Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!tekecs!shark!sdb
From: sdb@shark.UUCP (Steven Den Beste)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Jesus is the same as Joseph Smith (or, "Shooting yourself in the foot")
Message-ID: <1419@shark.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Aug-83 01:28:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: shark.1419
Posted: Thu Aug 18 01:28:49 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 12-Aug-83 16:49:32 EDT
Lines: 44

J. D. Jensen posted an article with several responses to an earlier
put-down of Smith and the Book of Mormon.

In that article, Jensen says words to the effect that the slanders
reported about Smith are much the same as those reported about Jesus
by his contemporaries.

Well, as an atheist I have to agree. The syllogism went something like:

There were reports that Smith was a fraud.

There were similiar reports that Jesus was a fraud.

If Smith was a fraud then Jesus must have been one also.

QED Smith was a saint.


This syllogism is incomplete, and therefore ambiguous.
Unfortunately, I interpret it the other way:

QED They BOTH were frauds.


There was also a comment by Jensen about the "three witnesses" who
had seen the gold plates and attested to their reality, even though
they later left the church. Why, Jensen asks rhetorically, didn't
they 'fess up after they left the church if it was a fraud?

Fraud is a felony, and if they confessed they faced long prison terms.

Even after they ceased to benefit from the fraud, they had a vested
interest in maintaining it so as to maintain their freedom of movement.
Remember, this was the U.S. of the 1830's and 1840's, and they used
to HANG horse-thieves. What would they do to someone who had swindled
thousands of dollars from people?


Just thought I would toss those two monkey wrenches in the works.
You know, folks, sitting on the outside watching all this intra-sect
squabbling is somewhat amusing!

    Steve Den Beste
    [decvax|ucbvax]!teklabs!tekecs!shark!sdb