Richard Bushman concedes to many points Jeremy Runnells brought up in the CES Letter in a discussion on the CES Letters podcast. CES Letters has no affiliation with the CES Letter, but is the latest attempt to debunk it. Richard Bushman is asked a series of questions stemming from the CES Letter, and responds to …
Tag Archives: treasure seeker
Joseph Smith’s Kinderhook Plates Kinder-Surprise Translation Redaction
In Kinderhook, Illinois, about 50 miles south of Nauvoo, six bell-shaped brass plates were allegedly found when digging up a burial mound on a farmer’s land. He said he’d dreamt about finding treasure in the mound and organized a dig. A couple Mormons were present when some small plates with ancient-looking inscriptions were found and …
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From ‘the Seer Stone a Fiction to Undermine the Validity of Church’ To ‘Such Aids Are Consistent With Accounts in Scripture’
In the year 2000, Deseret Book, the church-owned publishing company, published a joint-written book from two BYU professors, Joseph Fielding McConkie, a BYU Professor of Ancient Scripture, and Craig J. Ostler, a BYU Professor of Church History and Doctrine. The book is titled Revelations of the Restoration, A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants and …
Does Tithing Break the Poverty Cycle?
The cycle of poverty is a vicious trap where a parent’s poverty affects the lives of their children. Families in poverty often have limited resources, which makes it difficult to escape. Some examples of self-reinforcing disadvantages that can trap families in poverty include: Lack of financial capital, Lack of education, Lack of connections, Poor health, and Low working …


Book of Mormon Anachronisms – Slippery Treasures and Treasure Digging Concepts
Joseph Smith was brought up being praised for a “gift.” What gift is that? The gift his father practiced and saw in him. The practice was condemned by Benjamin Franklin 100 years earlier. The practice appears in church history, in the doctrine and covenants, and even the Book of Mormon. This practice is easily ridiculed …
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Benjamin Franklin on Treasure Seeking Seers
Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, didn’t know Joseph Smith since they lived in different times, but Joseph certainly knew of Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin did know however about many of the folk magic practices that Joseph’s family still practiced a hundred years later. Franklin saw the folly and called it out as nonsense. He described the …
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![“There are amongst us great numbers of honest artificers and labouring people, who, fed with a vain hope of growing suddenly rich, neglect their business, almost to the ruining of themselves and [their] families, and voluntarily endure abundance of fatigue in a fruitless search after imaginary treasures. They wander through the woods and bushes by day to discover the marks and signs; at midnight they repair to the hopeful spot with spades and pickaxes; full of expectation they labour violently, trembling at the same time in every joint, through fear of certain malicious demons who are said to haunt and guard such places. At length a mighty hole is dug, and perhaps several cartloads of earth thrown out, but alas, no cag or iron pot is found! No seaman’s chest crammed with Spanish pistoles, or weighty pieces of eight! Then they conclude, that through some mistake in the procedure, some rash word spoke, or some rule of art neglected, the guardian spirit had power to sink it deeper into the earth and convey it out of their reach.” - Benjamin Franklin, The Busy-Body, No. 8, March 27, 1729 | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Benjamin-Franklin-on-treasure-diggers.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1)
Joseph Smith’s Treasure Digging In Doctrine and Covenants
The church has reluctantly had to admit that Joseph Smith used his seer stones in his efforts to translate the Book of Mormon and not just the Urim and Thummim he received with the gold plates. They don’t like to admit that the seer stone in question is the same one he used in his …
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