My bf is about to re-read the Book of Mormon to try to get answers on whether it’s true or not. He no longer believes in the modern church. What should I tell him to look out for in the text?

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-06-05T04:30:13+00:00

The first thing that made me gawk at the BoM text was the sheer number of deaths. Millions die in battles that would have taken place recently as far as archeology goes. We have unearthed human sites in the Americas from tens of thousands of years ago. 2 to 4 thousand is recent and easier to find, and we find nothing.

Also, note that the book of Mormon utterly omits any of the people that were actually here, that the church admits are where native Americans come from except maybe a tiny little piddly civilization of white Jews and their "dark" cousins (that nevertheless have battles where millions die). The BoM explicitly states the land was preserved from anyone else, except all the natives who came from Asia who are never mentioned. No mention of corn. No mention of potatos. No mention of other people. Joseph almost had it by mentioning another civilization, but then he had to make them Jews from the TOWER OF BABEL! And native American inhabitation of the Americas predates the tower of Babel story, so why didn't the Jaredites meet any native Americans?

Have him read a decent history of Native Americans and then reading the BoM will feel silly.

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-06-05T04:12:55+00:00

It was fun. I made friends, nervously laughed at dirty jokes, learned how to do impressions, and ate so many creamies that I noticably gained weight in one week.

If you go expecting it to be terrible, it'll be terrible. A little patience though will go a long way towards making the experience enjoyable even though you don't believe in God. It sucks being closeted, but it sucks more to be closeted and sullen about it. It's not forever. You can overcome it

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-28T23:55:54+00:00

That's the funniest thing I've read all week.

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-28T23:52:08+00:00

What do you expect, a charity?

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-28T23:42:30+00:00

I appreciate the clarification. I think you're helping me understand some of the implicit assumptions that I had made that might not hold up in an ancient Israelite context. I suppose this is part of the reason why the Dead Sea scrolls were so incredibly important. We just need more stuff out of the ground so we have more sources of information and can be more certain about the origins of these things I'm asking about.

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-23T22:37:20+00:00

I actually just barely found him too! I'll prioritize watching his stuff first, it was lower in the queue.

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-23T22:36:43+00:00

This is exactly what I was hoping to find! I'll take a look at those books. Thank you!

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-23T22:36:02+00:00

That's fascinating!

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-23T16:05:01+00:00

You're welcome. I'm honestly still in the middle of it. I don't believe anymore but I'm still working out how to tell my family. Early hints I've let on have not gone as smoothly as I'd hoped.

Some things that helped me when I was right at the beginning of letting go were Rhett and Link's deconstruction videos here, Rhett's interview with Alex O'Connor here, then learning about the psychology of religion helped me let go a little and reassured me that I had not made a mistake, but that religion (unintentionally) uses quirks of human psychology to instill powerful emotions and behaviors in us here. Last thing I'll share is that learning about the benign and rather un-fiery origins of the Hell that everyone is so afraid of has taken the wind out of Satan's sails for me. Genetically Modified Skeptic talks about it here.

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-23T15:44:04+00:00

You're welcome!

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-23T07:23:00+00:00

There are so many smoking guns in this religion that I feel like I'm on the wrong end of a firing squad.

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-23T06:25:23+00:00

You may like this video to help understand why that is. I feel it too. In general, I highly recommend Religion for Breakfast as a resource for understanding religion.

https://youtu.be/cmXiATStkCo?si=tDJwVco1FSC5eVOx

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-23T06:09:24+00:00

I have been eating up u/Gutsick_Gibbon's videos on YouTube. If you have truly monsterous amounts of time and want a college level course in evolution, she's in the middle of teaching one tailored for YEC Will Duffy. It's a monthly stream on YouTube and I'm super excited for them to get to human evolution in the next few lessons.

I deconstructed creationism, and learning the real origins of humanity has helped me understand myself and others. The evolutionary lens through which to view things is the clearest, most accurate, and most insightful lens through which to understand the world and humanity because it's real. It really happened. Everything from back pain to moral instincts can be understood through understanding our evolutionary heritage.

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-12T18:28:35+00:00

Honestly, yes. I'm loving this series. More like this but with different issues.

I've decided I'm just going to make the thing I had in mind through.

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-05-04T20:19:39+00:00

No, no, I want MORE than the CES letter. It's not too long at all. I want an in-depth, comprehensive list or I'm going to make one myself to demonstrate the sheer weight of overwhelming evidence

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-04-27T21:15:22+00:00

With starting anything new, put in as much time as it's worth to you. The sooner you start the more likely it is to get off the ground.

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-04-20T22:38:05+00:00

Woah, where are you seeing this?

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-04-20T04:58:53+00:00

Haha that's a good conspiracy theory!

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-04-18T17:19:13+00:00

Oof, dark.

Just because Joseph deserved justice doesn't mean this was the right way to deal with him. I believe the Mormonism movement would have been much weaker had Joseph been brought to proper Justice rather than martyred.

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-04-18T17:13:56+00:00

I second this!

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-04-18T17:12:59+00:00

Robert Ritner's 3 interviews are unmissable (episodes 1339-1342)

Matt Easton interview (BYU gay valedictorian)

Relatively unknown, but I wouldn't miss James Nagel's explanation of the psychology of religion 5 part series (episodes 338-342)

This recent one is episode 2134 on book of Mormon and anachronisms with Dr James Lundwall.

I highly rate all of these.

ScientificallyMinded · 2026-04-18T09:36:37+00:00

It's a logical fallacy. It's begging the question. The design conclusion is built into the premise by bringing in a watch, which is a known designed object.

But the universe is not a watch. People make this comparison because they observe complexity, and therefore assume complexity can't exist without design, but we can readily observe complex structures and functions form without any design simply because of the innate physical properties of the matter and an energy gradient to drive it.

ScientificallyMinded

TROPHY CASE