I tried engaging on this topic a few days ago. I got back garbage. There isn’t an ounce of good faith in all of those people put together, so you can’t have any kind of reasoned discussion.
They twist and distort, and resurrect every old lie that has been around for 150 years.
The fact is that there has been so much discovered in the last few decades evidencing that neither Joseph Smith nor any of his associates could have invented the Book of Mormon, that what I used to know by the Spirit, I now know as a matter of reason. I remember Daniel Peterson saying several years ago that the intelligent critics of the Church were backing off in attacking the Book of Mormon, because their talking points were being destroyed, one by one.
Obviously, a lot of the critics on FR aren’t among the “intelligent” critics, and they need to attend a new anti-Mormon seminar, because their talking points are so outdated.
At the Joseph Smith conference at the Library of Congress in 2005, Robert Millett told of a letter he had received from a long-time acquaintance and friend who was a religious scholar from another denomination. The friend said that he had to admit that the theories of human authorship of the Book of Mormon were wrong, and even silly. The book was too complex and substantial. He could only conclude that the Book of Mormon
was dictated to Joseph Smith by a demon. I think there may be a few people in that camp on FR. I don’t remember names, but there are one or two who shout “demonic” at every opportunity.
The fact is, these people live to attack us. There are some people who just get off on hatred, and attacking others in vile ways. They think they have found a way of indulging their base instincts of which God approves.
We know that the LDS church is a restoration of Christ’s church, with the priesthood, the ordinances, and points of doctrine which were lost or removed, restored. We have an obligation to say so in appropriate circumstances. I just think that FR has become a sty, and it doesn’t do any good to discuss it here.
A useful sty, because it is such a good gathering place for articles of interest to conservatives, but a sty nonetheless when it comes to religion.