An interesting aspect of this religion is the reoccurring theme of sacred plates. I wonder if the idea of worshiping these odd tablets has any spiritual value apart from the content. Joseph Smith supposedly finds golden plates buried in the woods of upstate New York. Since they have unknown reformed hieroglyphics on them, he takes i upon himself as God's request to translate them. They are too powerful and auspicious to be viewed by anyone other than Smith, so he "hides" them and they're never seen again. Though nobody ever sees these plates, they have become the fundamental literature for the faith itself. Since the initial finding, there are other mentions of plates within what we've read in class. The different chapters and books themselves describe their creation, including the Book of Mormon, which was written upon metal plates by Mormon and Moroni.
Joseph probably chose the form of a plate for his scripture because of the mysterious aspect of its discovery. He needed something more durable than parchment so he could find something so old undecayed. The fact that these tablets are gold also brings an aura of fantastic miracle and spectacle to the religion. The Mormons depend heavily upon a close relationship with God. He is often mentioned as telling the leaders what to do expressly and staying in contact. Smith claims he called out to God and he answered, and it is not very often in this book that God does not respond to these people.
The plate motif is also a reference to Moses and the 10 Commandments. This connects Mormons to more well-established faiths. It gives them the credibility of Christianity but then offers a literal blank slate upon which to write a much more convoluted interpretation of history. The Book of Ether draws distinct parallels between the exile, captivity, and general story of the Jews. It establishes a promised land (America) while also giving an excuse to be racist against the Native Americans. All of this stems from the use of plates and a desperate desire for validity and a Mormon following.
I do definitely find it hard to take all that is being said here to be legitimate. The fact that plates would just appear in New York and were so easily found is something that is hard to believe. Also, the fascination with plates could be because of the fascination with trinkets or gadgets that we talked about in class. But ya, where are the plates now??
ReplyDeleteYes, the whole origin of this book seems a little bit ridiculous to me. Not to be offensive, but the whole story about Joseph magically discovered some plates and got inspiration from God to ask him translate the plates seems really unconvincing. The most important thing is, nobody except Joseph himself, has ever seen these plates. Hence, i really doubt if those plates really exist; or they were just made up by Joseph so that Joseph would have some "glory" reason to write the book of Mormon.
ReplyDeleteI find most of Joseph Smith's claims hard to believe. The plates don't give much credibility to his book. The testimonies at the end of the Book of Mormon make the existence even less credible in my opinion.
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