FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Category:Difficult Questions for Mormons
Pages in category "Difficult Questions for Mormons"
The following 158 pages are in this category, out of 158 total.
A
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- Backman (1985): "On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts of his sacred experience of 1820"
- Barney: "three types of evidence favoring the conclusion that Joseph understood the meaning of the italicized words"
- Bernardino de Sahagun: "Fodder was provided the deer—horses—which the Spaniards rode"
- Brigham Young (1855): "The Lord did not come with the armies of heaven...But He did send His angel to this same obscure person, Joseph Smith jun"
- Brigham Young (1861): "The Lord chose Joseph Smith, called upon him at fourteen years of age, gave him visions"
- Brigham Young (1867): "the Lord called upon Joseph he was but a boy—a child, only about fourteen years of age"
E
G
- Gardner: "a correct approach to a Mesoamerican battle required all three elements: king, litter, and battle beast"
- Gospel Topics: "The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story, though naturally they differ in emphasis and detail"
- Grayson: "extinct North American mammals...losses began in Mexico and Alaska during the Pleistocene and ended in Florida perhaps as recently as 2000 years ago"
H
J
- John L. Sorenson: "Several puzzles about the history of the Nephites and Lamanites are linked to the question of whether they found others already living in their promised land"
- John Taylor (2 March 1879): "the Father and the Son...came to Joseph Smith" and "the Prophet Joseph asked the angel"
- John Welch (1999): "This sidelight in the book of Alma contains enough facts to support meaningful parallels between King Mosiah's weights and measures and those used in other ancient cultures"
- Johnson: "Probably it is safe to say that American Proboscidea have been extinct for a minimum of 3000 years"
- Journal of Book of Mormon Studies: "Pottery and other cultural materials were found in levels VII and above. But in some of those artifact-bearing strata there were horse bones, even in level II"
M
- Madden et al.: "by the beginning of the tenth century B.C. blacksmiths were intentionally steeling iron"
- Martin: "no theoretical reason why a herd of mastodons, horses, or ground sloths could not have survived in some small refuge until 8000 or even 4000 years ago"
- Miller and Roper: "Bones of domesticated cattle...have been reported from different caves in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico"
- Miller and Roper: "Evidence for the survival of the elephant can be found in Native American myths and traditions"
- Miller and Roper: "Evidence of goats associated with pre-Columbian man also comes from caves in Yucatan"
- Miller and Roper: "In post-biblical Jewish literature some Jewish writers distinguished between wild and domestic cattle such as goats"
- Miller and Roper: "there are sheep native to America. The most common type is the Mountain Sheep, Ovis canadensis"
- Miller and Roper: "This was long enough to bring them (mammoths) to the time of the Jaredites"
- Miller and Roper: "two distinct species of peccary live in Mesoamerica....They were hunted and eaten as early as Olmec times"
- Modern implementation of the Word of Wisdom
P
Q
- Question: Are all Amerindians the exclusive descendants of the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi?
- Question: Are the fortifications described in the Book of Mormon consistent with those built in ancient Mesoamerica?
- Question: Are the names on the Holley Map in the correct locations relative to one another?
- Question: At what age did Joseph Smith become concerned about religion?
- Question: By what name did Joseph Smith refer to the First Vision?
- Question: Could ancient Americans have expanded the definition of "horse" to include new meanings?
- Question: Could Joseph have used a Bible during and simply dictated from it during Book of Mormon translation?
- Question: Could Joseph Smith have used Ethan Smith's ''View of the Hebrews'' as a guideline for creating the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Could Joseph Smith have utilized place names and locations from the region in which he lived to create the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Did Brigham Young confirm or expound on Joseph Smith’s first vision?
- Question: Did David Whitmer ever deny his Book of Mormon witness because he thought that Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet?
- Question: Did Joseph know what the italics in the Bible meant?
- Question: Did Joseph own a Bible at the time of the Book of Mormon translation?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith begin his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith believe that the Book of Mormon explained local legends associated with the "Mound Builders" of the Eastern United States?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith ever publicly attempt to teach the doctrine of plural marriage?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith issue a prophecy that the Nauvoo House would stand forever and ever?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith originally identify the angel that visited him as "Nephi" instead of "Moroni"?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith plagiarize Josiah Priest's ''The Wonders of Nature and Providence Displayed''?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith plagiarize Shakespeare?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith simply conflate elements of the 1818 and 1824-25 revivals in his story of the First Vision?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith state that the moon was inhabited, and that its inhabitants were dressed like Quakers?
- Question: Did Lucy Mack Smith state when she joined the Presbyterians?
- Question: Did Martin Harris ever deny his Book of Mormon witness because he thought that Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet?
- Question: Did Martin Harris tell people that he did not see the plates with his natural eyes, but rather the "eye of faith"?
- Question: Did Martin Harris tell people that he only saw the plates with his "spiritual eye"?
- Question: Did Oliver Cowdery ever deny his Book of Mormon witness because he thought that Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet?
- Question: Did the details of Joseph’s First Vision experience appear to have changed when communicating to his followers such that the elders of the Church did not know that Joseph saw two personages?
- Question: Did the Three Witnesses consider Joseph Smith a "fallen prophet" after they left the Church?
- Question: Did Wilford Woodruff have knowledge of the First Vision prior to his 1855 remarks about an angel?
- Question: Did Wilford Woodruff teach something other than the traditional story of the First Vision?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that Quetzalcoatl was actually Jesus Christ?
- Question: Do Martin Harris's statements related to the "spiritual eye" or "eye of faith" contradict the reality of his witness?
- Question: Do Mormons believe that Mary was still a virgin when Jesus was born?
- Question: Do Mormons who do not eat meat "sparingly" violate the Word of Wisdom?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon contain anti-Masonic language?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon refer to "coins"?
- Question: Does the Church authoritatively identify the location of the Hill Cumorah?
- Question: Does the fact that the Doctrine and Covenants refers to North American Indians as "Lamanites" contradict the theory that the Book of Mormon events took place in Mesoamerica?
- Question: Does the story of Zelph have implications for Book of Mormon geography?
- Question: Have any ancient horse remains from the Nephite period been found in the New World?
- Question: Have any relationships been found between New World languages and Hebrew?
- Question: Have Mormon apologists ignored aspects of Quetzalcoatl which are inconsistent with Jesus Christ?
- Question: How can the Book of Mormon contain the "fulness of the Gospel" if it does not speak of ordinances such as baptism for the dead or celestial marriage?
- Question: How did newspaper accounts describe the nature of the witnesses experience?
- Question: How did the apostle Paul describe spiritual experiences?
- Question: How is it possible that there were three days of darkness in the New World and not in the Old World?
- Question: How much did the gold plates weigh?
- Question: How valid are the names used in the Holley Map?
- Question: How were metals used in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: If a person faithfully practices Mormonism during this life, do they become a god after they die?
- Question: If God rejected the fig leaf aprons worn by Adam and Eve, why do Mormons wear aprons representing this in the temple?
- Question: If the priesthood during Old Testament times could only be held by the tribe of Aaron, how did Lehi's descendants, who were of the tribe of Joseph, hold the priesthood?
- Question: In what context are chariots mentioned in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: In what context are elephants mentioned in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Is finding links between Hebrew and ancient American languages realistic?
- Question: Is it true that there used to be fourteen Articles of Faith?
- Question: Is the armor described in the Book of Mormon consistent with armor used in ancient Mesoamerica?
- Question: Is there a cave in the Hill Cumorah containing the Nephite records?
- Question: Is there any mention of the First Vision in non-Mormon literature before 1843?
- Question: Of what material were the Book of Mormon "gold" plates constructed?
- Question: Was Nephi's temple "similar in splendor" to Solomon's temple?
- Question: Was the ''View of the Hebrews'' theory of Book of Mormon origin advanced during the lifetime of Joseph Smith?
- Question: Was the general membership of the LDS Church not familiar with the First Vision story until late in the nineteenth century?
- Question: Was the Lehite colony too small to produce the population sizes indicated by the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Was there no mention of revival activity in 1820 in the newspaper?
- Question: Was Thomas Stuart Ferguson an archaeologist?
- Question: Were any of the changes to the Book of Mormon made in reaction to sectarian criticism?
- Question: Were revivals and religious excitement too common to be noticed in the newspapers?
- Question: Were there not enough people available in Nephi's time to build a temple "after the manner of the temple of Solomon"?
- Question: What are the criticisms related to Joseph Smith's accounts of the First Vision?
- Question: What are the problems of trying to associate Quetzalcoatl with Jesus Christ?
- Question: What are the similarities and differences between ''View of the Hebrews'' and the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What changes were made to the 1837 edition of the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What did B.H. Roberts say about ''View of the Hebrews'' and the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What did the Book of Mormon witnesses mean when they used the word "supernatural" to describe their experiences?
- Question: What did the other witnesses say regarding "spiritual" versus "natural" viewing of the plates?
- Question: What do the italicized words in the Bible represent, and why is it relevant to the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What do we find in Mesoamerican archaeology with respect to place names, such as city names?
- Question: What does it mean when it is said that the Book of Mormon contains the "fulness of the gospel?"
- Question: What evidence of religious excitement is there from non-Mormon sources?
- Question: What is "brass" in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What is "reformed Egyptian"?
- Question: What is Joseph Smith's 1826 South Bainbridge "trial" for "glasslooking"?
- Question: What is the origin of the modern horse in the New World?
- Question: What religious excitement was occurring in Palmyra in 1820?
- Question: What role do horses ''not'' play in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What was known about steel in ancient America?
- Question: When and how often did Brigham Young refer to elements of Joseph Smith's First Vision in his discourses?
- Question: Where is the Hill Cumorah?
- Question: Why are horses considered an anachronism in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Why aren't other inhabitants of the America's mentioned in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Why did Joseph keep the doctrine of plural marriage private?
- Question: Why do some New Testament phrases appear in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Why don't potential pre-Columbian horse remains in the New World receive greater attention from scientists?
- Question: Why is the "Ass" (Donkey) mentioned in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Why was the phrase "white and delightsome" changed to "pure and delightsome" in the 1840 edition of the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Why were textual changes made to the Book of Mormon over the years after it was first published?
- Question: Why would Martin Harris use the phrases "eye of faith" or "spiritual eye" to describe his visionary experience?
R
- Richard J. Maynes: "Joseph wrote or dictated four known accounts of his First Vision"
- Roper: "a strange double-curved weapon held in the left hand of the warrior figure on the Loltún cave relief might be considered a scimitar/cimeter"
- Roper: "archaeologists have discovered a carburized iron sword near Jericho"
- Roper: "For example, an iron knife was found in an eleventh century Philistine tomb showed evidence of deliberate carburization"
S
- Seminary Manual (2013): "Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts"
- Sorenson and Smith: "three types of wild barley have long been known to be native to the Americas"
- Sorenson: "Iron use was documented in the statements of early Spaniards, who told of the Aztecs using iron-studded clubs"
- Sorenson: "Lumps of hematite, magnetite, and ilmenite were brought into Valley of Oaxaca"
- Sorenson: "The Miami Indians, for example, were unfamiliar with the buffalo and simply called them 'wild cows'"
- Sorenson: "There is an animal which they call chic, wonderfully active, as large as a small dog, with a snout like a sucking pig. The Indian women raise them"
- Sorenson: Horse bones in Yucatan "considered to be pre-Columbian on the basis of depth of burial and degree of mineralization"
- Sorenson: Linen and silk textiles in ancient America
- Source:Benajah Williams:July 1820:Had a two Days meeting at Sq Bakers in Richmond
- Source:Christofferson:The Prophet Joseph Smith:BYUI Devotional:2013:Critics have also claimed that there were no religious revivals in the Palmyra, New York, area in 1820
- Source:Gospel Topics:Book of Mormon and DNA Studies:The evidence assembled to date suggests that the majority of Native Americans carry largely Asian DNA
- Source:JBMS:Sorenson and Roper:Lehi saw from the beginning that Nephites and Lamanites were labels that would include a variety of groups that could have differing biological origins, cultures, and ethnic heritages
- Source:Nibley:CW06:Ch22:8:Greek Names
- Source:Palmyra Register:28 June 1820:5 July 1820:It was far from our intention to charge the Methodists with retailing ardent spirits while professedly met for the worship of their God