Mormonism and Wikipedia/Golden plates

FAIR Answers Wiki Table of Contents

An analysis of Wikipedia article "Golden plates"

Joseph Smith, Jr.

A FAIR Analysis of: "Golden plates", a work by author: Various

Three Witnesses

An analysis of claims made in Wikipedia article "Golden plates"

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• An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Introduction
• An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Origin and historicity
• An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Story
• An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Background
• An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Finding the plates

An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Introduction

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• Response to claim: "the golden plates (also called the gold plates or in some 19th century literature, the golden Bible)"
• Response to claim: "Some witnesses described the plates as weighing from 30 to 60 pounds"
• Response to claim: "bound with one or more rings"
• Response to claim: "Smith dictated a translation using a seer stone in the bottom of a hat, which he placed over his face to view the words written within the stone"
• Response to claim: "Smith published the translation in 1830 as the Book of Mormon"
• Response to claim: Harris "used to practice a good deal of his characteristic jargon and 'seeing with the spiritual eye,' and the like"
• Response to claim: "His remark that a plate was not quite as thick as common tin may have been meant to divert attention from the possibility that they were actually made from some material otherwise readily available to him"
• Response to claim: "the Book of Mormon witnesses based their testimony on visions rather than physical experience"

An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Origin and historicity

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• Response to claim: Richard Bushman: "For most modern readers, the plates are beyond belief, a phantasm, yet the Mormon sources accept them as fact"
• Response to claim: "Most Mormons believe in the golden plates as a matter of faith"
• Response to claim: "Only close associates of Joseph Smith were allowed to become official witnesses to the plates; he invited no strangers, or women, to view them"
• Response to claim: "Mormon apologists and Mormon critics can debate indirect evidence only"
• Response to claim: "Among these topics, the credibility of the plates has been, according to Bushman, a 'troublesome item'"
• Response to claim: "Their script, according to the book, was described as 'reformed Egyptian,' a language unknown to linguists or Egyptologists"
• Response to claim: "Historically, Latter Day Saint movement denominations have taught that the Book of Mormon's description of the plates' origin is accurate"
• Response to claim: "The Community of Christ, however, while accepting the Book of Mormon as scripture, no longer takes an official position on the historicity of the golden plates"
• Response to claim: "B. H. Roberts, historian for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), entertained the notion that Joseph Smith was capable of producing the Book of Mormon himself"
• Response to claim: "some liberal Mormons have advanced naturalistic explanations for the story of the plates"
• Response to claim: "that Joseph Smith had the ability to convince others of their existence through illusions or hypnosis"
• Response to claim: "the plates were mystical and should be understood in the context of Smith's historical era"

An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Story

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• Response to claim: "The story of the golden plates consists of how, according to Joseph Smith, Jr. and his contemporaries, the plates were found"
• Response to claim: "The best known elements of the golden plates story are found in an account told by Smith in 1838"
• Response to claim: "The LDS Church has canonized part of this 1838 account"

An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Background

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• Response to claim: "western New York became known as the 'burned-over district' because the fires of religious revivals had burned over it so often"
• Response to claim: "Western New York was also noted for its participation in a 'craze for treasure hunting'"
• Response to claim: "Smith was periodically hired, for about $14 per month, as a scryer, using what were termed'seer stones' in attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure"
• Response to claim: "Smith's contemporaries described his method for seeking treasure as putting the stone in a white stovepipe hat"
• Response to claim: "Smith did not consider himself to be a 'peeper' or 'glass-looker,' a practice he called 'nonsense'"
• Response to claim: "Smith and his family viewed their folk magical practices as spiritual gifts"
• Response to claim: "nor did he ever relinquish the magic culture in which he was raised"
• Response to claim: "He came to view seeing with a stone in religious terms as the work of a 'seer'"
• Response to claim: "and indeed, in his view a seer was even greater than a prophet"
• Response to claim: "Joseph Smith's first stone, apparently the same one he used at least part of the time to translate the golden plates, was chocolate-colored and about the size of an egg"
• Response to claim: "found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors"
• Response to claim: "The statement has been made that the Urim and Thummim was on the altar in the Manti Temple when that building was dedicated"

An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Finding the plates

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• Response to claim: "According to Smith, he found the plates after he was directed to them by a heavenly messenger"
• Response to claim: "whom he later identified as the angel Moroni"
• Response to claim: "According to the story, the angel first visited Smith's bedroom late at night, on September 22"
• Response to claim: "Oliver Cowdery initially dated the angel's visit to the "15th year of our brother J. Smith Jr's, age", Cowdery changed the statement to read the 17th year of his age"
• Response to claim: "Moroni told Smith that the plates could be found buried in a prominent hill near his home, later called 'Cumorah'"
• Response to claim: "Before dawn, Moroni reappeared two more times and repeated the information"
• Response to claim: "But the angel would not allow Smith to take the plates until he obeyed certain 'commandments'"
• Response to claim: "Smith recorded some of these commandments, and contemporaries to whom he told the story said there were others"
• Response to claim: "that he have no thought of using the plates for monetary gain"
• Response to claim: "that he never show the plates to any unauthorized person"
• Response to claim: "Smith's contemporaries who heard the story—both sympathetic and unsympathetic—generally agreed that Smith mentioned the following additional commandments"
• Response to claim: "that the plates never directly touch the ground until safe at home in a locked chest"
• Response to claim: "Some unsympathetic listeners who heard the story from Smith or his father recalled that Smith had said the angel required him...to wear "black clothes" to the place where the plates were buried"
• Response to claim: "to ride a 'black horse with a switchtail'"
• Response to claim: "to call for the plates by a certain name"
• Response to claim: "to 'give thanks to God'"
• Response to claim: "In the morning, Smith began work as usual and did not mention the visions to his father"
• Response to claim: "because, he said, he did not think his father would believe him"
• Response to claim: "Smith said he then fainted because he had been awake all night"
• Response to claim: "When Smith then told all to his father, he believed his son and encouraged him to obey the angel's commands"
• Response to claim: "Smith then set off to visit the hill, later stating that he used his seer stone to locate the place where the plates were buried"
• Response to claim: Joseph "knew the place the instant that" he arrived there
• Response to claim: "Smith said he saw a large stone covering a box made of stone"
• Response to claim: "Using a stick to remove dirt from the edges of the stone cover, and prying it up with a lever"
• Response to claim: "Smith saw the plates inside the box, together with other artifacts"

An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - "Sealed" portion

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• Response to claim: "According to Joseph Smith and others, the book of Golden Plates contained a 'sealed" portion'"
• Response to claim: "containing 'a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof'"
• Response to claim: "the language of the Book of Mormon may be interpreted to describe a sealing that was spiritual, metaphorical"
• Response to claim: "physical, or a combination of these elements"
• Response to claim: "The Book of Mormon refers to other documents and plates as being 'sealed'"
• Response to claim: "separate records of John the Apostle were 'sealed up'"
• Response to claim: "One set of plates to which the Book of Mormon refers was 'sealed up'"
• Response to claim: "Smith may have understood the sealing to be a supernatural or spiritual sealing"
• Response to claim: "the 'interpreters' (Urim and Thummim) with which Smith said they were buried or 'sealed'"
• Response to claim: "when Smith visited the hill, he was stricken by a supernatural force because the plates were 'sealed by the prayer of faith'"
• Response to claim: "Several witnesses described a physical sealing placed on part of the plates"
• Response to claim: "the "sealed" part of the plates were held together as a solid mass"
• Response to claim: "'as solid to my view as wood'"
• Response to claim: "there were 'perceptible marks where the plates appeared to be sealed'"
• Response to claim: "with leaves "so securely bound that it was impossible to separate them"
• Response to claim: "Lucy Mack Smith said that some of the plates were 'sealed together'"
• Response to claim: "The account of the Eight Witnesses says they saw the plates in 1829...implying that they did not examine untranslated parts, such as the sealed portion"
• Response to claim: "In one interview, David Whitmer said that "about half" the book was unsealed; in 1881, he said "about one-third" was unsealed"
• Response to claim: "Whitmer's 1881 statement is consistent with an 1856 statement by Orson Pratt"
• Response to claim: "Orson Pratt said:, 'about two-thirds were sealed up, and Joseph was commanded not to break the seal'"

An analysis of claims made in the Wikipedia article "Golden plates" - Claimed engravings

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• Response to claim: "Golden Plates were said to contain engravings in an ancient language that the Book of Mormon describes as Reformed Egyptian"
• Response to claim: "Smith described the writing as 'Egyptian characters...small, and beautifully engraved'"
• Response to claim: "John Whitmer, one of the Eight Witnesses, said the plates had 'fine engravings on both sides'"
• Response to claim: "there were engravings on both sides of the plates"

Articles on this subject

• For an overview on this subject, see
  • Mormonism and Wikipedia: The Church History That "Anyone Can Edit", Roger Nicholson, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, Vol. 1, 2012. 151-190
  • "Wiki Wars: In battle to define beliefs, Mormons and foes wage battle on Wikipedia", Michael De Groote, Deseret News, January 30, 2011.
  • "Something Wiki This Way Comes: How collaborative editing is changing the face of online LDS apologetics", R. Scott Lloyd, Church News, August 8, 2011.
  • Something Wiki This Way Comes: How Collaborative Editing is Changing the Face of Online LDS Apologetics. A close look at the challenges and history of editing LDS topics in a Wikipedia. This is a 2011 FAIR conference presentation by Roger Nicholson, in PDF format.

FairMormon's Wikipedia Article Reviews

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Summary: Current review is based upon Wikipedia revision dated 9/17/2011. This article has undergone moderate improvements in its use of sources since our last review. The article still contains a substantial amount of original research based upon primary sources, with the intent to disprove the vision and highlight perceived discrepancies between vision accounts. Believing scholars are labeled "apologists" in an attempt to diminish their credibility.

A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia article "Joseph Smith"

Summary: Current review is based upon Wikipedia revision dated 9/3/2011. This article has undergone substantial improvements in its use of sources since our initial review in 2009. Most of the citations are now accurately represented.

A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia article "Golden plates"

Summary: Current review is based upon Wikipedia revision dated 9/21/2011. This article has undergone only minor improvements in its use of sources since our last review. The article contains a large amount of original research on the part of the wiki editors.

A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia article "Three Witnesses"

Summary: Current review is based upon Wikipedia revision dated 9/28/2011. This article has been constructed in such a way as to discredit the witnesses by emphasizing any perceived contradictions in their various statements regarding their encounter with the gold plates.

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