Go to the sources. Then decide what the evidence means.
These are recurring topics people encounter when examining LDS truth claims. The goal here is not to replace one approved reading list with another.
First Vision accounts
Compare the surviving accounts directly, noting what remains consistent, what changes, and how different historians explain those differences.
Polygamy in Nauvoo
Look at primary documents, Church essays, marriage timelines, public statements, and the historical context surrounding plural marriage.
Book of Abraham
Compare the surviving papyri, the translation claims, Egyptological assessments, and the explanations offered by believing scholars.
Book of Mormon historicity
Examine archaeology, language, genetics, geography, anachronisms, literary arguments, and both apologetic and critical responses.
Race & priesthood
Trace the policy, the explanations leaders gave for it over time, the 1978 change, and the Church’s later disavowal of past racial theories.
Translation methods
Compare popular artwork and lesson narratives with historical descriptions of seer stones, plates, scribes, and the translation process.
Three rules I use
- Do not confuse an explanation with evidence that the explanation is true.
- Do not dismiss a source only because you dislike the conclusion.
- Let new information update your confidence instead of forcing every fact to fit the answer you started with.