FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Latest revision as of 02:20, 3 December 2025
Response to claims made in Becoming Gods by Richard Abanes
Pages in category "Becoming Gods"
The following 192 pages are in this category, out of 192 total.
B
- Backman (1985): "On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts of his sacred experience of 1820"
- Bell: "the questionable traces above the head of the Osiris figure are actually the remains of his right hand"
- Bell: "there would not be enough available space to restore the hand of Anubis, the erect phallus of the Osiris, and the body and wings of Isis"
- Bernardino de Sahagun: "Fodder was provided the deer—horses—which the Spaniards rode"
G
- Gee: "Ferguson is largely unknown to the vast majority of Latter-day Saints; his impact on Book of Mormon studies is minimal"
- Gordon B. Hinckley (1984): "I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision"
- Gospel Topics on LDS.org: "Mormon and non-Mormon Egyptologists agree that the characters on the fragments do not match the translation given in the book of Abraham"
- Gospel Topics: "The Book of Mormon...does not claim that the peoples it describes were either the predominant or the exclusive inhabitants of the lands they occupied"
- Gospel Topics: "The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story, though naturally they differ in emphasis and detail"
- Gospel Topics:Are Mormons Christian:Latter-day Saints Do Not Accept the Creeds of Post–New Testament Christianity
- Grayson: "extinct North American mammals...losses began in Mexico and Alaska during the Pleistocene and ended in Florida perhaps as recently as 2000 years ago"
M
- Martin: "no theoretical reason why a herd of mastodons, horses, or ground sloths could not have survived in some small refuge until 8000 or even 4000 years ago"
- Miller and Roper: "Bones of domesticated cattle...have been reported from different caves in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico"
- Miller and Roper: "Evidence of goats associated with pre-Columbian man also comes from caves in Yucatan"
- Miller and Roper: "In post-biblical Jewish literature some Jewish writers distinguished between wild and domestic cattle such as goats"
- Multiple accounts of the First Vision
P
- Peterson and Roper: "We know of no one who cites Ferguson as an authority, except countercultists"
- Peterson: "Thomas Stuart Ferguson's biographer...makes every effort to portray Ferguson's apparent eventual loss of faith as a failure for 'LDS archaeology'"
- Pietro Martire d'Anghiera (1912): "the Spaniards noticed herds of deer similar to our herds of cattle"
Q
- Question: Are Mormons polytheists because they don't accept the Nicene Creed?
- Question: Are Mormons the only ones who believe in the concept of a life before this one?
- Question: Are there new ideas necessary for creedal Trinitarianism?
- Question: Can Latter-day Saints be divided into two distinct groups called "Internet Mormons" and "Chapel Mormons"?
- Question: Could ancient Americans have expanded the definition of "horse" to include new meanings?
- Question: Could Joseph Smith have used Ethan Smith's ''View of the Hebrews'' as a guideline for creating the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Could the list of items on Joseph's person at the time of his death have been incomplete?
- Question: Did B.H. Roberts lose his faith in the Church and the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Did Brigham Young commit blasphemy by applying 1 John 4:3 to Joseph Smith?
- Question: Did Brigham Young tell Henry Jacobs in front of hundreds of people that he needed to find another wife?
- Question: Did Bruce R. McConkie claim in Mormon Doctrine that our heavenly parents created our spirits "through some kind of sexual union"?
- Question: Did Dee F. Green say that there is no such thing as Book of Mormon archaeology?
- Question: Did early members of the "Mormon" Church believe in witchcraft?
- Question: Did early Mormon leaders believe that Jesus Christ was a polygamist?
- Question: Did early Mormon leaders consider themselves Christians?
- Question: Did Gordon B. Hinckley cite false information regarding an 1820 Palmyra revival in a book called Truth Restored?
- Question: Did Heber C. Kimball say that future generations would view Joseph Smith as "a god"?
- Question: Did Jedediah Grant sanction "wife swapping"?
- Question: Did Jesus and the apostles believe in pre-mortal life?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith and Brigham Young steal Henry Jacobs' family?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith attempt to "cover up" Oliver Cowdery's work with a divining rod by changing the wording of the revelation that became Doctrine and Covenants 8:6–8?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith become a baptized member of the Baptist Church in 1822?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith become a member of the Methodist Church while he was translating the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith believe that the Book of Mormon explained local legends associated with the "Mound Builders" of the Eastern United States?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith copy the name "Nephi" from the Apocrypha?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith create the story of Nephi and Laban by plagiarizing concepts and phrases from the story of Judith and Holofernes in the Apocrypha?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith decide that all churches were wrong before he received the First Vision?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith derive his religious ideas in part from a mysticism called Kabbalah?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith ever publicly attempt to teach the doctrine of plural marriage?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith give Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball divining rods "as a symbol of gratitude for their loyalty"?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith have a Jupiter talisman on his person at the time of his death?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith join the Methodist, Presbyterian, or Baptist churches between 1820 and 1830 despite the claim made in his 1838 history that he was forbidden by Deity from joining any denomination?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith originally identify the angel that visited him as "Nephi" instead of "Moroni"?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith plagiarize Josiah Priest's ''The Wonders of Nature and Providence Displayed''?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith receive a revelation instructing him to to sell the copyright to the Book of Mormon in Canada and later claim that the revelation was false?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith revise his account of the First Vision in 1838 to respond to a leadership crisis?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith say that viewing the gold plates would result in death?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith's family own "magic parchments" which suggest their involvement in the "occult"?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith's mother say that the First Vision was of an "angel"?
- Question: Did Latter-day Saints wish to avoid being classified as Christians?
- Question: Did LDS leaders claim that Christians were no longer present on the earth after the apostasy?
- Question: Did Martin Harris claim that he only saw the gold plates as they were covered "as a city through a mountain"?
- Question: Did Martin Harris tell people that he did not see the plates with his natural eyes, but rather the "eye of faith"?
- Question: Did Martin Harris tell people that he only saw the plates with his "spiritual eye"?
- Question: Did Oliver Cowdery state that Joseph did not know if a "supreme being" existed in 1823?
- Question: Did Orson Pratt state that it was an angel that appeared during the First Vision?
- Question: Did some Church leaders believe that the skin of the Lamanites would turn white?
- Question: Did the Church suppress a revelation given to Joseph Smith in 1831 which encouraged the implementation of polygamy by intermarriage with the Indians in order to make them a “white and delightsome” people?
- Question: Did the story of Moroni's visit to Joseph Smith evolve from that of a magical spiritual treasure guardian to an "angel"?
- Question: Did the three witnesses's experience of seeing the plates and the angel take place only in their minds?
- Question: Do Christian critics of the Book of Mormon have a double standard regarding DNA evidence?
- Question: Do Greek scholars solve the discrepancies in Paul's vision accounts?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe in a female divine person, a "Heavenly Mother" as counterpart to God, the Heavenly Father?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe in a practice called "celestial sex," and that this is the manner in which "spirit children" are formed?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that Mayan cities were inhabited by the Nephites?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that no genuine Christians exist outside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that Quetzalcoatl was actually Jesus Christ?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that the scriptural terms "church of the devil," the "great and abominable church," and the "whore of all the earth" refer to a specific religion?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that they will one day 'supplant' God?
- Question: Do Martin Harris's statements related to the "spiritual eye" or "eye of faith" contradict the reality of his witness?
- Question: Do Mormons believe that Mary was still a virgin when Jesus was born?
- Question: Does a Mesoamerican limited geographical Book of Mormon setting contradict D&C 54:8, which discusses the "borders of the Lamanites" being in North America?
- Question: Does an association of Quetzalcoatl with Jesus Christ constitute "snake worship"?
- Question: Does Book of Abraham Facsimile 1 show a hand, or does it show the wing of a second bird?
- Question: Does Doctrine and Covenants 84 say that one cannot see God without holding the priesthood?
- Question: Does Joseph Smith's 1832 account of the First Vision not mention that he was persecuted for telling others about the vision?
- Question: Does Lucy Mack Smith's mention of the "faculty of Abrac" and "magic circles" evidence that "magick" played a strong role in the Smith family's early life?
- Question: Does the 1832 account of the First Vision not prohibit Joseph from joining any church?
- Question: Does the Bible contain also the necessary elements for Trinitarianism?
- Question: Does the Church claim that Native Americans were the exclusive descendants of Lehi or Mulek?
- Question: Does the doctrine that God has a physical body contradict the Bible?
- Question: Does the Mormon doctrine that God has a physical body contradict the Bible's statement in John 4:24 that "God is a Spirit"?
- Question: Does the Nicene Creed define who is Christian, and who is not?
- Question: Does the practice of baptism for the dead have ancient roots?
- Question: Have any ancient horse remains from the Nephite period been found in the New World?
- Question: How did the mainstream Christian view that God created the universe out of nothing originate?
- Question: How do current Mesoamerican limited geographical theories fit with the existing data?
- Question: How was the doctrine of creation altered to "creatio ex nihilo"?
- Question: How was the wording of the "rod of nature" revelation that became Doctrine and Covenants 8:6–8 altered over time?
- Question: How were Joseph Smith's seer stones involved in the translation of the Book of Mormon?
- Question: In the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, why is each Egyptian character matched to an entire paragraph of English text?
- Question: In what manner was the Melchizedek Priesthood restored?
- Question: Is it possible that the Nephites and Lamanites are associated with the pre-Classic Maya, and the Jaredites are associated with the Olmec?
- Question: Is it possible to deduce Joseph Smith's thoughts and dreams years after his death?
- Question: Is plural marriage required in order to achieve exaltation?
- Question: Is the Journal of Discourses a "standard work" of the Church?
- Question: Is the Mormon doctrine of a "premortal existence" pagan, unchristian, or unbiblical, and therefore false?
- Question: Of what did the Strangite witnesses testify?
- Question: Should the restoration of Book of Abraham Facsimile 1 include a phallus?
- Question: Was a "magic dagger" once owned by Hyrum Smith?
- Question: Was Ezra Booth commanded to take a wife from among the Indians?
- Question: Was Nicean Trinitarianism always a key part of Christian belief?
- Question: Was the ''View of the Hebrews'' theory of Book of Mormon origin advanced during the lifetime of Joseph Smith?
- Question: Was the Latter-day Saint concept of deification derived from Greek philosophy?
- Question: Was the original head of the priest in Book of Abraham Facsimile 1 actually the jackal head of Anubis?
- Question: Was Thomas Stuart Ferguson an archaeologist?
- Question: Were Joseph Smith's spiritual experiences originally products of magic and the occult?
- Question: Were Mayan cities inhabited by the Nephites?
- Question: What are the differences between the Strangite witness statements and those of the Three and Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What are the Hurlbut affidavits?
- Question: What are the problems of trying to associate Quetzalcoatl with Jesus Christ?
- Question: What are the reasons for the changes to the Doctrine and Covenants?
- Question: What are the similarities and differences between ''View of the Hebrews'' and the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What are the two 1835 First Vision accounts that refer to angels?
- Question: What Biblical scriptures discuss the doctrine of the deification of man?
- Question: What criticisms are related to Oliver Cowdery's 1834-1835 history of the Church?
- Question: What did early Mormon leaders think of Christians?
- Question: What did Orson Pratt state about Joseph Smith's First Vision?
- Question: What did the husband of Zina D. Huntington know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What do the Joseph Smith papyri fragments consist of?
- Question: What does 1 John 5:7-8 have to do with Trinitariansim?
- Question: What does John 10:30 have to do with Trinitarianism?
- Question: What events resulted in Joseph Smith's 1826 court appearance in South Bainbridge?
- Question: What happened to the papyri after Joseph's death?
- Question: What have Latter-day Saint leaders actually said about the method of procreation in the afterlife?
- Question: What is Joseph Smith's 1826 South Bainbridge "trial" for "glasslooking"?
- Question: What is Lehi's ancestry?
- Question: What is the date of the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood?
- Question: What is the focus of Latter-day Saint research regarding the Maya?
- Question: What is the origin of the modern horse in the New World?
- Question: What is the probability that Joseph Smith possessed items related to "magic"?
- Question: What is the relationship of the Joseph Smith Papyri to the Book of Abraham?
- Question: What is the source of the story about Joseph Smith possessing a Jupiter talisman?
- Question: What references to the First Vision exist in published documents from the 1830s?
- Question: What religious excitement was occurring in Palmyra in 1820?
- Question: What role do horses ''not'' play in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What was the Lamanite curse?
- Question: What were early Christian beliefs on the nature of God?
- Question: What were the early Christian beliefs about the creation?
- Question: What were the views of early Christians on the deification of man?
- Question: Where was the Melchizedek Priesthood restored?
- Question: Who are the Maya, and how might they be related to the Nephites or Lamanites?
- Question: Who can be called "Lamanites"?
- Question: Who was James Strang?
- Question: Who was the "angel" in the First Vision that Andrew Jenson was referring to?
- Question: Why are horses considered an anachronism in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Why did Joseph keep the doctrine of plural marriage private?
- Question: Why did Joseph Smith say "I had not been married scarcely five minutes...before it was reported that I had seven wives"?
- Question: Why did the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants include a statement of marriage that denied the practice of polygamy at a time when some were actually practicing it?
- Question: Why do the Latter-day Saints believe God has a body?
- Question: Why does Joseph Smith state in his 1832 First Vision account that he was in his "16th year" of age?
- Question: Why does Joseph Smith's 1832 account of the First Vision not mention two personages?
- Question: Why does the Book of Mormon mention "synagogues" when they were not present among the Jews until after the Babylonian captivity?
- Question: Why don't potential pre-Columbian horse remains in the New World receive greater attention from scientists?
- Question: Why was Joseph fined if he wasn't found guilty of anything?
- Question: Why was Nicean Trinitarianism introduced at all?
- Question: Why was the phrase "white and delightsome" changed to "pure and delightsome" in the 1840 edition of the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Why were the gold plates needed at all if they weren't used directly during the translation process?
- Question: Why would Joseph be sealed to the wife of someone who was not only married to someone else, but pregnant with her husband's child?
- Question: Why would Martin Harris use the phrases "eye of faith" or "spiritual eye" to describe his visionary experience?
- Questions: Are there contemporary witnesses that confirm that Joseph Smith didn't join any church after the First Vision?
- Questions: What biblical evidence is there for a pre-mortal existence?
S
- Seminary Manual (2013): "Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts"
- Sorenson: "The Miami Indians, for example, were unfamiliar with the buffalo and simply called them 'wild cows'"
- Sorenson: Horse bones in Yucatan "considered to be pre-Columbian on the basis of depth of burial and degree of mineralization"
- Source:Gospel Topics:Becoming Like God:Latter-day Saints see all people as children of God in a full and complete sense
- Source:Gospel Topics:Becoming Like God:Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them
- Source:Gospel Topics:The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage:The Second Manifesto
- Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:10:Preexistent Jesus and a divinized humanity
- Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:15:Christian beliefs do not need to have Neo-Platonic influence to be true
- Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:16:Joseph Smith more coherent than Augustine on matter and the divine
- Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:21:Joseph Smith's theosis does not supplant God or veer into polytheism
- Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:5:Mormons, Nicea, and Plato
- Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:6:Mormons retrieved early Christian beliefs rejected by creeds
- Stephen H. Webb: "Evidence That Demands Our Amazement... Joseph Smith was a remarkable person"
- Stephen Robinson: "In the case of the Jupiter coin, this same extrapolation error is compounded with a very uncritical acceptance of the artifact in the first place"