By Hayuz

If you are thinking about joining the Mormon church, or are thinking about leaving, considering the following questions and finding the answers to them might contribute to a healthy perspective.  Due to conflicting claims by opposing sides on this question, and the impossibility of knowing, with absolute certainty, exactly what transpired and how, consideration of these points may facilitate making  a common sense decision.

1. At the time Joseph Smith claims to have been in contact with the angel Moroni, awaiting delivery of the gold plates, did he claim to be able to see where ”treasure” was buried by looking into a “seer” stone placed in his hat?
2. Did he charge a fee, or collect anything of value from the people he supposedly helped in this way?
3. Did anyone, who he so assisted, ever find anything of value?
4. Was he convicted in a court of law for engaging in this deceptive practice and for defrauding his clients?
5. Does the story about the golden plates share any similarities with the contrived treasure stories he told his gullible clients while defrauding them of their property?
6. Is there evidence to indicate that subsequent versions of Smiths first vision story (including the official version currently published by the Mormon church,) evolved over time and differ substantially from the earliest version recorded?
7. Did Smith translate the Book of Mormon from the gold plates, as the church claims, by using the Urim and Thumim (2 stones supported by bows attached to a breast plate),  to examine the characters inscribed on the plates, or, as at least 2 eyewitness claim, by gazing in a seer stone in his hat while the gold plates were hidden in a different location?
8. Smith claims to have suffered severe persecution for claiming to have seen God & Jesus.  If he really saw them, reported the event and was, in fact persecuted, why are there no references to this in printed material of the day, while there are several references in printed material to him having been ridiculed for claiming to have seen the angel Moroni and for claiming that he would be getting/had received, the gold plates from the angel.
9. If, as some versions of the first vision story claim, Smith was instructed by God to not join any of the churches then in existence, why did he subsequently join the Methodist Church?
10. After reading carefully what the 3 & 8 witnesses to the Book of Mormon really said, are they credible?  Or was Smith able to influence them to think and say what he wanted them to say?
11. Was Smith’s participation in the Kirtland Bank above reproach?
12. Was he indicted for bank fraud?
13. Did his legal troubles over the Kirtland Bank in any way influence him to depart suddenly from Kirtland in the middle of the night?
14. Did Smith send 2 church officials on a mission to sell a copy right to the Book of Mormon, telling them that God had told him that they would meet a man eager to purchase it?
15. Did the men find the man who was eager to purchase the copyright to the Book of Mormon?
16. When they returned unsuccessful, did Smith then admit that he was mistaken about the revelation from God on the subject?
17. If Smith was unable to determine if a thought was a revelation or just a thought, should anyone else expect to be able to reliably make such a determination?
18. If Smith was fooled in this instance, how can anyone be sure his other “revelations” were anything other than his own thoughts?
19. Does the text of the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price, that Smith claims to have translated from some scrolls that the church bought from an antiquities peddler,  bear any resemblance to the text of translations done by competent Egyptologists?
20. Does it appear that the church is attempting to cover up this discrepancy?
21. Is it troubling that, though many “old world” plants and animals, steel and wheels etc were mentioned in the Book of Mormon, no traces of these items have been found?
22. Is it likely that, as told in the Book of Mormon, travelers in the Arabian peninsula were able to stumble onto an uninhabited, vast fertile valley with a river that ran to the sea, at a time when every well, spring and mud puddle in the area was claimed and fought over by many clans and tribes?
23. Is it likely that people crossed the ocean with their livestock, plants and bees in vessels that were essentially “kegs”, with only stoppers in the top and bottom, when  the crossing took nearly a year? Could humans survive for a year under such conditions?
24. If, as the Book of Mormon claims, and as many church officials have testified over the years, the American indigenous people are of Hebrew descent, why do DNA tests fail to find any corroboration for this claim, and rather indicate that North East Asia was their place of origin just as archeological evidence indicates?
25. While samples of most of the coins mentioned in the Bible been found in old world excavations,  no sample of any coin mentioned in the Book of Mormon has as yet been discovered in archaeological digs in the Americas?  Should we conclude that the inhabitants of the Americas were more careful with their money?  Or is this is another indication that the B of M is fiction?
26. Though horses, a very hardy and prolific animal, were mentioned in the Book of Mormon, whose setting was the American continents between 600 BC to 400 AD, why were there no horses in the Americas when the Spanish arrived and explored around 1500, yet horses that escaped the Spanish soon multiplied into vast herds of wild horses?
27. Excavations have produced bones and evidence of all animals common to the Americas which were used by man, in light of the massive populations reported in the Book of Mormon, shouldn’t some evidence of the questionable animals of the Book of Mormon have also been found
28. While in Ohio, Smith raised a military force called “Zion’s Camp” to march to Missouri to relieve church members there who were being forced from their lands.  He promised them that when they arrived in Missouri they would win a great battle.  Why, then, were they met and disarmed, uneventfully, by the Missouri militia and Smith and some other leaders arrested?
29. Is it likely that a valley in central Missouri is the cradle of civilization and the site of the Garden of Eden, as Smith claimed, contrary to what centuries of archaeology has determined?
30. If Joseph was a true prophet, why are so many of his prophecies unfulfilled?
31. In the 87^th Section of the Doctrine & Covenants, Smith prophesied about the impending war between the states.  Why did so few of the things he prophesied there actually happen?
32. Was the part that he did  get right (location of the beginning of hostilities) available in newspaper articles, editorials and speculation that was rampant at the time?
33. What was the extent of Smith’s involvement with women prior to his introducing the “revelation” of a commandment to practice polygamy?
34. Is it likely that the purpose of this “revelation” was to justify Smith’s indiscretions?
35. If participation in Polygamy was a commandment from God and essential, why did the church abandon the practice when the US government made that a condition for Utah to become a state.
36. Was it really a righteous thing for Smith to marry teenage girls, (one as young as 14)?
37. Was it a righteous thing for him to marry women who were already married to other men, and then encourage them to continue to live with,  and receive support from, their other husbands?
38. Did Church officials always tell the truth when asked about their practice of Polygamy. 
39. Did Jesus ever lie about any of his doctrine or practices?
40. Is it likely that it would be necessary to lie about any practice truly commanded by God?
41. Did church officials in England publish  denials that Polygamy was being practiced in Nauvoo? 
42. Was one of the written denials published by an official who was, himself, married to several women, and had know for nearly 2 years that Polygamy was, in fact, being practiced in Nauvoo?
43. Was, as the church commonly asserts, Joseph under arrest on “trumped up” charges when he was murdered in jail, or was he arrested for an act of Treason?
44. Was he guilty of  Treason?
45. Did he cause the Nauvoo Expositor press to be smashed after it printed it’s first edition?
46. Was he Mayor of Nauvoo at the time?
47. Is it treason for a public official to violate  freedom of the press?
48. Could having a printing press destroyed be properly construed to be violation of freedom of the press?
49. Copies of the only edition of the Nauvoo expositor are available.  What was printed in it that warranted it being declared a “public nuisance”
50. Can any information printed in the Nauvoo Expositor be properly characterized as “anti-Mormon lies”?
51. What percent of Mormons have ever read a copy of the Nauvoo Expositor?
52. Who was the publisher of the Nauvoo Expositor?
53. What was his former relationship with Smith?
54. Was he a weak and wicked individual as the church label’s him, or was he simply a sincere citizen, a true “martyr”,  who had information which he believed the people of Nauvoo had the right to have?
55. Is the feeling of affirmation the Mormons report as their way of knowing that their beliefs are correct, even when they conflict with historical facts and other credible information, really a witness from “the spirit” or something else?
56. When different people report  spiritual witnesses of differing points of view, is it likely that they are dealing with personal revelation or something else?
57. When one is not sure if the feeling he has is an emotion or a spiritual witness, should he conclude that it is a spiritual witness if it is consistent with his indoctrination?
58. When one is unsure if a feeling is a spiritual witness or merely an emotion, is the feeling of any value in determining a course of action?
59. When people are exposed to emotional stories or other productions, we feel a strong emotion.  Should we conclude, therefore, that we are receiving personal revelation that that particular story or production is divine?
60. Why will many Mormons, at times, confide to each other that they doubt some aspects of Mormonism, but at other times swear that they know “without a shadow of a doubt” that the church is true?
61. Are many Mormons who swear that they have received personal revelation  secretly unsure whether they have actually  received this personal revelation?
62. If so, wouldn’t this be an indication of a basic dishonesty?
63. Are Mormons who doubt their testimonies made to feel that if they don’t have a testimony, it is because of some personal deficiency?
64. Does this tend to make many Mormons subconsciously feel that they are of diminished worth?
65. Does this position (“I’m not OK-you are OK” or even “I’m not OK, you are not OK either, but surely he is OK”) contribute to low self esteem among Mormons, and a tendency to permit others to do the thinking in their behalf?
66. Does Mormonism (and other religions) use hope, fear, guilt and non-verbal messages that erode individual self confidence to keep members dependent upon, and submissive to, the institution?
67.  Could this possibly be a tool to manipulate members and pressure them ,  to not only  refrain from voicing their doubts, but also to assert forcefully that they are sure of  Mormonism’s validity?
68. Shortly after joining the Masons, Smith claimed to have received, by revelation, rituals to be performed in the temple that were very similar to the rituals he had just learned from the Masons.  Was this just a coincidence.
69. Smith’s rituals differed slightly from the Masonic rituals.  He explained that the Masonic rituals had been changed and corrupted over the years ( about. 2000 years) and that the correct rituals he prescribed in the temple were revealed to him and were the “true and correct rituals”.  Over the (165) years the church has made changes to the temple rituals.  Whose rituals now most closely resemble the “true and correct” rituals that were revealed through Joseph?  Is it :   A- the rituals currently in use in Mormon temples, or B- the “corrupt” rituals the Masons used in Josephs time.
70.  Is this consistent with Mormon claims that God’s eternal principles are the same yesterday, today and               forever?         
71. If God’s eternal principles are unchanging is it likely that Mormonism has God’s principles, or is, as it claims to be, the “one and only true church“?     
72. Church officials have encouraged writers of history, who are members, to omit historical facts from their works if these facts tend to not be “faith promoting”.  Doesn’t this appear to be censorship?
73. In light of the radical changes Mormonism brings to people’s lives and their relationships with family and friends, don’t prospective members have a need and a right to know all the facts when deciding whether to join the church?
74. Is it ethical for the church to withhold derogatory information about itself from prospective members?    
75. Was the construction of the Salt Lake City Temple delayed because Brigham Young instructed the construction crew to use sandstone, which was more easily cut, for the foundation because, per his beliefs, it would, in time,  transform into granite?
76. As the sandstone began to crumble with the weight of the walls as they rose, was it then necessary to excavate and replace the sandstone with granite?
77. Did Brigham Young teach that Adam was the God of this earth?
78. Is this documented in the Journal of Discourses?
79. Does the church now deny that Brigham taught this Adam-God theory?
80. Did Brigham Young teach that the only way to be forgiven of some sins was to spill one’s blood upon the ground by being executed in some bloody fashion?
81. Did Brigham Young once assure his followers that dinosaurs never existed on this planet?
82. Why did Mormons attack the wagon train at Mountain Meadow and murder more than 120 people in cold blood.
83. Did they believe that God wanted these people dead?
84. Did they lack faith that God, if he really wanted these people dead, had the power to kill them himself by a variety of means, such as an epidemic.
85. Did Brigham Young engage, after the fact, in a cover-up to protect the guilty at Mountain Meadow?.
86. Is there any doubt that Young had the means to discover the true facts of the Mountain Meadow Massacre, if he really wanted to know.
87. Doesn’t this complicity after the fact make him guilty of murder as an accessory?
88. Would a true prophet of God conduct himself in this way?
89. Is it true that Mark Hoffman, the “Utah Bomber”, succeeded in selling forged documents to the church?
90. Why did the church want these forged documents, which seemed to cast doubt on the church’s version of history?
91. Why did the “Prophet, Seer and Revelator” fail to perceive that the documents were forgeries and that the church was being defrauded?
92. Is it likely that most of these troubling questions can be resolved in favor of the church?
93. Is it likely that all of them can be?