truth dancer wrote:In short, how can we trust otherworldly beings]
Faith.
In short, how can we trust nonexisting beings?
- Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message. - Umberto Eco - To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine at the trial of Galilei
However, more specifically to your question, indeed, had Joseph not produced the Book of Mormon, he would have been simply one more 19th century religious zealot who claimed to have seen God.
Well, I doubt you're going to find much argument there. Joseph Smith certainly "produced" the Book of Mormon.
Black Moclips wrote:I was once browsing UFO websites (because I love that kind of stuff) and cam across a reference to a UFO experience related to the Mormon church. Anyway, I followed the link and basically someone had taken first vision experience and explained how it was like many modern abduction or UFO sitings. It got me thinking, well, I guess it is possible that super advanced humans from another universe visited Joseph Smith and this is what he saw. How would he know the difference between divinity and super advanced aliens? Oh, wait, God IS a super advanced alien from another planet. Now I get it.
I thought about writing a short story once about some historian who pulls the seer stone out of the CHO vault and finds that it's an alien communication device. Never got around to it, though. I wonder if Dialogue would publish something like that?