Plagiarizing SITH

 

Jacob Hansen jumps the shark

While making a case for the Book of Mormon, Jacob Hansen makes the case for the critics who wrote Mormonism Unvailed and published SITH before our latter-day scholars latched onto it.

Whether he promotes SITH intentionally or ignorantly, Jacob should study the history of SITH before promoting it on his channel. 

Jacob could start here: 

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/the-sith-problem-1829-2024.html

(We could say the same for Royal Skousen, Gerrit Dirkmaat, Jasmine Rappleye, the Interpreters, and other SITH sayers, but they are too firmly attached to SITH to consider the possibility that Joseph and Oliver told the truth.)

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The SITH narrative was spelled out in the 1835 anti-Mormon book Mormonism Unvailed:

Instead of looking at the characters inscribed upon the plates, the prophet was obliged to resort to the old "peep stone," which he formerly used in money-digging. This he placed in a hat, or box, into which he also thrust his face. Through the stone he could then discover a single word at a time, which he repeated aloud to his amanuensis, who committed it to paper, when another word would immediately appear, and thus the performance continued to the end of the book.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/o8SxwgK56H4

We can all see that Joseph and Oliver rejected this narrative and explained, repeatedly, that Joseph translated the engravings on the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates.

But the SITH sayers prefer the Mormonism Unvailed narrative. As Royal Skousen famously claims,

"Joseph Smith’s claim that he used the Urim and Thummim is only partially true; and Oliver Cowdery’s statements that Joseph used the original instrument while he, Oliver, was the scribe appear to be intentionally misleading."

According to professor Skousen, Joseph only used the Urim and Thummim for the lost 116 pages. Skousen uses a euphemism--"appear to be intentionally misleading"--to soften his assertion that Joseph and Oliver lied.

Which was exactly the point Mormonism Unvailed tried to make.

And now Jacob Hansen has joined the SITH sayers to repudiate what Joseph and Oliver clearly taught.

_____

Jacob starts his video by saying, "I want him to stick his head in a hat."

Later in the video, Jacob claims Joseph Smith produced the Book of Mormon "all with his face buried in a hat."

Who needs critics when well-known LDS apologists are undermining the credibility of Joseph and Oliver?

Robots and IQ

 

A guy goes into a bar in New York where the bartender is a robot. The guy sits down at the bar, and the robot asks: "What will you have? The guy replies, "Root beer." The robot brings back his drink and asks, "What's your IQ?" The guy says, "168." The robot talks about physics, space exploration, and medical technology. 

After the guy leaves, he pauses at the street corner and thinks about what he just encountered, and the more he thinks about it, the more curious he gets, so he decides to go back. The robot asks, "What's your drink?" The guy answers, "Root beer." The robot returns with his drink and asks, "What's your IQ?" This time, the man replies "100." The robot talks about movies, music, and politics. The man finishes his drink and leaves, but he is so interested in this "experiment" that he decides he'll try again. 

He enters the bar and, as usual, the robot asks him what he wants to drink. The man replies, "Root beer." The robot brings the drink and asks, "What's your IQ?" This time, the man answers "50." The robot leans in real close and s-l-o-w-l-y asks, "So, are you people still promoting SITH and M2C?"

More fun with SITH to start 2026

When I write "fun with SITH" it's not because I think SITH is funny.

Not at all.

In my view, SITH is tragic.

After all, it originated with the first anti-Mormon book Mormonism Unvailed, which picked it up partly from one of the original anti-Mormons Jonathan Hadley of Palmyra. 

Joseph, Oliver, and their successors in Church leadership denounced it and reiterated Joseph's explanation that he translated the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates.

But then certain LDS scholars decided it was more fun to resurrect the Mormonism Unvailed narrative, and now they've managed to turn it into quasi-canonized status through the Gospel Topics Essay.

Pure tragedy.

That's why from time to time we post examples from social media.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w04xU72SJNQ

0:00

I got to sit down for this one. Okay, so I get sent a lot of crazy stories about Mormon faith construction. This one I'm going to tell you is legit the craziest thing that I have heard involving Elder Holland. So get comfy. 

0:14

So my friend is serving a mission in the early '90s. Let's say in Wisconsin. In this particular area, the people are really kind, but they just are not open to hearing about Mormonism except for one person, a pastor, a Christian pastor. So he says to them, "Come over to my house. I will feed you dinner. You can teach me your doctrine and I get to share some things with you. Deal?" 

0:38

And they were like, "Yeah, this is great." They developed this great rapport with this pastor family. So one day when they're done sharing their discussion, the pastor says, "I want to now talk to you about Mormon history." They're like, "Great. We're experts in Mormon history.

0:52

We're missionaries." He said, "Okay, so you must know then that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon using rocks in a hat." He said they were magic rocks. He would put them in a hat. They would illuminate the words that were to be written for the Book of Mormon. And that's how the Book of Mormon came about. The missionaries looked at each other and went, "I don't think so." The pastor responded, "Yeah, see, that's the thing. Most people of the LDS faith don't know their real history." 

1:20

My friend was so troubled by this situation. This kind person sharing information that just couldn't possibly be true. 

1:29

It just so happened that Elder Holland was visiting the area at that time. My friend ended up sitting down with Elder Holland to talk to him about this matter. He tells him, "Look, I sat down with this pastor. He told me about these rocks and a hat and Joseph Smith."

1:41

And Elder Holland responded, "Elder, how does that make you feel?" He says, "Well, it makes me feel terrible inside. absolutely sick to my stomach. To which Elder Holland replies, I want you to remember that feeling. This is an example of how the adversary is planting lies. This is evidence of the truthfulness of the gospel. Otherwise, why would Satan be working so hard against it? It made sense. 

2:07

My friend went home from his mission. He married. He had a beautiful family. And years later, he would be teaching gospel doctrine. After one gospel doctrine class, someone came to him and said, "I really appreciated your lesson because I've been really struggling with my testimony." He says, "What have you been struggling with?" He says, "Well, the gospel topics essays, in particular, the one about the rocks and the hat." 

2:30

My friend pauses and as the man continues to talk, his life sort of flashes before his eyes. The church has come forward explaining that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon with rocks in a hat and that that was the end for him.

@SteveSmith-os5bs

3 hours ago

I went on my mission to Michigan in 1978. I remember showing investigators a picture of Joseph Smith translating the Book of Mormon directly from the gold plates. It was decades later that I found out that Joseph Smith translated the whole book using magic seer stones in a hat. It wasn't any one thing that pushed me out of the church, it was continuing to find out that the entire church history was built on lie after lie and exaggeration.

@starguy2718

5 hours ago

Mormon Church: "The rocks in the hat story is more lies from Satan." Also Mormon Church: "Um, actually the rocks in the hat story is true."

 

More from Alfred...

 

More fun with SITH in Saints, volume 1

 

I'm finally getting around to annotating the Saints book, volume 1. We continually meet people who have read Saints and believe it is accurate.

I wish it was. It could easily be corrected, except no one in the Church History Department seems to care about correcting errors.

I noticed this example from chapter 3:

Look at this sentence:

Moroni said that God had chosen Joseph to renew the covenant, and that if he chose to be faithful to God’s commands, he would be the one to reveal the record on the plates.¹¹

This is fun because note 11 cites Letter IV. 

Oliver Cowdery, “Letter IV,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, Feb. 1835, 1:78–79 (see also later version, in JSP, H1:59); Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–45, book 3, [11].

Instead of linking to Letter IV in the Joseph Smith Papers, which would be easy and clear, the link goes to the cover of the Messenger and Advocate on archive.org!

Then you have to find pages 78-9 which looks like this:

​

and it is the wrong page!

Below is the passage on page 80, which of course they would never actually quote in Saints because Moroni specifically told Joseph he had the privilege to translate with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates. 

Instead, the historians want to make people think Moroni told Joseph he would "reveal the record;" i.e., that instead of using the Urim and Thummim and actually translating the engravings, Joseph would read words that appeared on the stone-in-the-hat (SITH).

It would be far more accurate, and clearer to readers, if Saints simply quoted the reference instead of paraphrasing it and completely changing the meaning.

Here is the actual passage.

He said this history was written and deposited not far from that place, and that it was our brother’s privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, to obtain and translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited for that purpose with the record.

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68

M2Cers blames Mormon

M2Cer blames Mormon for not writing more than a hundredth part.

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13 And now there are many records kept of the proceedings of this people, by many of this people, which are particular and very large, concerning them.

14 But behold, a hundredth part of the proceedings of this people, yea, the account of the Lamanites and of the Nephites, 

and their wars, and contentions, and dissensions, 

and their preaching, and their prophecies, 

and their shipping and their building of ships, 

and their building of temples, and of synagogues and their sanctuaries, and their righteousness, 

and their wickedness, and their murders, and their robbings, and their plundering, 

and all manner of abominations and whoredoms, cannot be contained in this work.

15 But behold, there are many books and many records of every kind, and they have been kept chiefly by the Nephites.
(Helaman 3:13–15)