http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Plates
Some excerts:
According to the Book of Mormon the golden plates were engraved by a pre-Columbian prophet-warrior named Mormon and his son Moroni (who after death protected the buried plates as the angel Moroni) in about the year 400 CE
As a youth,Joseph Smith, Jr. lived on his parents’ farm near Palmyra, New York a place and time noted for its participation in the Second Great Awakening and a “craze for treasure hunting.” Beginning in the early 1820s, he was paid to act as a “seer”, to use seer stones in (mostly unsuccessful) attempts to locate lost items and buried treasure. His contemporaries said he would put the stone in a white stovepipe hat, put his face over the hat to block the light, and then “see” the information in the reflections of the stone. His favored stone, chocolate-colored and about the size of an egg, was found in a deep well he helped dig for one of his neighbors. etc etc etc
These plates are said to be engraved in something called Reformed Egyptian. In 1830 nobody could read ancient Egyptian let alone reformed Egyptian, that so called language is but a concoction by Joseph Smith, a man who was steeped in superstitions.
This hokum goes on and on. There is some excuse for ignorant folks in the 19th century to accept stuff like this; but not in the present day.
No one likes to have their sincere beliefs shattered by cold logic and I feel bad for all the Mormons who have devoted their lives to the furtherance this exceedingly strange cult. They deserve better.
I have also seen the power of the Spirit of God testify of the prophet Joseph as I have related his testimony to many people.
Your "research" will not change my mind. In fact, seeing so many negative posts here shows that the Church is closer to the original Christian church, for "it is the weak things of the world that will confound the wise". I do not expect the religion of Luke, James, John and Paul to be accepted as truth by the majority of the world, or by the majority of Americans. Why do you? For truly, many are called, but few are chosen.