=_= Yes…they pull that “gotta have faith” crap no matter how much evidence I give them and even ask them to ask leaders in the church how they know this stuff is true (and just get back an answer along the lines of “You have to have faith that they know what they’re teaching”)

I think this is great stuff. What I have always run into with Mormons is their “testimony”. What separates the BOM apart, according to Mormons, is that you can know the truthfulness via a special feeling, a burning in the bosom, that can only equate to the truthfulness of the message. I have taken a couple different tactics with this:

1) I point out that catholics, muslims, and jehovahs witnesses all “know” and feel in their hearts that their church is the one true church, the one true path to salvation. If you look at their doctrine they all cannot be right as they teach contradictory things. So someone is wrong. Yet they all have strong feelings that they say equates to truth. Someone is either mistaken or deceiving themselves. There is no other conclusion. As Mormons they look at them all and say that they are either mistaken or being deceived. But those in the opposing faiths look at Mormons in the same way. What non-biased reason do they, the Mormons, have for not thinking they could be deceived too? “The feeling is indescribable and unmistakable,” they say. But that is what the people of the other faiths say too. So what does this tell us? Doesn’t it indicate that feelings are a little shaky as the ultimate way to gain truth? “Well, just give it a chance,” they inevitably say, ignoring what I was trying to get at.

So I try #2:

I point out that their whole feeling based test is circular. They ask you to pray because the BOM says that is the way to gain truth. But how do I know the BOM is true? Because if you pray you will get a burning in the bosom that tells you so. Well how do I know that burning actually tells you about truth? Because the BOM says it does. But how do I know…and so on. So I try to show that even if I were to pray and get a special feeling I wouldn’t have any justifiable reason to think it meant that the BOM was true. It could just as easily be due to me talking myself into it (imagine that…).

Do you think I should skip this entirely and focus on more substantial issues within the book or do you think the epistemic stuff is enough to get people thinking? My goal with all this is to show them that “feelings” ain’t all they think they are and evidence and reason should be our tools for investigation. The thought is that if I succeed in this, and they are willing to start caring about evidence then it is curtains for the BOM. It is just too easy to demolish if you are willing to accept empirical evidence.

I’m curious what you think of this.

Mormons hate arguing about their texts and if they are backed into a corner, will promptly give their testimony, i.e. “I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church, and Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God…” Being gentle will get you far. If you question the BoM, you may be referred to their institute (FARMS) at BYU that has been set up to “prove” that the people of the BoM existed.

If you plan on speaking to many Mormons, you may want to familiarize yourself with the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrines and Covenants which were also written by Joseph Smith. The PofGP is particularly intriguing especially when you consider the Book of Abraham. It was originally purchased by Smith from a traveling mummy exhibition. He “interpreted” it and called it the Book of Abraham; this contains some of their most interesting teachings, including the only mention of the star Kolob, which is nearest to where God lives. The Rosetta Stone had not yet been discovered, so nobody at the time challenged J. Smith, but later it’s been found to be an Egyptian burial rite.

Anyway, it will likely take a long time to convince a Mormon that their texts are false, but humility and gently being persistent with your questions, and allowing them to discover the answers rather than being told, will help you out.

Probably not something to bring up initially, but another challenge to Mormon faith is finding out more about Joseph Smith’s wives. Most Mormons only know about his first wife and are unaware that he “spiritually” married and slept with many women. One was 14 years old, many were already married and told to keep their “spiritual” marriage to Joseph secret from their husbands.
I left the Mormon Church before I found out about either of these, but even many years later it was really surprising to learn about these.