If you, as a Mormon, were employeed as a historian and you discovered documents written by the hand of Joseph Smith which he states that he was confessing that he made up everything for some reasonor another. If you saw that it, nomatter what it was, was a very important historical document, yet would really, really hurt the Mormon religion, would you hide it?
I already know that you believe that no such evidence exists, but I'm talking about ethics. You know.... What if?
It's an ethical question.
If YOU KNEW that it was conclusive evidence against the claims of Mormonism, and that it would definitely cause many, many to disbelieve.??
2007-03-25 16:55:03 · 19 answers · asked by The Burninator 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I still would believe because I know what I felt when I prayed and asked God if he was there and if Joseph Smith was a true prophet, even more so, I felt that same feeling time and time again.
2007-03-25 16:58:48 · answer #1 · answered by dancingqueen 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well, since I am not Mormon, I might sound biased, so I am going to try and make this come from both sides. Bear with me?
side 1:
I wouldn't hide the document because it would now be a "false religion". You don't want to cause others to believe in the wrong thing, would you? I have heard some of the stuff that is of the Morman religion, and to me it sounds a little far-fetched. But I don't want to insult the Mormon religion, because so many people that I know are Mormon and they are great people! That is going against my morals. If it was about my religion, I would definately think about hiding it, but in the end I would hope that I brought it out into the light. You are right, it is a question of ethics.
side 2:
I would hide it because it would hurt many people. Not only would it cause turmoil of many Mormon families, it would hurt many of my close friends. Some people may seek desperate measures (suicide) and some wouldn't know where to turn to put their faith in. (and join cults and such... I am not saying Mormon judgement is bad...) People might even just loose faith and not know where to turn.
I hope my answer makes sense.
2007-03-26 00:13:44 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would think that being honest is always the best policy. Actually the first thing I would do would be to pray about it to my Heavenly Father, if I found such a document. Then, whatever my answer was from God, that is what I would do. He may tell me in my prayers the document was a forgery and that I should burn it...or he may tell me show the world.
Who knows. In my opinion, such a document will never exist and would at the least be VERY hard to be proven valid if it did come to the surface somehow.
2007-03-27 15:18:02 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Many claims of Mormons have already been proven false. For instance, the Book of Abraham is just an Egyptian Book of the Dead. There is a great deal of evidence on what the ancient history of Latin America is- and none of it involves anything in the BOM. Genetic testing has proved that there is no relationship between people in South and Central America and people in the Mideast.
It is just that it is difficult to face up to the fact that you believed lies for generations, that it makes it difficult to reveal the truth. Who wants to admit that they were duped?
But the biggest lie covered up by mormons is the lie of what is needed to have eternal life. If you don't have the right Jesus, you don't have salvation. The Jesus I worship is not the brother of Satan. My Jesus has always been God! My God is the one and only, no one will ever be God but Him!
2007-03-27 18:10:01 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Mormon religion has already been discredited, just like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. If one takes a careful look at the book of Mormon, one sees that Joseph Smith's own personal prejudices (against Indians who were "cursed" by God with dark skin, and against the tired old "whore of Babylon" i.e., the established church) are written all over the book like fingerprints. In addition, parts of the book are plagiarized directly from the Christian bible, pretty much word for word. On top of all that, there is absolutely no archaeological evidence for any "Levites" or any other Hebrews living alongside Native Americans. Despite all this, the Mormon faithful keep multiplying and growing and accepting new members, even some blacks, who were once forbidden from joining the church. I would suggest that if new evidence was discovered and published, it wouldn't change a thing. People still believe in Scientology, so why would you fear a loss of faith in Mormonism?
2007-03-26 00:07:52 · answer #5 · answered by doubt_is_freedom 3 · 2⤊ 3⤋
The LDS church, for a time, received several documents that, if true, would have (and almost did) seriously hurt the church. But, they NEVER tried to hide any of them. These included a supposed blessing given by Jospeh Smith Jr. to his son, Joseph III, blessing him that he would be the NEXT prophet, and the so-called White Salamander letter.
If I were to find such a document, I would do what anyone in the history dept would do; turn it over to the church.
2007-03-26 05:49:09 · answer #6 · answered by mormon_4_jesus 7 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Hey, I believe in honesty. If i did find evidence that we were wrong I'd spill the beans. This affects all our brothers and sisters. Perhaps this will give us a chance to get things right. Rather than being a bunch of lemmings just going over the cliff.
2007-03-26 00:01:42 · answer #7 · answered by artman 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would have to do the ethical thing which is the true and honest thing. If you did otherwise and hid the document from light then it would be like denying the Holocaust ever happened.
2007-03-26 00:01:44 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I read and come across many so call evidence, yet disappointing enough, they do not live up to their claimed.
When I say disappointing, I mean disppointment in those so called educated people, how wastful of their time to come up with such childish lies.
Unless Joseph Smith himself come back and tell me that, otherwise, its impossble to shake my faith on the LDS Church.
We believe through Faith,and personal testimony of the truth, remember that.
2007-03-26 17:15:58 · answer #9 · answered by Wahnote 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Well, speaking historically, Mormons have done just that repeatedly. Of course that certainly doesn't mean they should. It isn't present-day Mormons' fault that Joseph Smith made the whole thing up, didn't cover his tracks very well, and made all sorts of easily refutable historical claims.
2007-03-25 23:59:34 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋