FAQ

Why did you really build this site?

Imagine that you were part of an organization along with most of your friends and family. The organization played a very significant role not only in your lives, but in your finances and your view of the world. Now imagine that you found out new information about the organization that proves it is lying to everyone and not what it claims.

Would you leave it and remain silent? Or would you want to at least tell your friends and family about the information that you wish someone else had shared with you? We’re not asking for people to believe the church is false. We’re not trying to convince them. All we’re asking is that our friends and family look at the factual information and make an informed, objective decision with more data than they had before.

Are you angry at the church?

That’s a tricky question. In our minds, there is a significant distinction between the organization itself and its regular members. We love Mormons. Many of our closest friends and family members are Mormons.  We have had countless great experiences in the church because of the people. We think there are plenty of great people outside of Mormonism too, but we have a special place in our hearts for the many Mormons we know.

However, the organization is false. It not only whitewashes its history even from its own members, but lies frequently about it as well. It fraudulently claims that members, even destitute ones, need to pay 10% of their income to it in order to be worthy in the eyes of God. The church involves itself in politics and social issues, fighting against interracial marriage, civil rights, same-sex marriages, and women’s rights. And it focuses to the detriment of unorthodox individuals on obedience and conformity above all else.
So we dislike the organization while loving the members.

Do you really think the church is provably false?

In short, yes. Church leaders have provided no reasonable answers to numerous issues that place it firmly in the realm of falsehood. Here are 14:

1. The Earth is far, far older than the church claims
2. Evolution is a scientific fact and directly contradicts fundamental church claims about the origin of mankind
3. We have mountains of evidence that death was in the world long before 6,000 years ago, despite what the church claims
4. The Book of Mormon, which claims to be a truthful history of the American continent, has numerous anachronisms that show it to be fictional
5. The Book of Mormon contains transcription and translation errors clearly copied from the King James Version of the Bible
6. DNA evidence disproves the notion that Native Americans came from Jerusalem
7. Multiple Mormon Prophets have given false prophecies
8. The Book of Abraham text and facsimiles are translated incorrectly and date to long after Abraham’s time
9. A Mormon Prophet swore under oath before Congress that he had never received revelation as a leader of the church and that Prophets and Apostles are not chosen by revelation
10. The doctrine, canon and rhetoric are filled with contradictions and inconsistencies
11. All three witnesses have denied seeing the Golden Plates while the eight were all close family and/or part of the production of the Book of Mormon
12. Joseph Smith secretly and illegally practiced polygamy with married women, young teenagers, and servants in his house despite claims and revelation to the contrary
13. The church claims that the flood of Noah was a literal global event, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary
14. Joseph claimed to have translated a portion of the Kinderhook Plates and that they contained a record of an ancient Jaredite, but the plates were eventually exposed as 19th century fabrications

Other issues, like the church’s stance on social issues, censorship, sexism, the logical inconsistencies, the Hofmann scandal, etc. are symptoms of the disease, not direct proofs of the church’s falsehood.

How is your life now?

We do know some ex-Mormons whose lives have been devastated by leaving the church. It’s not as some Mormons believe, that they descend into alcoholism or can’t find joy without the church, it’s that their Mormon friends and family have cruelly shunned and persecuted them.

One example is Tom Phillips, who was a Bishop (twice), Stake President, and had his calling and election made sure in the Second Anointing. His entire family, including all of his children and his wife, treated him like a leper when he found out troubling aspects of the church and tried to discuss them.

Thankfully, our path out of the church hasn’t been quite as rocky. Some of our family members from both sides uncovered the same truth and left the church along with us. While some friends and family have shunned us or judged us harshly, others have been understanding.

Ultimately, we are happier than we have ever been before.

Why won’t many Mormons look at this stuff?

We don’t know. When some of our family presented the information to us, we were mostly unafraid to look at it and objectively analyze our beliefs in light of it. But most of our friends and family essentially stick their fingers in their ears. Some of them blame our disaffection on sinning, laziness in the gospel, etc., but are unwilling to hear our explanation. It’s hurtful and depressing.

If we had a conviction about something and someone close to us said that they had factual evidence showing that the conviction was false, we would at least give them a chance to present the information.

We agree with Apostle Orson Pratt:

Apostle Orson Pratt:

The Book of Mormon claims to be a divinely inspired record, written by a succession of prophets who inhabited ancient America. It professes to be revealed to the present generation for the salvation of all who will receive it, and for the overthrow and damnation of all nations who reject it.

This book must be either true or false. If true, it is one of the most important messages ever sent from God to man, affecting both the temporal and eternal interests of every people under heaven to the same extent and in the same degree that the message of Noah affected the inhabitants of the old world. If false, it is one of the most cunning, wicked, bold, deep-laid impositions ever palmed upon the world, calculated to deceive and ruin millions who will sincerely receive it as the word of God, and will suppose themselves securely built upon the rock of truth until they are plunged with their families into hopeless despair. The nature of the message in the Book of Mormon is such, that if true, no one can possibly be saved and reject it; if false, no one can possibly be saved and receive it. Therefore, every soul in all the world is equally interested in ascertaining its truth or falsity.

In a matter of such infinite importance no person should rest satisfied with the conjectures or opinions of others: he should use every exertion himself to become acquainted with the nature of the message: he should carefully examine the evidences of which it is offered to the world: he should, with all patience and perseverance, seek to acquire a certain knowledge whether it be of God or not. Without such an investigation in the most careful, candid, and impartial manner, he cannot safely judge without greatly harming his future and eternal welfare. If, after a rigid examination, it be found an imposition, should be extensively published to the world as such; the evidences and arguments upon which the imposture was detected, should be clearly and logically stated, that those who have been sincerely yet unfortunately deceived, may perceive the nature of the deception, and be reclaimed, and that those who continue to publish the delusion, may be exposed and silenced, not by physical force, neither by persecutions, bare assertions, nor ridicule, but by strong and powerful arguments–by evidences adduced from scripture and reason. Such, and such only, should be the weapons employed to detect and overthrow false doctrines–to reclaim mankind from their errors, to expose religious enthusiasm, and put to silence base and wicked impostors.

That is what we have attempted to do: clearly and logically state why the church is false in order to “reclaim mankind from their errors, to expose religious enthusiasm, and put to silence base and wicked impostors.”

Aren’t there very smart people, like BYU professors, who know this stuff and still believe?

Yes. Though if you were to judge the truthfulness of the church based on number of intellectuals inside our outside of it, it would be a very lopsided comparison. In 1998, a study found that only 7% of National Academy of Sciences members believed in God at all.

So the evidence shows the Book of Mormon is fiction, but how did an uneducated farmboy create it in about 90 days?

First of all, Joseph was far from uneducated. Second, the various timeframes that are claimed for the “translation” process are only speculation. If, as we are claiming, the Book of Mormon is a fictional creation of Joseph and possibly his cohorts, why would we trust him about his supposed timeframe?

But most importantly, the burden of proof lies on the church, not on people like us. We have already shown that it is full of holes and is a work of fiction. So the claim that an actual angel delivered unseen golden plates with Reformed Egyptian (a made-up language) that Joseph could magically translate by looking at a rock in a hat, is clearly a far less credible and more fantastic story than any of the possible ones proposed thus far by church critics.

For a fantastic look at this issue, check this out.

Are you willing to discuss this on a more personal level (face to face, over the phone, email, etc.)?

Yes! Leave a comment and we will get in touch. Also, if we are somehow wrong and you know why, we would love to know too! Show us where we have erred.