How Could Mormonism Not Be True?

The church published a video on YouTube and other social media channels making seemingly outrageous and impossible-to-fake claims about the Book of Mormon with the conclusion “How can it not be true?” Here is the content of the video:

Imagine writing a book:

• About an ancient civilization.
• There must be no research of any kind.
• It must be 531 pages and more than 300,000 words.
• There must only be grammatical changes to the first edition.
• It must be written in the style of various authors.
• Archeological evidence supports it.
• Intellectuals & scholars accept the truth of it.
• You must finish writing it 65 days.
• Volunteer missionaries witness the truth of it.

How can it not be true?

This mirrors the famous Hugh Nibley writing challenge which had the goal of making his students believe the Book of Mormon to be true simply because it was the only logical explanation to all the points.

Let’s look again at these points the church claims in the video. Each one is debatable and could be turned on its head fairly easily.

An ancient civilization

This claim is a giant stretch. Although they didn’t say it was a real ancient civilization, maybe it’s not that hard to write something about an ancient civilization that you made up and have zero evidence for. This could be anything!

No Research of Any Kind

Really? No research? What about all the years Joseph spent treasure digging and studying the Bible and the folk magic of his day? What about all the practice Joseph got studying and sharing stories of Native Americans as if he had lived among them as his mother states he did regularly. This is misleading because Joseph has many kinds of research, he was fascinated with native Americans and the Bible. He had access to other books similar in concept like The View of the Hebrews and The Late War.

However, if we remember that the ancient civilization is just imagined, no research would fit nicely. If you are writing about a made-up civilization, research is not something that would necessarily help. Being organized and consistent in your writing might help, and basing the civilization off of existing ones (or at least what you think you know about existing civilizations doesn’t count as research).

531 pages and more than 300,000 words

The amount of pages is a silly requirement. The number of pages has no bearing on the truthfulness of a story. The original Book of Mormon was not 531 pages, though. That’s the present publication, and it has been through some edits. Not to mention the number of content that is directly copied from the Bible. Nemo (in the video below) shares some interesting points too, that the 300K word count is not even met by the current Book of Mormon! They are exaggerating the real published book here. Why would they want to lie about these basic claims? They are doing their best to make the Book of Mormon sound miraculous, so exaggerating the word count makes it seem bigger and more grand!

Even the church website clarifies that the Book of Mormon has 275,000 words.

The 275,000-word text from Joseph’s dictation.

Church History: Joseph Smith Translates the Gold Plates, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website.
https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/joseph-smith-translates-the-gold-plates

But other sources confirm there are even less words than this in the original

As far as its length is concerned, the Book of Mormon is a formidable document. The 1830 edition contains 269,320 words and occupies over 580 pages of printed text.

Book of Mormon Evidence: Word Count
https://evidencecentral.org/recency/evidence/word-count

Only Grammatical Changes

The Book of Mormon has gone through many more changes than simply grammatical and punctuation edits. The church regularly claims this is the case, but they expect members to simply believe them. If we check the first edition of the Book of Mormon against the following editions, we see much more than grammar edits. Theology changes over time showing the text moving from a trinitarian view of God to a separate and distinct Godhead (in most cases – they even missed a few references so depending on the verse, Mormons can still find passages that support the idea of the Trinity). Multiple studies show that these changes are not “only” grammatical, as words have changed which impacts the meaning of the scripture and even the doctrine of the church!

“I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on the earth … “

Joseph Smith, History of the Church, Vol. 4, page 461

There was not one thing in the Book of Mormon or in the second edition or any other edition since that in any way contradicts the first edition, and such changes as were made were made by the Prophet Joseph Smith because under those adverse conditions the Book of Mormon was published. But there was no change of doctrine.

Joseph Fielding Smith, The Improvement Era, December, 1961, pp. 924-925
https://archive.org/details/improvementera6412unse/page/924/mode/2up

This book which is deemed the “most correct of any book on the earth,” has had many updates and changes over the years since 1830 when it was first published. The church initially claimed that there were no changes to the text whatsoever, but today they like to claim that these changes were only grammatical. Have you looked at the changes? In many cases, these changes are not grammatical at all but change the meaning of the text, and the doctrine of the religion.

There have been at least 3,913 changes made in the Book of Mormon from the time it was first published in 1830…

Four important changes were made in the second edition of the Book of Mormon concerning the Godhead. One of the most significant changes was made in 1 Nephi 13:40. It was stated in this verse that the purpose of the Nephite records was to make known that Christ is the Eternal Father…

Another important change was made in 1 Nephi 11:18; this is page 25 of the 1830 edition. In the 1830 edition it read: “… Behold, the virgin which thou seest, is the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh.” In modern editions it has been changed to read, “… Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.” The words, the Son of, were inserted in the middle of the sentence. Verse 21 of the same chapter originally read: “And the angel said unto me, behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Eternal Father!” It was changed to read: “And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father!” Verse 32 of the same chapter, which is on page 26 of the original edition, was also changed. In the 1830 edition it reads: “… the Everlasting God, was judged of the world; and I saw and bear record.” It was changed to read: “… the Son of the everlasting God, was judged of the world; and I saw and bear record.” Joseph Smith apparently made these changes to support his doctrine of a plurality of Gods.

In Mosiah 21:28 the name of the king has been changed from Benjamin to Mosiah… “the fact remains that the reading ‘king Benjamin’ is an out-and-out error, because the king had been dead for some time, and his son Mosiah was his successor…” Another change involving the names Benjamin and Mosiah is found in the Book of Ether.

3,913 Changes in the Book of Mormon, Introduction. By Gerald and Sandra Tanner, Utah Lighthouse Ministry
http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/3913intro.htm

Ironic that the statements of Moroni translated on the title page of the Book of Mormon stated in the original that “if there be fault, it be the mistake of men,” but even this statement was later changed in what the church deems strictly a grammatical change to “if there are faults they are the mistakes of men.”

On the title page of the first edition (which was supposed to have been translated from the gold plates) this statement appears:

“… now if there be fault, it be the mistake of men …”

In the 1964 edition this has been changed to read:

“… now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men …”

3,913 Changes in the Book of Mormon, Introduction. By Gerald and Sandra Tanner, Utah Lighthouse Ministry
http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/3913intro.htm

So which men are to blame for these thousands of faults which 3,913 of were deemed large enough to need correcting? The supposed authors and engravers of the Gold Plates? The translator of the text who used the power of God to perform the translation? The multiple scribes who wrote as Joseph Smith dictated the text he “translated” from the Gold Plates by looking at a peepstone in his hat and not even looking at the Gold Plates? The printers who were paid to publish the book?

This claim that there have been no changes other than to correct grammar and punctuation is very misleading and does not reflect reality. It is mental gymnastic gold medal material from Apologists and leaders hoping to keep people believing the text to be scripture. The church is attempting to redefine what grammatical changes may mean. It is not the first time they have looked to redefine a word to support their truth claim. Another example of this is the Gospel Topic Essay which states that the Book of Abraham can be considered a translation, if we make translation mean something that it doesn’t. They claim that since the papyri don’t reflect any words or content of the Book of Abraham, Joseph “translated” the papyri via receiving revelation simply because he considered what it might have said if Abraham was the author and God told him. They say that the papyri, which Joseph claimed to be written by the hand of Abraham, was simply a catalyst to help him receive a revelation of the text. So, even if he thought he was “translating” the text, he wasn’t. But the church considers this a translation still anyway. Maybe the church wants to redefine any textual change to a passage as a “grammatical change” because technically grammar could include things like vocabulary, concepts, and content. Newspeak and doublethink much?

Various Author Styles

Some studies do show that the Book of Mormon displays various author styles. Is it a surprise if Joseph had multiple scribes helping him to write the text? It also contains many sections that are lifted directly from the King James Version of the Bible. Does the claim include these as different voices too? How is it that the Book of Mormon even includes italicized words that match that of the King James Version of the Bible?

Many of these author styles also include linguistic anachronisms. Using words like “church” and even using both “Christ” and “Messiah.”

Some studies show that the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine & Covenants are both written by the same singular author, namely Joseph Smith.

It is my conclusion, from the results of this research and the supporting historical evidence, that the Book of Mormon sprang from the ‘prophetic voice’ of Joseph Smith himself, as did his revelations and the text of the Book of Abraham. We have seen that the style of his ‘prophetic voice’ as evidenced by the main cluster of the textual samples studied, differs from the style of his personal writings or dictations of a personal nature.

A multivariate technique for authorship attribution and its application to the analysis of Mormon scripture and related texts by David Holmes. History and Computing, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1991, Pages 14, 20-21.
https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,31399

Supposed Archeological Evidence

This relates to the first point, claiming the book was written about an ancient civilization. Any evidence for the text is as imaginary as the civilizations in the Book of Mormon. To the contrary of this claim, there is literally no archeological evidence. There are maybe small things that apologists get excited about, but no evidence supports the book. Things like having found a place in the Middle East on a potential route of Lehi and his family being called Nhm, while in the scripture they named a place Nahom. A coincidental place name does not count as archeological evidence. What about the coincidental place names pointed out in places like the CES Letter? If we want to make a big deal about NHM, we should equally make a big deal about New England and Great Lakes area names that are similar to Book of Mormon places. Such as: Morianton and Moraviantown, Ramah an Rama, Jerusalem, Jacobugath and Jacobsburg, Kishkumen and Kishkiminetas, Shilom and Shiloh, Land of Lehi-Nephi, County of Lehigh, PA, Onidah and Oneida, Shurr and Sherbrooke, the Valley of Alma and Alma. Or the fact that Joseph Smith was likely a fan of Captain Kid (with his legends of buried treasures), and Cumorah and Moroni are both found in those books.

Both the Camora/Comoros Islands and the two Moroni place-names, were commonly associated with pirates and treasure hunting ventures in that part of the world—the very area of Captain Kidd’s greatest adventures… All of these pirate exploits would be particularly interesting to treasure hunters such as the Joseph Smith family.

In short, many of Kidd’s most dramatic pirate adventures occurred, as Huggins summarized: “in the vicinity of Moroni on Grand Comoro”/Camora; and Joseph Smith’s adventures of “Moroni” are on a “hill” in the “land of Camorah,”/”Comorah,”/”Cumorah.” Did the Smith family refer to the hill near their home as Camorah, Comorah or Cumorah and its treasure guardian as Moroni, because to them these words were synonymous with treasure seeking and hidden treasure? Is it a mere coincidence that the original 1830 Book of Mormon and the printer’s manuscript contain the “Camorah” and “Comorah” spelling—spellings found on maps of that era?

Joseph Smith, Captain Kidd, Cumorah, and Moroni, by Grant H. Palmer. The John Whitmer Historical Association JOURNAL. Spring/Summer 2014 Volume 34, Number 1 (Page 56) (Page 71 of pdf)
https://docplayer.net/55332692-The-john-whitmer-historical-association-journal.html

In fact, there is plenty of evidence against the book. Evidence supported archaeologically such as the fact that no horses existed at the proposed times in the places where the story occurred. The book is full of other anachronisms and issues, which can hardly count as archeological evidence. Archeology is one field of study, but other fields likewise show no evidence. Genetics and DNA have been studied and show that the native American genes, do not derive from Hebrew or Middle-Eastern ancestors. They came as archeology also claims, from Russia and the Bering Straight during the ice age. They did not come in boats across the ocean to the Americas.

Intellectuals & Scholars Accept It As Truth

This should clarify that these intellectuals and scholars include only those employed by the church who teach the truthfulness of the text as part of their paid jobs. If they speak against the truthfulness, they lose their livelihood – and some do this. There are virtually no intellectuals or scholars who teach that the Book of Mormon is true outside the church schools and CES. Anyone who does teach the book as a true text, does it in a religious matter, and not historical. Even the church is stepping away from the book being a historically true book. They are also a product of the church and their beliefs are tied up into these truth claims. We could say that all the Universities in Muslim countries who claim that the Quoron is true, are proof enough that it is indeed true. This is not a sound logical argument.

Finish Writing In 65 Days

This is misleading and takes the writing process out of context. There were by some accounts 65 days of (translating) or writing to produce the Book of Mormon, but these days were not consecutive. Joseph received the Gold Plates reportedly on the 22nd of September 1827. The first recorded day of translation was January 1828, 116 pages were lost in June 1828, Joseph begins new translation in January 1829, Oliver Cowdery joins as scribe in April 1829, and the Book was published and available for sale on March 1830 This is the real timeline we’d need to consider, the book took at least 6 months and at most a two and a half years considering the time he first had the plates til he first had a published book.

Consider for a moment that it is a work of fraud, would the fraudster correctly report the details of the fraud? No, if you are looking to buy a car from a used car salesman, they will tell you that the vehicle was checked out by a mechanic and that everything is in tip-top condition, but they have a biased message and a motive to lead you to believe this.

Also, take account that the timeline is self-reported. It could have been any number of days off and there could have been many other days which were not included in the self-made report. Have you completed a large project before? Do you carefully track the number of hours throughout the task? Has this self-reporting been exact? Perhaps if you are tracking hours as part of a job, it is exact, but there was no “clocking in” and “clocking out” in this case. These days are not a trustworthy measurement. Even the church website, doesn’t use such an exact number, but states “less than three months” and “about 60 to 90 days.”

Joseph translated the gold plates in less than three months…

a period of about 60 to 90 days

Church History: Joseph Smith Translates the Gold Plates, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website.
https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/joseph-smith-translates-the-gold-plates

They are not transparent though that these are just counting the “working” days and they are not the full start to finish time frame. Joseph reportedly receives the Gold Plates on September 22 1827 (Fall Equinox), and translated some “caracters” with Martin Harris in January 1828. Martin brings these to Charles Anthon in February 1828. April through June 1828 they translate/write the book of Lehi.

In June 1828, Joseph and Martin lose the 116-page manuscript. Doe the church count these days of translation in their time table? They certainly don’t, since it wasn’t what made up the Book of Mormon, but you could consider this a first draft, since the second time around they end up telling roughly the same story. Though before continuing, Joseph takes a considerable break – about 9 months! This would be a great time to rethink the story and come up with different ideas or doctrines to include in the text. This down time is certainly important if we consider the possibility that it was not a translation and that Joseph was the author of the text. If it was a traditional translation though, we wouldn’t consider the break to be “working” days. Though the church doesn’t consider it a “traditional translation” anyways, but they want to count the “working” days as if it were, and then when we discuss what the word “translation” means, they want to redefine it, because clearly, Joseph was not even looking at the Gold Plates to translate them, but looking into his hat and peep stones.

Joseph is punished for losing the manuscript and God takes the “interpreters and plates” from him in July. They are returned to him on the familiar Fall Equinox on September 22 1828. Then in February of 1829 Joseph translates with Emma as scribe. In April 1829, Joseph translates with Oliver Cowdery as scribe and they declare that by the end of June that year the work is complete. Then they worked on a printing manufacturer and the printing was completed the next year in March 1830. So, from the time Joseph said he received the plates until the book was published, we have the time down of two and a half years. But, if we consider the 4 years from when Joseph first announced the gold plates and three tone it was published, we’d have to concede 6.5 years. Joseph potentially had much longer than the claimed 65 working days to consider the stories he’d dictate as the Book of Mormon. His mother tells if stories he would tell about ancient natives that made it seem like he had lived among them, so he was a skilled story teller. (See Mother Knows Best – Joseph Smith’s Mother on The First Vision)

Volunteers Witness the Truth

Of course, they do! They are integral parts of the cult! Just as the “intellectuals” and “scholars” mentioned above, they are also a product of the church, and they have bought into the truth claims. There is a grand missionary system set up with many social pressures to ensure members serve these volunteer missions. There are also suicide bombers who volunteer to blow themselves and others to bits because they think their beliefs are true. Throughout history, there have been countless wars fought over the Truth of one religion or another. The crusades were generations of wars where the “faithful” soldiers volunteered to clear infidels out of cities they considered sacred. Humans will go to great lengths when they believe something is true. The lengths they go to, and the claims they make do not, however, make the claims true.

This is a slightly stronger argument that Intellectuals and Scholars witness the truth because they have less ulterior motives or strings attached, but they still have a vested interest in telling that this is True. If they do disagree, they don’t necessarily lose their job. What would make it even stronger is to combine both of these points so that Volunteer Intellectuals and Scholars accept and witness to the truthfulness of the book. Then they have no strings attached and speak with no coercion.

Whataboutism

This challenge really has no actual bearing on the truthfulness of there book. Especially when all the points are debatable at best, and misleading and outright lies at worst. This is quite a stretch, but even if they were all true points, it wouldn’t make the book of Mormon true, and it wouldn’t excuse all the anachronisms. This really just distracts people from the fact that there are issues, it basically blames us if we point out issues, because we couldn’t possibly do any better. It’s a logical fallacy often called what-about-ism.

Nemo the Mormon picks this same video apart and makes many of these same points in this video from 2021.

Points They Don’t Mention

• After the first edition states you are the author of the book, you later state that you are not technically the author of this book, and claim that you only translated it from a real record you found in the ground.
• This record will be made of pure gold, like a buried treasure, and will be guarded by an angel or spirit.
• Before coming up with this story, you as the author must become a well-known treasure digger, receiving payment for using seer stones to find ancient buried treasure (mostly gold) and claim that spirits are guarding the treasure and that it is slippery. A concept you will also incorporate into the text (which you claim to have only translated).
• You should claim to have witnesses of these source gold plates, but really you don’t need to show them to a single person and convince these gullible believers that they saw the plates with their “spiritual eyes” only. You may possibly even use herbs or mushrooms to help them have visions.
• While “translating” the text, you must restart after about 116 pages are complete. Then instead of restarting, rephrase the story from a different point of view, but still tell the same story, in case you can’t pass this same “translation” of the same 116 pages exactly as the previous ones. Assume this is because someone is trying to expose your fraud, so beat them to the punch by changing the story and claiming that God told you to do this.
• Don’t have any money to publish the book, so convince the person responsible for losing those 116 pages to pay for publishing the book. They will have to sell their farm to pay for it, but you must make them feel so bad and also so important to God that they will be happy to do it, even if their wife thinks they are crazy in the head and the don’t receive full repayment, ever.
• After publishing the book, attempt unsuccessfully to sell the copyright to the text, since you couldn’t sell the gold plates that people only see with their spiritual eyes.
• The book should be used to found a religion.
• Once this religion is started, you must retroactively write a personal history with claims that The Lord visited you and called you to start this church because the others were abominations in the sight of God.
• Later revise the story so that you saw The Father and the Son who told you to restore the true church.
• Notice that the text of the book that was already published talked about God as everyone accepted at the time as a Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. So revise the text in most places to make it present the Father and the Son as distinct and different people rather than One.
• Ensure that there is zero archeological evidence for battles with millions of soldiers whatsoever. Scour the continent and make any evidence disappear, so that followers must use faith to believe you and not evidence.
• You must also write another book you claim to have translated. This time, written by a super famous Old Testament prophet. It must talk about ancient civilizations that will be better understood in the future. The text must include copies of damaged and patched-up drawings with labels that are nonsensical to those who later study the civilization. This book must prove that you cannot translate ancient texts (see the Book of Abraham).
• The book should include a dream your own father recorded previously, but pass it off as a dream of a prophet in the text. (Lehi’s Dream is Joseph Smith Senior’s Dream too)
• The text must include animals that didn’t exist and animals that didn’t exist in the place and time the story was expected to take place. (Book of Mormon Horses: Real or Myth? Or Tapirs?)
• The book should also include technologies that archeology proves did not exist in the places and times the story was expected to take place. (Anachronisms Found in the Book of Mormon
• The book should include laws of God that are not followed and even contradicted by the church you form using this book as the founding scripture. (Polygamy, Word of Wisdom)
• The book should resemble some other books. Take main themes and direct phrases in many cases. These other texts should remain secret. (See Book of Hebrews and The Late War among others)
• Also, the book should include extensive quotes from biblical texts. They should directly quote a version of the Bible that didn’t exist when the record was originally written on gold plates. So the translation story won’t make much sense, but the religion must continue with that until there is no other option. Then the religion must attempt to redefine what the word translation means.
• The book should make an appeal to emotion for readers to ask if the text is NOT true. The religion should turn this into a Promise, that if you feel anything good while reading the book, it means that the book is true, the religion is true, and you are a true prophet of God.

What else did we miss? Do you have any additions to this list of points the suggested book should include that the original video or Hugh Nibly’s writing challenge didn’t include? Please add more in the comments and consider sharing your own deconstruction story at wasmormon.org.

• Book of Mormon Writing Challenge
• https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/5kg0no/the_antinibley_book_of_mormon_challenge/
• https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/1986/04/h-o-g-m-e-t-what-to-do-when-they-say-its-not-true?lang=eng
• https://mylifebygogogoff.com/2016/04/write-book-mormon-30-point-challenge-skeptics.html
• https://malcolmtwigg.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/challenge-to-write-the-book-of-mormon.doc
• https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/joseph-smith-translates-the-gold-plates?lang=eng
• https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/lost-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng
• https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Question:_What_do_we_know_about_the_chronology_of_the_Book_of_Mormon_translation_and_publication%3F
• https://www.mormonhandbook.com/home/5000-changes-to-the-book-of-mormon.html