's King James version of the 6th commandment (Thou shalt not kill, instead of the correct Thou shalt not murder).

a. If so, were the scribes aware of this?
i. If so, why do you think they lied about it
b. If so, what sources might he have used?
11. If others beside Joseph Smith contributed to the Book of Mormon and/or if written sources were used, how do you think this was accomplished?

See above. The contributions were not necessarily express, but JS likely addressed concerns of people close to him in the BoM to encourage them to believe in its authenticity and correctness.

a. If Joseph Smith used a seer-stone as the accounts claim, how do you reconcile this translation ritual with blatant fabrication?

The seer stone could do two things: convince JS that his own thoughts were true revelations; convince others that his "revelations" were authentic.


All of that being said, I still think he was a prophet, even if he was a liar like all of us.