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.
Category:Letter to a CES Director
The following wiki pages are included in the response to "Letter to a CES Director."
Pages in category "Letter to a CES Director"
The following 200 pages are in this category, out of 595 total.
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- Question: Is a "burning in the bosom" simply a subjective, emotion-based, unreliable way to practice self-deception?
- Question: Is a Latter-day Saint testimony simply based on "feelings"?
- Question: Is a man unreliable because he lived in the 19th-Century?
- Question: Is Gilbert Hunt's phrase "the fourth day of this seventh month" in ''The Late War'' a source for the Book of Mormon phrase "the fourth day of this seventh month" in Alma 10:6?
- Question: Is Joseph Smith papyri Facsimile 1 common and similar to other such scenes?
- Question: Is plural marriage required in order to achieve exaltation?
- Question: Is prayer the only element required in the determination of truth?
- Question: Is someone unreliable because they practiced "treasure hunting" and believed in the use of seer stones to find lost objects?
- Question: Is the Church trying to hide something through its use of artwork?
- Question: Is the concept of no death before the fall on the ''entire earth'' Church doctrine?
- Question: Is the mention of "Ur of the Chaldees" in the Book of Abraham an anachronism?
- Question: Is the phrase "by his own hand upon papyrus" a 19th century redaction?
- Question: Is the phrase "by his own hand upon papyrus" an Egyptian title?
- Question: Is the representation of Min actually Egyptian "pornography"?
- Question: Is the story of the attempted sacrifice of Abraham described in the Book of Abraham supported by any other sources?
- Question: Is there a case where Joseph stated that his age was 17 rather than 14 at the time of the First Vision?
- Question: Is there a link between Ethan Smith, author of ''View of the Hebrews'', and Oliver Cowdery?
- Question: Is there any reference to God the Father being present in Joseph Smith's 1832 account?
- Question: Is there significance to the fact that both the Book of Mormon and Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War'' mention a "rod of iron"?
- Question: Is Wikipedia's portrayal of Martin Harris as a gullible, superstitious man accurate?
- Question: Many who listened to Elder Dunn's stories felt the spirit. Why would one feel the spirit upon hearing a story that was fabricated? Doesn't this confirm a lie?
- Question: Of what did the Strangite witnesses testify?
- Question: Should the restoration of Book of Abraham Facsimile 1 include a phallus?
- Question: Should we pay tithing before paying for food or rent?
- Question: Since its opening, has the redevelopment had the impact hoped for?
- Question: Since Joseph Smith "married" the wives of 11 other men, why were those women not "destroyed" as specified in the Doctrine and Covenants since they continued to live with their "previous" husbands?
- Question: Was Apostle Orson Hyde sent on a mission to dedicate Israel so that Joseph Smith could secretly marry his wife, Marinda Hyde, while he was away?
- Question: Was Captain Kidd "hanged for crimes allegedly committed in the vicinity of Moroni on Grand Comoro?"
- Question: Was Emma aware of the possibility that Joseph could take additional wives even without her consent?
- Question: Was Helen Mar Kimball's marriage to Joseph Smith ever consummated?
- Question: Was Joseph Smith ever charged with adultery under Illinois law?
- Question: Was Joseph Smith married or sealed to women who were already married to other living men?
- Question: Was Joseph Smith sealed or married to other men's wives without the knowledge or consent of their husband?
- Question: Was Martin Harris a gullible witness who would simply believe anything he was told?
- Question: Was Oliver Cowdery aware that some in the Church were practicing polygamy in 1835 at the time he authored the "Article on Marriage"?
- Question: Was President Hinckley suspicious that the Salamander letter might not be authentic?
- Question: Was the ''History of the Church'' falsified when "first visitation of Angels" was changed to "my first vision"?
- Question: Was the ''View of the Hebrews'' theory of Book of Mormon origin advanced during the lifetime of Joseph Smith?
- Question: Was the beginning of the Book of Mormon derived from ''The First Book of Napoleon''?
- Question: Was the Book of Mormon description of a cataclysm at the time of Christ's death derived from a similar description in Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?
- Question: Was the Book of Mormon description of the Liahona derived from Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?
- Question: Was the Book of Mormon phrase "it came to pass" derived from Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?
- Question: Was the Church forthright in identifying the rediscovered papyri prior to their examination by non-LDS Egyptologists?
- Question: Was the Limited Geography model created in response to DNA claims?
- Question: Was the only purpose of polygamy to "multiply and replenish the earth" and "bear the souls of men"?
- Question: Was the original head of the priest in Book of Abraham Facsimile 1 actually the jackal head of Anubis?
- Question: Was the practice of polygamy general knowledge among Latter-day Saints in 1835 when the "Article on Marriage" was published?
- Question: Was the priest depicted in Book of Abraham Facsimile 1 holding a knife or was it some other object?
- Question: Was the priesthood ban lifted as the result of social or government pressure?
- Question: Was the revelation comprising the current Doctrine and Covenants 27 altered to include mention of the priesthood restoration?
- Question: Was there no death on the entire earth before the Fall?
- Question: Was Thomas Stuart Ferguson an archaeologist?
- Question: Were any of the changes to the Book of Mormon made in reaction to sectarian criticism?
- Question: Were plural wives forced into the marriage?
- Question: Were the changes to the revelations hidden from the Church members?
- Question: Were the Isaiah passages in the Book of Mormon simply plagiarized from the King James Bible?
- Question: Were the names "Moroni" and "Cumorah" available on maps accessible to Joseph Smith?
- Question: Were the Three Nephites of the Book of Mormon based upon three of the "lying prophets among the savages" in Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?
- Question: Were there any similar cases under Illinois adultery statute which demonstrate that Joseph was not breaking the law?
- Question: Were women put under "tremendous pressure" to accept a proposal of plural marriage?
- Question: What about those who pray and don't receive a confirmation the Book of Mormon is true?
- Question: What archaeological evidence might be considered the minimal irrefutable proof needed to convince a non-believing world of the authenticity of the Nephite scripture?
- Question: What are the criticisms regarding Joseph's interpretation of specific textual elements of Facsimile 3?
- Question: What are the criticisms related to Book of Abraham Facsimile 1?
- Question: What are the criticisms related to Facsimile 3?
- Question: What are the criticisms related to Joseph Smith's accounts of the First Vision?
- 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 Hofmann forgeries and the Salamander Letter?
- Question: What are the Kinderhook Plates?
- Question: What are the Nephite interpreters?
- 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 changes have been made to the ''Gospel Principles'' manual regarding the question of death on the earth before the Fall of Adam?
- Question: What changes were made to the 1837 edition of the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What changes were made to the Doctrine and Covenants?
- Question: What Church sources discuss either the use of the seer stone or the stone and the hat as part of the Book of Mormon translation process?
- Question: What criticisms are associated with the temple ritual and its relationship to Freemasonry?
- Question: What criticisms are put forth regarding the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood?
- Question: What did B.H. Roberts say about ''View of the Hebrews'' and the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What did Church leaders after Brigham Young think of the priesthood ban?
- Question: What did contemporary witnesses have to say about the Book of Mormon translation process?
- Question: What did critics of the Church during Joseph Smith's lifetime think of the 1826 court hearing?
- Question: What did David Whitmer's associates say about his character?
- Question: What did James Henry Moyle say about his visit to David Whitmer?
- Question: What did Martin Harris's non-Mormon associates say about his character?
- Question: What did Oliver Cowdery say about his witness experience after Joseph died?
- Question: What did Oliver Cowdery's associates say about his character?
- Question: What did Orson Hyde, the husband of Marinda Nancy Johnson, know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the Book of Mormon witnesses mean when they used the word "supernatural" to describe their experiences?
- Question: What did the Church announce in 1968 when the Joseph Smith papyri fragments were discovered?
- Question: What did the husband of Elizabeth Davis know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the husband of Elvira Annie Cowles know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the husband of Esther Dutcher know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the husband of Lucinda Pendleton Morgan Harris know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the husband of Mary Elizabeth Rollins know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the husband of Mary Heron know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the husband of Patty Bartlett know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the husband of Presendia L. Huntington know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the husband of Ruth Vose Sayers know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the husband of Sarah Ann Whitney know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the husband of Sarah Kingsley know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the husband of Sylvia Sessions know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the husband of Zina D. Huntington know about her sealing to Joseph Smith for eternity?
- Question: What did the other witnesses say regarding "spiritual" versus "natural" viewing of the plates?
- Question: What do the italicized words in the Bible represent, and why is it relevant to the Book of Mormon?
- Question: What do the Joseph Smith papyri fragments consist of?
- Question: What do we find in Mesoamerican archaeology with respect to place names, such as city names?
- Question: What do we find when we turn to the records of the ancient (i.e. before A.D. 400) Americas?
- Question: What do we know about the origin of the priesthood ban on Church members of African descent?
- Question: What does ''The Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young'' say about Brigham's wives?
- Question: What does Joseph's attempt to translate the Kinderhook Plates tell us about his "gift of translation?"
- Question: What does the Church teach on the subject of death before the Fall of Adam?
- Question: What does the lion couch scene in Book of Abraham Facsimile 1 normally represent?
- Question: What events resulted in Joseph Smith's 1826 court appearance in South Bainbridge?
- Question: What happened to Josiah Stowell? Did he conclude he had been defrauded after the court hearing?
- Question: What happened to the original Book of Mormon manuscript?
- Question: What happened to the papyri after Joseph's death?
- Question: What have been the responses to Joseph's interpretations of Facsimile 3?
- Question: What if the "rod of nature" was indeed a physical object such as a divining rod?
- Question: What is "empirical evidence"?
- Question: What is "loan-shifting"?
- Question: What is "Polyandry?"
- Question: What is Joseph Smith's 1826 South Bainbridge "trial" for "glasslooking"?
- Question: What is Lorenzo Snow claimed to have said about plural marriages being adultery prior to 1843?
- Question: What is Moroni's promise?
- Question: What is the Adam-God Theory?
- Question: What is the Book of Mormon "printer's manuscript" and why is it entirely in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery?
- Question: What is the Church's position on Adam and Eve?
- Question: What is the correct interpretation of Facsimile 3?
- Question: What is the date of the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood?
- Question: What is the difference between the "curse" and the "mark" of the Lamanites?
- Question: What is the history of name changes of the Church?
- Question: What is the light which comes from the presence of God?
- Question: What is the Limited Geography Theory and model?
- Question: What is the origin of the modern horse in the New World?
- Question: What is the relationship between Captain Kidd and the Comoro archipelago?
- Question: What is the relationship of the Joseph Smith Papyri to the Book of Abraham?
- Question: What is the Strengthening Church Members Committee?
- Question: What is the value of a ritual presentation?
- Question: What message does the Book of Mormon translation painting convey?
- Question: What names did the Church go by prior to the revelation which established the correct one?
- 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 statements did Joseph Smith make about religious excitement in the area of Palmyra?
- Question: What was Joseph Smith's motivation for going to the grove to pray in 1820?
- Question: What was known about steel in ancient America?
- Question: What was the Lamanite curse?
- Question: What was the nature of Joseph Smith's "polyandrous" marriages?
- Question: What was the state of things on the Earth prior to the placement of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden?
- Question: What were Helen Mar Kimball's views on plural marriage?
- Question: When did God tell David Whitmer to separate himself from the Latter-day Saints?
- Question: When did Joseph Smith demonstrate knowledge of the elements of the endowment ritual?
- Question: When was Lucy Mack Smith baptized?
- Question: When was the "Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language" produced?
- Question: Where did 19th-Century Latter-day Saints believe that Freemasonry came from?
- Question: Where was the Melchizedek Priesthood restored?
- Question: Which method of translation was more "believable": seer stone or Nephite interpreters?
- Question: Who are the "September Six"?
- Question: Who is this Egyptian god "Min"?
- Question: Who made the changes to the Doctrine and Covenants?
- Question: Who was Paul H. Dunn and what happened to him?
- Question: Why are horses considered an anachronism in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Why are many of the quotes from Isaiah in the Book of Mormon identical to those in the King James Bible?
- Question: Why are Old Testament penalties for disobedience so harsh?
- Question: Why are people concerned about Church artwork?
- Question: Why are revelations no longer published on an ongoing basis?
- Question: Why did Brigham Young initiate the priesthood ban?
- Question: Why did Elder Boyd K. Packer state that "Some things that are true are not very useful"?
- Question: Why did Elder Dunn exaggerate elements of these stories?
- Question: Why did Joseph keep the doctrine of plural marriage private?
- Question: Why did Joseph Smith make changes to the Book of Mormon such as modifying "God" to read "the Son of God"?
- 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 Joseph Smith state the he was visited by two personages and then just five days later say that he was visited by angels?
- Question: Why did several years pass before Oliver Cowdery talked about the priesthood restoration?
- 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 did the Church modify the introduction to the Book of Mormon from "principal ancestors" to "among the ancestors?"
- Question: Why did the Nauvoo City Council feel it was necessary to destroy the ''Nauvoo Expositor''?
- Question: Why did the Prophet construct the 1832 narrative in a manner such as to exclude explicit mention of the Father's appearance?
- Question: Why didn't God simply preserve Nephi's life using divine power instead of requiring him to kill Laban?
- Question: Why didn't the newspapers in Palmyra take notice of Joseph Smith's First Vision?
- Question: Why do critics of Mormonism who belong to other religions discount spiritual experiences?
- Question: Why do we continue to use such a participatory style of teaching in the 21st century?
- Question: Why does "Nahom" constitute archaeological evidence for the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Why does ''History of the Church'' say that Joseph Smith said "I have translated a portion of them..."?
- Question: Why does 2 Nephi 19:1 change the word "sea" in Isaiah 9 to "Red Sea"?
- Question: Why does Isaiah in the Book of Mormon not match the Dead Sea Scrolls?
- 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 Joseph Smith's 9 November 1835 account of the First Vision mention "many angels?"
- Question: Why does the Book of Abraham state that it was written by Abraham's "own hand upon papyrus" if the papyri date to after the Abrahamic period?
- Question: Why does the Church teach that the flood was a global event?
- Question: Why does the non-Mormon eyewitness say that the "Egyptian Alphabet" was "from the plates which the Book of Mormon was translated"?
- Question: Why doesn't the art match details which have been repeatedly spelled out in Church publications?
- Question: Why don't potential pre-Columbian horse remains in the New World receive greater attention from scientists?
- Question: Why have Church leaders taught a hemispheric geography for the Book of Mormon rather than a limited one?
- Question: Why is the statement of William Clayton regarding the Kinderhook Plates in ''History of the Church'' written as if Joseph Smith himself said it?
- Question: Why isn't the temple ceremony based upon an earlier version of Freemasonry rather than what existed in Joseph Smith's time?
- Question: Why should the poor and destitute pay tithing?