Gamecock is pretty much on the money with most of his commentary on the LDS church’s answers. However on the gold plates I have a dispute. Brigham Young taught that Joseph Smith took the golden plates back to the Hill Cumorah where the hill opened up into a cave and there was a large record room. Joseph entered this room filled with wagon loads of metallic plates with writing on them and place the plates on a large table in the room where lied the Sword of Laban. A couple years ago I visited the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center near Rochester, New York and asked the tour guide about this record room within the hill. Certainly with modern technology it should be possible to locate this record room. This tour guide professed that nobody really knew which hill Joseph was talking about.
How likely does that scenario sound, even if you had never heard of Joseph Smith or Mormons or Brigham Young?