Thesis 10: Face to Face With a Magical Rock

Mormon doctrine says that Joseph Smith used this stone to translate the Book of Mormon.

Yes, you read that correctly. This stone, called a “seer stone”, or sometimes referred to as a “Urim and Thummim” was placed into a hat by Joseph Smith during the translation of the Book of Mormon. He would then look into the hat, and then the stone would somehow give Joseph the words of the tell his scribe.

For lack of a better word, the Mormon church is claiming that this stone is magical.

I’m not making this up. The Mormon church itself isn’t even attempting to hide this: https://www.lds.org/church/news/book-of-mormon-printers-manuscript-photos-of-seer-stone-featured-in-new-book?lang=eng&_r=1

And so I see no other choice but to ask myself: do I believe that this is a magical rock, or do I think it’s just a rock?

I think it’s just a rock.

And that’s kind of all there is to it!

I think there’s a reason that the most enduring religions of the world (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism) were all founded many hundreds of years ago. People don’t have to stare into the face of Jesus or Muhammed, because if they did then they might just see normal middle-eastern men. People don’t have to look at the staff that had supposedly turned into a snake or at the bush that supposedly burned on the mountain or at the bread that was supposedly conjured out of thin air. Instead, people can just imagine them as real things and real stories. It’s much easier to believe in something that happened long, long ago and far, far away when you don’t have to actually see it.

But when you’re faced with a rock that your church is claiming has magical translation powers, you’re also faced with a decision. Are you going to believe it?

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The answer I give to people when they ask me why I’ve left the church is exactly this: “I thought about it.”

The first time I thought about things, I realized that I don’t believe in magic rocks, and that I’ve never seen a person raised from the dead, and that I don’t think our souls are magically whisked away into heaven when we die. Everything just makes so much sense without religion.

As soon as you take religion out of the equation then things like the evolution of man, the ways we find purpose, the psychological reasons for the rise of the thousands of religions in the world, the historic reasons for the rise of Christianity, and our tiny place in the universe just start to become so clear and interesting and…right.

And just a few seconds of thought will help you realize that a magical rock is just a rock.