JSs central claim, his magic trick, is translation. He claimed to be able to translate ancient "reformed" Egyptian into English. But that preposterous claim is not what the church, or investigators or the missionaries or even ex-Mormons or Mormonthink or anyone else seems to focus on. Everyone is distracted by the method and the props. Did he use spectacles? A urim and thummim? Or, and this is really embarrassing so don't publicize it, a stone in a hat? Somehow, even in death, the magician has distracted all the onlookers' attention away from the absurdity of the trick by having them focus on the props and wondering about how he did it.

Forget about the method and the props, which are truly embarrassing and outrageous? No. But focus on the stupidity of the central claim; JS translated nothing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2014 11:48AM by gungholierthanthou.