Skepticism for the Church

We often think of scientific skepticism as a weapon used against the Church, but it does serve a defensive purpose from time to time. Occasionally people attempt to exploit the Church's unique claims in an attempt to deceive. The Kinderhook Plates and the Hofmann forgeries are two prominent examples.

Two lesser known examples are discussed in Edward Kimball's Lengthen Your Stride draft manuscript.

In the 1950s a Dr. Jesus Padilla claimed to have found some small plates in a Mexican tomb that had characters from the Anthon transcript on them. In 1978 a BYU professor, Ray Matheny, determined that they were forgeries based on a) their uniform thinness, which could only be accomplished by modern sheet rolling, b) the engraving was done with tools not used anciently, and c) only characters from the Anthon transcript that had been published in a missionary tract were on the plates.

In 1975, missionaries in England met a man named Bert Fuchs who had brass plates, a sword, and cystal lenses in a bow. He claimed that his grandfather obtained them in Peru and told him to offer them to the Church whose representatives quoted certain scriptures. Initially parts of his story checked out, however as time progressed his story had inconsistencies. Also BYU professor Paul Cheesman determined that the characters resembled the Anthon transcript and Kinderhook plates, that the holes in the plates had been drilled, and found that the "sealed" portion was blank. (Wouldn't it be funny if the sealed plates actually were blank?) Fuchs, having been baptized, was excommunicated. Unfortunately a Church member, knowing that they might be fake, had given $18,000 to Fuchs to ensure that money did not become an issue.