The simplest questions

[Hagoth]

I'm trying to represent some of my issues with the church in the simplest questions possible. Please help, and please add your own.

Here's my start:

The Doctrine and Covenants says that Adam and Eve lived in Missouri 6,000 years ago. The official church Gospel Topic Essay about DNA tells us that the Americas were populated at least 15,000 years ago. Was the Garden of Eden surrounded by people who were living here long before Adam and Eve? How did they survive the flood?

Why are Nephites, Lamanites and Jaredites the only known civilizations to leave no artifacts?

Why does the flora and fauna in the Book of Mormon look like 19th century New England, but not like ancient America?

Why can archaeologists find 12,000 year old wooden spears but not Jaredite and Nephite steel swords?

Why can we find Neanderthal DNA in Native Americans but no Israelite DNA?

President Hinkley said, “I am proud of the name Mormon.” President Nelson said using the name Mormon is a “major victory for Satan.” Which prophet was wrong?

Why does the Spirit tell people of other faiths that they are in the true religion?

In 2015 the church disallowed the baptism of children of gay members “to protect the children.” Russell M. Nelson told us it was a revelation from God. Three years later children of gay people were again allowed to get baptized “to protect the children.” Which policy is wrong?

My eternal family consists of myself, my wife and our two children. My father’s eternal family consists of my parents, myself and my brother, but not my wife or my children. My grandfather’s eternal family consists of my grandparents, my parents and my aunts and uncles, but not me or my cousins. My father-in-law’s eternal family includes my wife but not me or my children. My children’s eternal families will consist of them, their spouse and their children, but not me or my wife. Are there really eternal families or do we all just end up being sealed into one big family? Isn’t that the same as no family?

My transgender daughter is not allowed to use LDS bathrooms “to protect the children.” Why is there no specific bathroom policy for known male pedophiles?

If polygamy wasn’t about sex, why did early prophets marry so many teenagers instead of old spinsters?

If polygamy was about uniting families, rather than about sex, why didn’t early leaders just get sealed to other men as sons, or to girls as daughters? Why did they need teenage wives?

Why was Emma the 22nd wife sealed to Joseph? Why were most of those other sealings done secretly behind her back?

Why is it blasphemous to suggest that Joseph Smith had sex with his teenage wives, but perfectly acceptable that Brigham Young did?

If the Book of Mormon is the fullness of the gospel, why doesn’t it contain any uniquely LDS doctrines, like preexistence, degrees of glory, temple sealing, Melchizedek priesthood, Word of Wisdom, etc, etc?

Why does the Book of Mormon’s plan of salvation look just like 19th century Christianity’s: Earth > Judgement > Heaven/Fiery Hell, and not like the LDS plan of salvation?

How can I expect people to take the Gold Plates seriously when I have to admit to them that an angel took them away?

Why does the Holy Ghost run away when we find ourselves in situations where we need him the most?

Why am I allowed to take the sacrament when I am not repentant, but forbidden to take it when I am. Isn’t that backwards?

[Hagoth]

Why does the last direct commandment from God to a prophet (John Taylor), that actually says “thus saith the Lord” command that we NEVER abandon polygamy as a practice, and yet we have abandoned it?

[Hagoth]

Why are coffee and tea included in our health code when we now know that they are some of the healthiest foods on the planet, and why are we not allowed to drink beer (aka “mild barley drinks”) when they are specifically permitted?

[Hagoth]

Why do the social morals of the church always lag the social morals of American society by a few decades if it is led by prophets?

Why has the temple ceremony changed so much, considering that numerous prophets have said it is immutable (e.g. Brigham Young said, “not one jot nor tittle pertaining to it is to be altered.”)?

If LDS prophets have been demonstrated to have been wrong about so many things, why should we take seriously anything they say now, knowing it could be overruled by the next guy?

If the modern church is the restored true gospel, why has every single doctrine changed over time (please read Charles Harrel’s This is My Doctrine)?

[Hagoth]

In order to be worthy of a temple recommend I need to state that I am honest in my dealings with my fellow men. Do the First Presidency qualify for recommends, considering the way they lied to the SEC and IRS? Don’t President Nelson's exaggerated stories about the “flaming death spiral,” and the home invasion in Africa disqualify him?

[Hagoth]

Why don’t we use tobacco to treat bruises and sick livestock, as commanded in the Word of Wisdom?

Why don’t we abstain from meats as commanded in the Word of Wisdom?

[Hagoth]

Why don’t we speak in tongues like the early saints, as proclaimed in the Articles of Faith? (the MTC isn’t the same thing)

[Hagoth]

Why should we take the proclamation about one-man-one-woman seriously when our early prophets and leaders (Brigham Young, John Taylor, Orson Pratt, George Q. Cannon, Joseph F. Smith, and others) denigrated monogamy as corrupt, degenerate, immoral, the foundation of prostitution, and incompatible with God’s kingdom?

[Hagoth]

NOTE: One of my main shelf items was the Book of Abraham. It has SO MANY issues that I'm struggling to narrow it to a couple of simple questions. Here's one attempt:

How is it that the Book of Abraham papyrus "written by his own hand," is a really book of Egyptian spells and prayers to pagan gods that doesn't tell the story of Abraham or even mention him, and that was not written until thousands of years after Abraham?

[Hagoth]

Why does the astronomy that God revealed to Abraham not match the astronomical beliefs of Abraham’s time or the actual astronomical facts we know today, but exactly reflect the theories that were briefly believed in Joseph Smith’s time?

[Hagoth]

Why does the Book of Mormon have so much language borrowed directly from Paul and other New Testament writers? For example, why is the long ending of Mark quoted word-for-word in Moroni 9, especially considering that it is now known to be a forgery that was added centuries after the original text of Mark?

[wtfluff]

Why are hospitals needed in Utah if healing priesthood blessings actually work?

Why is the divorce rate amongst temple married MORmONs within the standard deviation of folks who are married secularly? Isn't temple marriage supposed to be infinitely better and more successful than secular marriage?

[Hagoth]

Why are hospitals needed in Utah if healing priesthood blessings actually work?

Why is the divorce rate amongst temple married MORmONs within the standard deviation of folks who are married secularly? Isn't temple marriage supposed to be infinitely better and more successful than secular marriage?

Good ones!

Here's a variation of your first point. When our prophets and apostles visit someone in the hospital, why do they leave alone?

[Hagoth]

Here's a simplification of the eternal families thing. It's a work in progress:

I have been sealed to my wife and children as an eternal family. I have also been sealed into my parents’ eternal family. Whose eternal family will I be in? If you ask my in-laws, won’t my wife be in their eternal family? Will my children really be in my eternal family, or will they be in their own eternal family with their own spouse and children? What about when those children get sealed to someone and have their own kids? Are there really eternal families or do we all just end up being sealed into one big family? If everyone is in one big family, how is that different than no family?

[deacon blues]

Mormon leaders have traditionally taught that Adam and Noah received the same oaths and covenants we get in the temple today. Pres. Nelson re-emphasized this in the 2019 Sunday morning general conference.
If Noah had those oaths and covenants, and would presumably teach them to at least some of his sons, Shem and Japeth, why is there no sign of them in the religions of the period? Instead of seeing at least a hint of LDS temple ordinances, why do the religions of that period show uninterrupted polytheism?

[moksha]

The Doctrine and Covenants says that Adam and Eve lived in Missouri 6,000 years ago. The official church Gospel Topic Essay about DNA tells us that the Americas were populated at least 15,000 years ago. Was the Garden of Eden surrounded by people who were living there long before Adam and Eve? How did they survive the flood?

People from Siberia crossed the Bering Ice Bridge one or more times between 30,000 and 20,000 BCE. Potentially, the great flood was the rising Mediterranean Sea breaching its Northeastern end, flooding a basin and creating the Black Sea around 5,760 BCE.

Assuming the Adamites somehow sailed to Missouri, they were met by the Siberian immigrants, who showed them how to survive in the new location till they sailed back to the Levant.

[2bizE]

D&C 77:6 says the Earth has existed for 7000 years. I suspect there is a divide in the church based on this revelation from JS. It is obvious from science this is not true.

[stuck]

Why did the bom have so many anachronisms: animals, plants, Christianity, Isaiah, Biblical passages, writing, etc?

Why did JS want to be a king and polygamist when in the bom it says that was abominable?

Why does the LDS church want 10% of our gross income when the interest that it makes can pay for the operating expenses and when originally the church only required 10% of our money after our expenses?

[moksha]

There is now a statue with a cross on Temple Square.

[Hagoth]

People who have never heard the gospel will be taught in the spirit world and have their temple work done for them. Regardless of what they did in life they will have the opportunity to accept and live forever with God, Jesus, and their families. But your child who stopped paying tithing and started drinking tea will not be welcomed at the eternal family table. Isn’t it much better to never have been a member of the church in this life? Isn’t missionary work just hurting people’s chances of eternal life?

Followup:

Which would result in more people returning to God, sending missionaries knocking doors with Books of Mormon, or sending missionaries into preschools with automatic weapons? (Note to the Central Scrutinizer: this is purely hypothetical!)