Good reads that are freely available online

[_spotlight]

I've read the first and am half way through the second.

The account of Ann Eliza Young
https://archive.org/details/wifenoorstoryofl00youniala

No Man Knows My History
https://archive.org/details/NoManKnowsMyHistory

Use this thread to share other titles that are found online, legal and free.

[_bomgeography]

This is a good one it will bring you closer to your Heavenly Father.

https://www.LDS.org/scriptures/Book of Mormon?lang=eng

[_Maksutov]

This is a good one it will bring you closer to your Heavenly Father.

Unless it was revealed to Smith by an evil spirit, as many Christians believe and you cannot disprove.

Or it was a fabrication as many more people believe:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism ... _of_Mormon

Scholars reject Smith's explanation of the origin of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon was originally an ancient native-American record written on golden plates, and that God gave him the power to translate it into English. Critics note that there is no physical proof of the existence of golden plates; Smith said that the angel Moroni reclaimed the plates once he had completed the translation. To provide support towards the existence of the plates, Smith included two statements in the Book of Mormon saying that the Book of Mormon witnesses had been shown the plates, and their testimony is typically published at the beginning of the Book of Mormon. While none of these men ever retracted their statement, critics nevertheless discount these testimonies for varying reasons, one of which is because most of these men were closely interrelated. In later years Martin Harris, one of the witnesses, is recorded to have confessed that none of the witnesses saw the plates with their natural eyes but only through a vision.

Most linguists, archeologists, and historians do not regard the Book of Mormon to be of ancient origin. In 1834 a publication by Eber D. Howe claimed that Smith had plagiarized an unpublished manuscript written by Solomon Spalding. Scholars today have varying theories about the true authorship of the Book of Mormon, but most conclude that Smith composed the book himself, possibly with the help of Oliver Cowdery, drawing from information and publications available in his time, including the King James Bible, The Wonders of Nature, and View of the Hebrews.

Existence of golden plates
Main articles: Three Witnesses and Eight Witnesses

Two separate sets of witnesses, a set of three and a set of eight, testified as having seen the golden plates, the record from which the Book of Mormon was translated. Critics, including Jerald and Sandra Tanner, and the Institute for Religious Research note several pieces of evidence that they argue call into question the authenticity of the experience, including letters and affidavits in which Martin Harris stated that the Eight Witnesses never saw the plates, and that his own witness was more spiritual than physical. Additionally, each of the Three Witnesses (Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer) left the church during Joseph Smith's lifetime and considered Smith to have been a fallen prophet. Harris and Cowdery later returned to the church. However, the Institute for Religious Research disputes the sincerity of their conversion and return.

Apologists note that the witnesses in most cases affirmed their witness until their death, and claim that the aforementioned affidavits and letters are either fraudulent, or otherwise not reliable. In 1881 Whitmer, the one witness who never returned to the church, issued an affidavit reaffirming his testimony of the experience.

Text and language

Joseph Smith provided a sample of "reformed Egyptian" characters. Egyptologists assert this language was merely Smith's invention.

Main articles: Reformed Egyptian and Linguistics and the Book of Mormon
Historians view the language patterns, phrases, and names in the Book of Mormon as evidence that it is not authentic.

Joseph Smith claimed to have translated the Book of Mormon from a language called Reformed Egyptian. Archaeologists and Egyptologists have found no evidence that this language ever existed.[19] However, Hugh Nibley, a Mormon apologist, argues that Reformed Egyptian is actually Meroitic Egyptian.

Furthermore, official LDS church commentary on the Book of Mormon says that at least some ancestors of Native Americans came from the Jerusalem area; however, Native American linguistic specialists have not found, so far to date, any Native American language that appears to be related to languages of the ancient Near East.

Supporters point out the interesting elements of the creation drama that turn up in temple, tomb, or coffin texts from ancient Egypt that is described in detail in the Book of Mormon as the coronation of King Mosiah long before these ancient texts were understood by Egyptologists.

Supporters of the Book of Mormon claim it uses chiasmus—a figure of speech utilizing inverted parallelism—and claim it is evidence to support the book's ancient origin.[citation needed] Critics such as Jerald and Sandra Tanner argue that chiasmus in the Book of Mormon are a characteristic of Joseph Smith's speech pattern and not evidence of antiquity. They cite chiasmus in the Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Moses which were not translated from an ancient text as evidence.

Critics claim that language patterns in the Book of Mormon indicate that it is merely a repetition of rhetorical patterns found in the Old Testament.They point out that the Book of Mormon contains many words and phrases that are not consistent with the time frame or location of the stories included in the book.

Some critics theorize that Smith derived the account of the golden plates from treasure-hunting stories of William Kidd. Critics base this theory on the similarity of the names from Smith's account—Moroni and Cumorah—to the location Moroni, Comoros, related to Kidd's hunt for treasure. Apologists argue that it was unlikely that Smith had access to this material since at the time of the writing and publishing of the Book of Mormon his family were living in backwoods America, were very poor and there was no public library available to read such a book.
............

I could go on and on, McKane. You're in the company of crackpots, frauds and fabulists. You can keep trying to find the guys at LDS Freedom Forum, that are into Julie Rowe and free energy and sovereign citizen movements. Maybe you can bring in UFOs and Bigfoot or at least Nikola Tesla.

[_Maksutov]

Here's a link to an online copy of Parley Pratt's not so orthodox Key to the Science of Theology.

https://archive.org/details/keytoscienceofth00pratrich

And another couple to brother Orson's The Seer.

http://www.freewebs.com/iglesiadejesucr ... er%20(1854).pdf

https://archive.org/details/seereditedbyorso01unse

[_Fence Sitter]

If your interested in the autobiography of a young female British convert and her family who immigrated to the US and on to SLC, including a brutally honest description of her handcart trek, I highly recommend the The Autobiography of Patience Loader Rozsa Archer.

[_Maksutov]

From the Internet Sacred Texts Archive:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/mor/index.htm

History of Utah, 1540-1886 by Hubert Howe Bancroft [1889]
The saga of the Mormon persecution and exodus, by the foremost historian of the wild west.

Tenderfoot Days by George Robert Bird [1918] [SD]

The Story of Mormonism By James E. Talmage [1918]

Under the Prophet in Utah By Frank J. Cannon and Harvey J. O'Higgins [1911] [SD]

The Book of Abraham, Its Authenticity Established... by Elder Geo. Reynolds [1879] [SD]

The Angel of the Prairies, A Dream of the Future by Parley Parker Pratt [1880] [SD]

Etc.

................

This site is also a good introduction to all kinds of different texts and traditions, including from traditional and esoteric, ancient and modern sources. New Age/Spiritualist/Theosophy/UFO religions are also represented.

[_spotlight]

Thanks for all the contributions! I see there was one suggestion that missed the very first word of the OP however. Chloroform in print is not what I'd refer to as "good."

Yet another, this one read by Joseph Smith and the source of the doctrine of eternal matter and the eternal spirits of all men.

Thomas Dick, The Philosophy of a Future State
https://archive.org/details/thephilosophyofa00dickuoft

Joseph's new concept that the earth had been "organized" out of already existing matter rather than created out of nothing had a less obvious but no less definite root in his new scholarship. He had recently been reading Thomas Dick's Philosophy of a Future State, a long-winded dissertation on astronomy and metaphysics. Dick's elucidation of the thesis that matter is eternal and indestructible Joseph had found convincing, and he had logically concluded that God must have made the heavens and the earth out of materials He had on hand.

Joseph created Abraham an eminent astronomer who penetrates all the mysteries of the universe. Abraham relates that there is one star, Kolob, lying near the throne of God, which is greater than all the rest. One revolution of Kolob takes a thousand years, and from this revolution God Himself reckons time. Kolob and countless lesser stars are peopled by spirits that are eternal as matter itself. These spirits are not cast in the same mold, but differ among themselves in quality of intelligence as the stars differ in magnitude.
These concepts, which developed peculiar ramifications in Joseph's later teachings, came directly from Dick, who had speculated that the stars were peopled by "various orders of intelligences," and that these intelligences were "progressive beings" in various stages of evolution toward perfection.

[_Maksutov]

Thanks for all the contributions! I see there was one suggestion that missed the very first word of the OP however. Chloroform in print is not what I'd refer to as "good."

Yet another, this one read by Joseph Smith and the source of the doctrine of eternal matter and the eternal spirits of all men.

Thomas Dick, The Philosophy of a Future State
https://archive.org/details/thephilosophyofa00dickuoft

Joseph's new concept that the earth had been "organized" out of already existing matter rather than created out of nothing had a less obvious but no less definite root in his new scholarship. He had recently been reading Thomas Dick's Philosophy of a Future State, a long-winded dissertation on astronomy and metaphysics. Dick's elucidation of the thesis that matter is eternal and indestructible Joseph had found convincing, and he had logically concluded that God must have made the heavens and the earth out of materials He had on hand.

Joseph created Abraham an eminent astronomer who penetrates all the mysteries of the universe. Abraham relates that there is one star, Kolob, lying near the throne of God, which is greater than all the rest. One revolution of Kolob takes a thousand years, and from this revolution God Himself reckons time. Kolob and countless lesser stars are peopled by spirits that are eternal as matter itself. These spirits are not cast in the same mold, but differ among themselves in quality of intelligence as the stars differ in magnitude.
These concepts, which developed peculiar ramifications in Joseph's later teachings, came directly from Dick, who had speculated that the stars were peopled by "various orders of intelligences," and that these intelligences were "progressive beings" in various stages of evolution toward perfection.

Thomas Dick was one wild dude. He claimed to know the populations of all the planets. If I recall correctly he even claimed that there were people living on Saturn's rings. He must have been eating opium along with Coleridge and DeQuincy. A great mentor for Joseph Smith along with that nut Swedenborg.

[_spotlight]

Thomas Dick was one wild dude. He claimed to know the populations of all the planets. If I recall correctly he even claimed that there were people living on Saturn's rings. He must have been eating opium along with Coleridge and DeQuincy. A great mentor for Joseph Smith along with that nut Swedenborg.

I'm beginning to think that Franktalk must be a descendant of Joseph Smith through one of his celestial wives.

[_Fence Sitter]

Under the Prophet in Utah By Frank J. Cannon and Harvey J. O'Higgins [1911] [SD]

This was really good and I also recommend it.