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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O
- Oaks (1987): "it is wrong to make statements of fact out of an evil motive, even if the statements are true"
- Oaks (1997): "rarely speak of them publicly because...because we understand that the channels of revelation will be closed if we show these things before the world"
- Oaks (2000): "it is usually inappropriate to recite miraculous circumstances to a general audience that includes people with very different levels of spiritual maturity"
- Oaks: "We are supposed to learn by both reason and revelation, and that does not happen when we compartmentalize science and religion"
- Oliver Cowdery statements as one of Three Witnesses
- Oliver Cowdery: "My eyes saw, my ears heard...It was no dream, no vain imagination of the mind—it was real"
- Olson (2004): "People may like to think that they're descended from some ancient group while other people are not. But human ancestry doesn't work that way, since we all share the same ancestors just a few millenniums ago"
- Orson F. Whitney (1926): "One night I dreamed … that I was in the Garden of Gethsemane, a witness of the Savior’s agony"
- Orson Pratt (1840): "a very bright and glorious light in the heavens...He expected to have seen the leaves and boughs of the trees consumed, as soon as the light came in contact with them"
- Orson Pratt (1878): "I have been blessed with some revelations and prophecies, and with dreams of things that have come to pass"
P
- Padilla et al.: "The maya codex Tro-Cortesianus shows drawings of bees and parts of honey combs"
- Painesville Telegraph (1830): "Cowdry claims that he and his associates are the only persons on earth who are qualified to administer in his name. By this authority, they proclaim to the world"
- Painesville Telegraph (1830): "The name of the person here, who pretends to have a divine mission, and to have seen and conversed with Angels, is Cowdray"
- Parrish (1838): "I have set by his side and penned down the translation of the Egyptian Heiroglyphicks as he claimed to receive it by direct inspiration of Heaven"
- Paul Hoskisson (1991): "I will suggest an alternate location for the Ur of the Chaldees in the story of Abraham"
- Peterson (2005): The plates "are an indigestible lump in the throats of people...who contend that there were no Nephites but that Joseph Smith was nonetheless an inspired prophet"
- Peterson (2014): "It’s rather like someone to ascribe early Christian belief to the resurrection of Jesus to the supposed fact that ancient people, unlike us, hadn’t yet realized that dead people tend to stay dead"
- Peterson and Roper: "We know of no one who cites Ferguson as an authority, except countercultists"
- Peterson: "the identification of a crocodile as the idolatrous god of Pharaoh...Unas’ pyramid texts, includes the following: 'The king appears as the crocodile god Sobek'"
- 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"
- Preach My Gospel: "As you pray for inspiration, you should also confirm your feelings...Certainly the Spirit of the Lord can bring strong emotional feelings, including tears, but that outward manifestation ought not to be confused with the presence of the
- Preach My Gospel: "many other nations and cultures have been blessed by those who were given that portion that God 'seeth fit that they should have'"
- Prothero (2003): "in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing"
Q
- Question: Are Church members required to believe in a global flood?
- Question: Are LDS standards required by the mall?
- Question: Are prophets simply "men of their time," without any special ability to guide the Church?
- Question: Are the ages stated in Joseph's accounts of the First Vision 'all over the place?'
- Question: Are the Book of Mormon witnesses unreliable because many of them were related?
- Question: Are the names on the Holley Map in the correct locations relative to one another?
- Question: Are the original Temple Lot Case transcripts available online?
- Question: Are the reasons for discipline ever made public?
- Question: Are there any eyewitness accounts of the events that resulted in the trip to Canada to sell the Book of Mormon copyright?
- Question: Are there any known parallels between elements of Joseph's interpretation of Facsimile 3 with other ancient texts?
- Question: Are there no mentions of the seer stone and/or its use with a hat on LDS.org?
- Question: Are there similarities between the description of forts in the Book of Mormon and Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?
- Question: Aren't tithing funds from "long ago" ultimately the source of all current Church funds?
- Question: At what age did Joseph Smith become concerned about religion?
- Question: By what name did Joseph Smith refer to the First Vision?
- Question: Can a person "feel the spirit" while watching movies?
- Question: Can a prophet make mistakes?
- Question: Can non-Mormons feel a spiritual experience that cause them to devote themselves to service within another Church?
- Question: Can someone feel the spirit when listening to stories of apostasy?
- Question: Could ancient Americans have expanded the definition of "horse" to include new meanings?
- Question: Could Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War'' have given Joseph Smith the idea of using brass plates as a way of recording information?
- Question: Could Joseph Smith have acquired the names "Moroni" and "Cumorah" from a map of the Comoro archipelago off the coast of Africa?
- Question: Could Joseph Smith have acquired the names "Moroni" and "Cumorah" from stories of Captain Kidd that he read in his youth?
- Question: Could Joseph Smith have heard the names "Moroni" and "Cumorah" from American whalers?
- Question: Could Joseph Smith have learned about Hebraisms from Gilbert Hunt's "The Late War"?
- Question: Could Joseph Smith have used Ethan Smith's ''View of the Hebrews'' as a guideline for creating the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Could Joseph Smith have utilized place names and locations from the region in which he lived to create the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Couldn't the "Egyptian Alphabet" have referred to the "reformed Egyptian" characters on the Anthon transcript?
- Question: Did any of Joseph's scribes ever say anything about Joseph's story of the vision changing over time?
- Question: Did any woman suffer consequences for turning down Joseph's proposal?
- Question: Did B.H. Roberts lose his faith in the Church and the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Did B.H. Roberts state that it was possible for Joseph Smith to have come up with the Book of Mormon on his own?
- Question: Did Brigham Young believe that one could not enter the Celestial Kingdom unless they were a polygamist?
- Question: Did Charles Anthon validate the characters that Martin Harris brought to him that had been copied from the Book of Mormon plates?
- Question: Did David Whitmer tell John Murphy that the angel Moroni "had no appearance or shape" and that he saw "nothing"?
- Question: Did Elder Boyd K. Packer suggest that we should "lie our way" into obtaining a testimony?
- Question: Did Elder Dallin H. Oaks say that it’s wrong to criticize leaders of the Church, even if the criticism is true?
- Question: Did FairMormon do "more to destroy" the testimony of the author of the "Letter to a CES Director" than any "anti-Mormon" source?
- Question: Did God tell David Whitmer to leave the Church and repudiate Mormonism?
- Question: Did Gordon B. Hinckley claim that polygamy was "not doctrinal" on Larry King Live?
- Question: Did Helen Mar Kimball "confess" to having marital relations with Joseph?
- Question: Did Joseph attempt to translate the Kinderhook Plates using the "gift and power of God?"
- Question: Did Joseph claim that an angel threatened him with a "drawn sword" or "flaming sword" if a woman refused to marry him?
- Question: Did Joseph Fielding Smith remove the 1832 account of Joseph Smith's First Vision from its original letterbook and hide it in his safe?
- Question: Did Joseph hide his plural marriages from Emma, his first wife?
- Question: Did Joseph know what the italics in the Bible meant?
- Question: Did Joseph mention a "pillar of fire" or a "pillar of light" in his 1832 account of the First Vision?
- 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 attempt to translate the Kinderhook Plates?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith begin his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith being sealed to mothers, daughters and sisters violate a biblical prohibition?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith believe that Abraham wrote the text on the papyrus himself?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith change his stated motivation for praying in later years after he received the First Vision?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith confer the priesthood on several black men?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith consummate any of these marriages with married women?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith decide that all churches were wrong before he received the First Vision?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith ever publicly attempt to teach the doctrine of plural marriage?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith give a woman only one day to decide about entering a plural marriage, and would refusal mean terrible consequences?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith have access to materials related to Nahom at Allegheny College?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith have any children through any of his polyandrous marriages?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith identify any elements of Facsimile 2 that are in agreement with what Egyptologists say they represent?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith incorporate his father's dream of the tree of life into the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith marry Fanny Alger as his first plural wife in 1833?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith or his associates attempt to reconcile with William Law before he published the ''Nauvoo Expositor''?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith plagiarize passages from Gilbert Hunt's book ''The Late War, between the United States and Great Britain, from June, 1812, to February, 1815''?
- 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 send men on missions so that he could secretly marry their wives while they were gone?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith teach a hemispheric, rather than a limited, geography model for the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith use his own seer stone to translate the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Did Joseph Smith use the Nephite interpreters to translate? Or did he use his own seer stone?
- Question: Did Lorenzo Snow state that polygamy was actually adultery prior to 1843?
- Question: Did Lucy Mack Smith join the Presbyterian Church after her son Alvin died in 1823?
- Question: Did Lucy Mack Smith state when she joined the Presbyterians?
- Question: Did Martin Harris change his religion five times prior to the Restoration?
- 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 Nephi commit "cold blooded murder" when he killed Laban?
- Question: Did one of the Book of Mormon witnesses actually only handle the plates while they were covered in a "tow frock"?
- Question: Did other Church leaders believe that plural marriage was a requirement for exaltation?
- Question: Did President Jimmy Carter threaten the Church's tax-exempt status because of their policy on blacks and the priesthood?
- Question: Did some of Joseph Smith's associates believe that he had an affair with Fanny Alger?
- Question: Did the actual words "God the Father" and "Jesus Christ" appear in Joseph's 1838 account of the First Vision?
- Question: Did the Church attempt to hide Brigham Young's practice of plural marriage in the ''Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young'' manual?
- Question: Did the Church purchase documents such as Mark Hofmann's "Salamander letter" with the intent of hiding and suppressing them?
- Question: Did the Three Witnesses each add their own signature to the original Book of Mormon manuscript?
- Question: Did the witnesses disagree with their testimony after it was printed in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Did the witnesses make clear statements regarding their testimonies?
- Question: Didn't Hugh Nibley claim that a record of this trial would be "the most damning evidence in existence" against Joseph Smith?
- Question: Do academic translators copy translations of other documents to use as a "base text"?
- Question: Do all other religions confirm their beliefs through spiritual witness?
- Question: Do both the Book of Mormon and Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War'' talk about people maintaining a "standard of liberty"?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saint ("Mormon") leaders teach us to avoid the internet?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saint apologists receive compensation for their efforts?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe in a "part-time racist" and "psychopathic schizophrenic" god?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints discount the spiritual witnesses that members of other religions may receive?
- Question: Do Martin Harris's statements related to the "spiritual eye" or "eye of faith" contradict the reality of his witness?
- Question: Do Mormon apologists claim that the horse referred to in the Book of Mormon is actually a deer or tapir?
- Question: Do Mormons believe that faith and science are mutually exclusive?
- Question: Do Mormons believe that if there is a conflict between science and religion, that the science is incorrect?
- Question: Do Mormons believe that other religions can be inspired by God?
- Question: Does anyone assert that the GAEL was an actual correlation between Egyptian and the explanations offered?
- Question: Does Book of Abraham Facsimile 1 show a hand, or does it show the wing of a second bird?
- Question: Does Church art always reflect reality?
- Question: Does Church manual, ''The Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young'', attempt to "hide history" by portraying Brigham Young (a well-known polygamist) as having only one wife?
- Question: Does FairMormon use the internet to teach a "bizarre version" of Mormonism riddled with logical fallacies?
- Question: Does Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War'' describe "Boats and barges built from trees after the fashion of the ark"?
- Question: Does Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War'' talk of 2000 "striplings" who go to war?
- Question: Does Martin Harris' involvement with other faiths after the Restoration discredit him?
- Question: Does Martin Harris' involvement with the Shakers undercut his testimony?
- Question: Does the 14 November 1835 account reference to the "first vision of Angels" mean that Joseph Smith did not see Deity?
- Question: Does the Bible prohibit polygamous marriages involving a mother and daughter?
- Question: Does the Book of Abraham state that the sun gets its photons from Kolob?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon mention "steel" of "fine workmanship" as described in Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon phrase "curious workmanship" originate from Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon scripture "he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female" (2 Nephi 26:33) refer to race?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon support trinitarianism?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon, like Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War'', talk of "freemen who came to the defence of the city, built strong holds and forts, and raised up fortifications in abundance"?
- Question: Does the Church claim that Native Americans were the exclusive descendants of Lehi or Mulek?
- Question: Does the fact that Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith distant cousins make Oliver an unreliable witness to the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Does the repudiation of a doctrine that was once taught by a prophet mean that that prophet is now considered a "heretic"?
- Question: Does the Strengthening Church Members Committee still exist?
- Question: Does the use of the capitalized word "Angel" in the 14 November 1835 account refer to Deity?
- Question: Does Vernal Holley rely on modern maps to create his comparison of actual place names with Book of Mormon names?
- Question: Doesn't the Bible say that the continents were divided immediately after the Flood?
- Question: Has the book ''View of the Hebrews'' been readily available?
- Question: Has the Church ever promoted a Limited Geography model for the Book of Mormon?
- Question: Has the name Abraham ever been associated with an Egyptian "lion couch" scene?
- Question: Have any ancient horse remains from the Nephite period been found in the New World?
- Question: Have edits to the revelations been discussed in the present day?
- Question: How can President Hinckley claim that polygamy is "not doctrinal" if it was a required practice in the 19th-Century Church?
- Question: How can we accept David Whitmer as a valid Book of Mormon witness if God told him to leave the Saints?
- Question: How can you know if an answer to prayer, a personal revelation, is true?
- Question: How can you know if your answer to prayer, your personal revelation, is true?
- Question: How could Joseph and Fanny have been married in 1831 if the sealing power had not yet been restored?
- Question: How could Joseph Smith come to the conclusion that all churches were wrong on his own?
- Question: How could the Garden of Eden have been in Missouri if the Flood was local?
- Question: How did Elder Holland respond during a BBC interview when asked how the Book of Abraham was translated?
- Question: How did Joseph Smith actually use the gold plates?
- Question: How did Joseph Smith use his seer stones as a youth?
- Question: How did Latter-day Saint scholars respond to the attempt to sell the Book of Mormon copyright prior to Page's letter coming to light?
- Question: How did newspaper accounts describe the nature of the witnesses experience?
- Question: How did the apostle Paul describe spiritual experiences?
- Question: How did the erroneous story of the attempt to sell the Book of Mormon copyright develop over time?
- Question: How do Church members assume that Joseph would have "used the plates" during translation?
- Question: How do Latter-day Saints reconcile scriptural accounts of the Flood of Noah with scientific evidence of continuous human habitation on the earth?
- Question: How do non-Mormon artists treat the Nativity?
- Question: How do the First Vision accounts compare on the subject of Joseph's motivation for praying?
- Question: How does archaeology in the New World fit with the Book of Mormon?
- Question: How does archaeology in the Old World compare to the first chapters in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: How does David Whitmer's account of the attempt to sell the Book of Mormon copyright compare to those of the eyewitnesses?
- Question: How early was the story of the First Vision known among the members of the Church?
- Question: How is it possible for a Church leader or prophet to have been influenced by racism, yet be consistent with the Lord not allowing prophets to lead the Church astray?
- Question: How is the Joseph Smith Translation best understood?
- Question: How long did the Church know about the papyri before they published information about them?
- Question: How many times was the name of the Church changed through revelation?
- Question: How much did the development of the mall cost? Did it really cost 5 billion dollars?
- Question: How valid are the names used in the Holley Map?
- Question: How was the decision reached to destroy the ''Nauvoo Expositor''?
- Question: How was the wording of the "rod of nature" revelation that became Doctrine and Covenants 8:6–8 altered over time?
- Question: How would an archaeologist distinguish a Christian's pot from that of a non-Christian?
- Question: How would Book of Mormon archaeology compare to that of the Bible?
- Question: I've seen Temple Lot court transcripts online. Are these not accurate?
- Question: If a doctrine is repudiated, does that mean that it was false when it was being taught?
- Question: If every President of the Church is a prophet, seer, and revelator, why have so few revelations after Joseph Smith been added to the Doctrine and Covenants?
- Question: If Gordon B. Hinckley were a true prophet, why did he not discern the nature of the Hofmann forgeries?
- Question: If modern Egyptologists say that this is a representation of Min, and Min is a “pagan” God, how could Joseph Smith say that it represents God sitting on his throne?
- Question: If polygamy was commanded of God in order to "raise seed," then why were Adam and Noah not commanded to practice polygamy?
- Question: If the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) is Joseph Smith's 'correction' of Biblical errors, why do these corrections not match known Biblical manuscripts?
- Question: If the only purpose of polygamy was to "raise up seed," then why did Joseph not have children by his plural wives?
- Question: In what context are chariots mentioned in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: In what context are elephants mentioned in the Book of Mormon?
- Question: In what manner was the Aaronic Priesthood restored?
- Question: In what manner was the Melchizedek Priesthood restored?