Main: About
It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
— William Kingdon Clifford, Clifford’s Credo
If the Freethinker’s Book of Mormon reaches its goals, freethinking readers of all stripes can gain an understanding of the controversies surrounding the Book of Mormon informing their conclusions regarding the text, and Mormon readers can better learn how freethinkers perceive their scripture.
Why the Book of Mormon?
If anyone is foolish enough or misled enough to reject 531 pages of a heretofore unknown text teeming with literary and Semitic complexity without honestly attempting to account for the origin of those pages—especially without accounting for their powerful witness of Jesus Christ and the profound spiritual impact that witness has had on what is now tens of millions of readers—if that is the case, then such a person, elect or otherwise, has been deceived; and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit. In that sense the book is what Christ Himself was said to be: “a stone of stumbling,… a rock of offence,” a barrier in the path of one who wishes not to believe in this work. (Elder Jeffrey Holland, Saftey for the Soul, October 2009 General Conference)
He was either a prophet of God, divinely called, properly appointed and commissioned, or he was one of the biggest frauds this world has ever seen. There is no middle ground. If Joseph Smith was a deceiver, who willfully attempted to mislead the people, then he should be exposed; his claims should be refuted, and his doctrines shown to be false for the doctrines of an impostor cannot be made to harmonize in all particulars with divine truth. If his claims and declarations were built upon fraud and deceit, there would appear many errors and contradictions, which would be easy to detect. (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p. 188)
Be Unafraid
Be unafraid of new ideas for they are the stepping stones to progress. But you will respect, of course, the opinions of others [but be unafraid to dissent if you are informed.]… Now I mention the freedom to express your thoughts, but I caution you that your thoughts and expressions must meet competition in the marketplace of thought, and in that competition truth must emerge triumphant. Only error needs to fear freedom of expression. Seek truth in all fields, and in that searching you’re going to need at least three virtues: courage, zest, and modesty. The ancients put that thought in [the] form of [a] prayer. They said, “From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth, from the laziness that is content with half truth, from the arrogance that thinks it has all the truth—O God of truth, deliver us.”
— Elder Hugh B. Brown, Man and What He May Become, 29 March 1958
Freethinker's Book of Mormon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at www.blakeclan.org.