When did the deception start?

[_solomarineris]

Basically, got started from time you were born.....
Don't blame anybody though. Presuming you've being born in US, you had no friccking reason to
fall for it.

[_antishock8]

I thought Beastie once made a very good point that it's possible the current Church leaders do believe in the supernatural and every other part of the Church's teachings. I think she's right about this, though I may not be stating it in the necessary detail with my simplistic summary. My question is, "What do the current brethren believe and what do you suspect they know to be false?" My second question is, "Who in the Church's past, all the way back to Moses, if you will, knew they were telling a falsehood, and how did they justify it?" I mean, if the supernatural turns out not to really exist as we've been told, somebody along the way had to know they were lying.

It started when Joseph Smith began telling wild stories to his family. It began with him and his family tricking people into finding buried treasure on their properties. Joseph Smith and his family had history in cheating and stealing. He just perfected it as he grew older.

Hammer. Meet nail. Nail. Meet hammer.

On a side note, but relevant to this very question: http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/religulous/hd/

[_RockHeaded]

I thought Beastie once made a very good point that it's possible the current Church leaders do believe in the supernatural and every other part of the Church's teachings. I think she's right about this, though I may not be stating it in the necessary detail with my simplistic summary. My question is, "What do the current brethren believe and what do you suspect they know to be false?" My second question is, "Who in the Church's past, all the way back to Moses, if you will, knew they were telling a falsehood, and how did they justify it?" I mean, if the supernatural turns out not to really exist as we've been told, somebody along the way had to know they were lying.

It started when Joseph Smith began telling wild stories to his family. It began with him and his family tricking people into finding buried treasure on their properties. Joseph Smith and his family had history in cheating and stealing. He just perfected it as he grew older.

Hammer. Meet nail. Nail. Meet hammer.

On a side note, but relevant to this very question: http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/religulous/hd/

Since you agree with this, and Infymus isn't going to give sources, are you going to let us know about this cheating and stealing of the Smith family? Surely if this is true then there has to be records of them being arrested and convicted of such crimes? And if this is so then how could they have fooled a whole community, I mean if Joseph Smith was a liar certainly not everyone would have believed that he had the plates? But we know that they did because they tried to steal them, right?

RockHeaded

[_beastie]

The whole community did not believe Joseph Smith. The ones who tried to steal the plates were the other folks who were involved in treasure digging. I would say they probably rated very high on the gullible scale in general.