It's a Rock.

You might not know what this is. This is a rock that Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and numerous other churches based upon his teachings, found in a well while he was looking for buried treasure. He used it to look for other treasure, otherwise known as scrying. Later in his life, he used it to "translate" the Book of Mormon.

It presents a lot of issues for those, like me, who don't believe in magic. I can't tell you when I learned about the rock in particular as I've always had a thirst for history, including the faith that I was a member of.

Rather than project any of my problems and issues with this rock onto anyone else, let me just state some of the problems I had. If it does or doesn't cause you to pause, I'll leave it to you.

The Book of Mormon was said to be a translation of plates saved by a civilization over 1000 years. The method of using the rock was to place your head into a hat to shut out the light and read the words that appeared on the rock. No plates were involved nor needed in the actual process.

There were stones with the plates that were to be used for the purpose of translation. He didn't use those. Instead he used a rock he found in the ground.

I don't believe in magic. I don't believe that Joseph could find treasure by looking at a rock. I'm not sure why I gave a pass on his writing a book with it, except I accepted the book as scripture. I don't believe in a person using a rock or a crystal ball to divine anything. I never have. This departure of my skepticism in relation to this rock still is fascinating to me, for just the psychology of it.

If someone came to me today and told me that he used a rock to read ancient plates (that turned out weren't needed or used), I wouldn't believe him. For what logical reason would I?

It's a rock. It always has been a rock. It will always be just a rock.

I don't believe in magic. I never have, but I did it seems. I fixed that.

A good article.