http://www.intheav.com/Toys in the Atticnointheav.comintheav.com RSS-generatorhttp://www.intheav.com/blogs/SantaTaco/2007/08/12/mormonism-in-a-nutshellCon-man Joseph Smith Jr. was supposedly visited by a dead person named Moroni who told him of some gold plates that he had buried. New teachings of Jesus Christ were purportedly written upon these golden tablets. Ostensibly, the con-man had what he called a seer stone which allowed him to see into the sides of mountains and into the ground, and wouldn’t you know it, to be able to translate any language, even reformed Egyptian, which was in theory the language the lost tribe of the Jews spoke. During a lone excursion to the woods, rumor has it that huckster Smith was able to find these tablets, even though he was the only one allowed to physically see them or come into contact with them. Coincidence would have it that the plates were written in reformed Egyptian, a language that the con-mans “seer stone” would easily allow him to translate. He began translation of the tablets by hanging a blanket in the middle of the room, making his secretary (Martin Harris) sit on the other side so he could not see what was going on. He then proceeded to put the plates in a hat, and then sticking his face in the hat, he received the word of God and dictated it to Harris. Extremely excited (and gullible), Harris took the translation to his wife so she could read it. Instead of giving it back to him, she told him that if Joseph Smith had really translated what was written on the supposed tablets that he had found, that he wouldn’t have any trouble producing the exact same translation. The insolence of Harris’ wife not only angered the con-man but God as well, and he thus forbids Smith to translate any further from the plates of Lehi. Smith’s excuse was that the devil had altered his translation and that God would only allow him to translate from the plate of Nephi from now on, which, in turn, became the book of mormon. As for the plates they were taken back to heaven when the Hoaxster was done translating them. We won’t even go into the book of Abraham, as it has been conclusively proven to be a fraud. As for Smith, he was shot along with his brother Hyram by an angry mob of people smart enough to realize he was a charlatan. Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:56:27 +0000