The Hoax of Mormonism

The gullibility of human beings must be genetically programmed into the human species.  Nothing else can explain the widespread acceptance of bizarre ideas.  In fact, it seems as if the more bizarre a belief system is, the more rapidly it spreads and the more firmly it is held and defended by the True Believer.  The remarkable growth of the Mormon church is proof enough that, the more bizarre and ridiculous a religion is, the more likely it is to spread like wildfire.  Plenty of evidence exists to show that Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, was essentially a con man, a cheat and a liar.  In his youth, Smith and his father ran a swindle called "dowsing for treasure."  In this con, Smith would convince a rich farmer that buried treasure was on his land, and that for a small fee he would discover it through dowsing (much like dowsing for water).  Of course no treasure was ever found.

This con game does bear a resemblance to Smith's most famous con.  He convinced a group of Mormons that he possessed the gold plates on which the angel Moroni (aptly named) inscribed the text of The Book of Mormon.  As "proof" of this, Smith led his followers, one by one, into a darkened room where they were allowed to feel the plates through a burlap bag.  These followers later signed an affidavit testifying to the existence of these gold plates, an affidavit which is reproduced in the many various editions of The Book of Mormon.  In truth, no one ever actually saw these famous gold plates--they could have been hubcaps off a 1951 Buick for all Smith's followers could tell by feeling them.  

Smith also claimed that The Book of Mormon could only be read and interpreted by his spiritual vision from the strange characters inscribed on the plates, so there was never any reason for anyone else to look at them.  Later, as more and more people asked to see the plates, they mysteriously "disappeared" or were taken back to heaven by Moroni.

At about the same time, Smith claimed to be able to read Egyptian hieroglyphs; and on one occasion he provided a translation of hieroglyphs from an Egyptian sarcophagus.  The message on the coffin, according to Smith, was a religious text similar to the writings found in The Book of Mormon.  Several years later, when archaeologists finally learned how to read hieroglyphs, Smith dropped his claim to be able to read these symbols.  The message on the coffin, which he earlier "translated" into Mormon-ese, turned out to be pretty much the standard prayer to Osirius usually found on ancient Egyptian coffins.

Despite the wealth of evidence which proves that Joseph Smith was basically a pious fraud, millions of Mormons will defend their faith as if it weren't the ridiculous hoax that it obviously is.  Even serious Mormon "scholars" recognize the fact that Smith was basically a liar who plagiarized most of the ideas in The Book of Mormon, yet they pretend that this fact has no effect on their own belief.  This is proof that humans are able to hold, at the same time, two completely contradictory beliefs.  There is a remarkable ability to compartmentalize in the human psyche, so that these ideas don't come into conflict.