Myth #1: Reading the Book of Mormon will tell you all about Mormon doctrine.
The Book of Mormon fails to teach the unique doctrine Latter-day Saints feel is
necessary to believe and practice in order to become gods.
Myth #2: The book of Mormon has been proven by archaeology.
To date, nothing has been found to verify Book of Mormon sites. In fact,
many within the Mormon Church are beginning to abandon the idea that the
Book of Mormon is a book of verifiable history. No credible archaeologist
outside of the Mormon Church considers the book to have any New World
archaeological value.
Myth #3: Brigham Young never taught Adam was God.
Not only did Brigham Young teach that Adam was Michael the Archangel, the
Ancient of Days, he also taught that Adam was "our Father and our God, and
the only God with whom we have to do."
He finished this message by saying, "Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation." (Journal of Discourses 1:50,51). Notice Young called this teaching a "doctrine," not a "theory" as most Mormons like to refer to it today.
Myth #4: All of Joseph Smith's prophecies came to pass.
If that was true, Jesus would have returned in 1891
(Documentary History of the Church (DHC) 2:182), the Civil War would have
poured out upon all nations (Doctrines & Covenants 1:87:1-3); the wicked of
Smith's generation would have been swept from off the face of the land
(DHC 1:315); and a temple would have been built in Independence,
Missouri by the generation living in 1832 (D&C 84:4,5).
Myth #5: Joseph Smith died as a "lamb led to the slaughter."
The fact is, Joseph Smith died in a gun battle using a pistol that was
smuggled to him while incarcerated at Carthage jail. According to the DHC,
Joseph Smith pulled this six-shooter from his pocket and
"snapped the pistol six successive times; only three of the barrels,
however, were discharged. I afterwards understood that two or
three were wounded by these discharges, two of whom, I am informed, died" (John Taylor, Volume 7, pp. 102-103).
Myth #6: Polygamy was necessary in early Utah because there were more women than
men.
The fact is there were more men than women in early Utah when polygamy was being
practiced. Mormon Apostle John Widtsoe wrote on pages 390-91 of his book entitled
Evidences and Reconciliations: "The most common of these conjectures is
that the Church, through plural marriage, sought to provide husbands for its
large surplus of female members. The applied assumption in this theory, that
there have been more females than male members in the Church, is not supported by
existing evidence. On the contrary, there seem always to have been more males than
females in the Church... The theory that plural marriage was a consequence of a
surplus of female church members fails from lack of evidence."