this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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The tablets are real, although I wouldn't put it past the later church leadership to steal indigenous artifacts to cover for the lie though. But we know that Smith loved looting indigenous graves during the trail of tears so it does make sense for him to find them. They show pictures of the tablets at their museums. I think they want to avoid the discussion of what the plates actually are, so they keep it low key. It's obviously not hieroglyphics, seeing the tablets only makes it less believable if you're already in on the grift. If you see them as an outsider, it's obvious bullshit.
Where can I read more about this? I also thought they were forgeries.
Let me look for it. The source I remember for certain is that they have "tablets" in the museums they own near me. However, I know I saw an article about it being an indigenous artifact at one point. Time to scroll through my reddit history
Joseph Smith claimed they were indigenous artifacts because in mormon "lore" indigenous North Americans are supposed to be the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. But as far I know he never actually showed the tablets to anyone, and when some experts showed up to actually have a look at this artifact that he claimed to have found, he just told them that they were gone because they were taken back to heaven.
With what other people have said in this thread, I assume the tablets around here are something that the Mormons stole to keep the ruse up.
They're probably just "replicas" going off of Joseph Smith's description. As far as I know, no one ever found indigenous tablets of this kind, so it was probably something he made up entirely.
I responded to a commenter like you in PMs, except they just made it super duper clear that they were exmormons. The people in my area definitely believe that the tablets are real, however I also live in one of the only areas in the US that has a distinct flavor of Mormonism.
The tablets are not real. You are thinking of the book of Abraham, which was "translated" from an Egyptian funeral scroll. A lot of the rest of your info is wrong, too. (I'm an exmormon of more than 15 years, served a mission, went to byu)
I live in one of the Mormon centers outside of Utah. I can't go into detail without doxxing myself, but if you're Mormon, all I can say is that fucking tree. In the museums around here that the Mormons own, they show tablets but they don't have Hieroglyphics on it. Whether or not JS used those tablets is up for debate, but modern sects of Mormonism claim indigenous artifacts as the tablets.
The church does not claim to have the tablets that contained the book of Mormon. They were taken from Smith by Moroni once the translation was done.