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A Mormon Explains Mormonism – Jacob Hansen

Alex O'Connor | October 16, 2025



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– VIDEO NOTES

Jacob Hansen is a Mormon YouTuber at the channel @thoughtfulfaith2020

– LINKS

The Book of Abraham: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/abr/1?lang=eng

The video Jacob references on whether the Book of Mormon could fit onto the Golden Plates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bVG7HABdls&ab_channel=ThoughtfulFaith

– TIMESTAMPS

00:00 An Introduction to Mormonism
08:41 Is Tithing a Requirement for Latter-day Saints?
13:29 Why Christians Think Mormonism is Evil
18:23 The Mormon View of God’s Nature
25:45 Are Christian Creeds Aligned With the Bible?
37:00 Joseph Smith’s Vision
44:24 Witnesses to the Gold Plates
52:14 How Early Mormons Were Persecuted
59:55 Understanding the Book of Mormon
1:05:39 Mistakes in the Book of Mormon?
1:13:14 Are the Names in the Book of Mormon Made Up?
1:19:50 The Amazing Influence of the Book of Mormon
1:26:32 Alex’s Objections to the Golden Plates
1:34:12 The Lack of Archeological Evidence for Mormonism
1:37:48 Is The Book of Abraham a Fraud?
2:08:06 Racism in Mormon History
2:13:14 Polygamy and Joseph Smith’s Assasination
2:19:07 Jacob’s Reasons for Believing

– CONNECT

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Written by Alex O'Connor

Comments

This post currently has 47 comments.

  5. @CosmiCaterpillar

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    My family started to LDS religion … anyone that believes that sh1t is dumber than a sack of hammers. It's not just moronic … it's a actively evil. Joseph Smith was the Jefferey Epstein of the 1800's

  7. @unconventional_sanity

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    1:21:00 all that proves is that this is the one that worked out. Only a few of these nonsense stories work out that's why. It is done a lot by a lot of people. They have their small communities. A few are good at expanding and get lucky too sometimes

  12. @TomDavis7

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    Fantastic interview by both on both sides. This no doubt would be a fantastic series. The cordial banter and respectfulness by both and each's views/thoughts was amazingly refreshing. Did I just spend 2.5 hours watching this as an LDS member? Alex, when you get your planet I hope my planet is next to yours.

  16. @mckaysharp1696

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    32:42 I can’t speak for Ruslan, but that’s generally not how Christians try to disprove Mormonism. The typical tactic is to make arguments that we aren’t Christian based on the axiom that the creeds are true, rather than debating at the point of the creeds themselves. I don’t think they realize they do it.

  18. @DocReasonable

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    Reality is comprised of infinite dimensions, so yes — something has always existed. The first law of thermodynamics confirms that energy cannot be created or destroyed, which means energy has always existed AND that there was no creator.

  26. @TorvusVae

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    Comparing the growth rates of a religion started in a period of mass literacy and unprecedented global connectivity to one started in a majority agrarian society where less than 10% of the population were literate is a bit disingenuous

  27. @wquon2007

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    As for where and what peoples the book of Mormon was referencing, Ron Meldrum has done work with genetics and more, and Wayne May has done a lot with the archeology.
    Many of their lectures are on YT.

  30. @ellea3344

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    The "book of Abraham"… utter non-scence. The source material is Egyptian hyroglyphics that do NOT mean what J.S. said they meant. Super crazy.

  31. @JaycieSmith-q2r

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    Another problem with tithing is they encourage you to pay tithing before bills or feeding your kids. You shouldnt ask people to starve their families to pay tithing. Its unethical

  33. @solusgamer164

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    Wish I had found this video sooner. Wouldn't mind engaging in debate once again about the same tired falsehoods against mormonism that's existed since its founding.

  34. @italucard

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    About how to fit The Book of Mormon in the golden plates there is an interesting story about that. Search for Dr. Hanna the person who translated the Book of Mormon from English to Arabic. This non member Dr. is an expert on Semitic languages. And he got the job to demonstrate that the book is a fraud because he knew what to search in the Semitic language like Arabic or in this case some kind of Egyptian. The thing is that he gave some of the information he found and he got baptized in the Church.

  40. @KentBuchla

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    His reframing is so biased. 'Ignore the Joseph Smith side until you've accepted the other side'… yeah, sure, dude. The whole story is Joseph Smith and it is certifiably nuts.

  44. @Griffin519x

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    This was another good one! He is a good guest. Sometimes people get mad or frustrated when they’re being questioned like this, but he always kept it calm and conversational

  45. @tye829

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    I've read a number of religious texts, and I've gotta say the Book of Mormon was uniquely off-putting… For instance, if I open a copy of the Bible, it just gets right into it: Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…" Boom. And so it begins. Same with the Quran, the Bhagavad Ghita… But I remember I opened a copy of the Book of Mormon once, and there was all this other bullshit, like you have to read through 50+ pages and like 7 introductions before it even starts. All of them saying "Trust us, what you're about to read is real!" like it's really trying to convince you and sell you something in a way no other religious text does. There's a letter from Joseph Smith saying how he found the Book of Mormon; there's another bit written about how it was translated with "seer stones"; then there's another letter by three of Joseph Smith's friends saying "We've seen these plates and we swear it's real, folks!" … and then there's another letter by 11 more of his friends saying the same thing. Lol. And some other stuff too that I'm forgetting…

    I just remember feeling off-put by the whole thing. Like if I read the Bible, the text really speaks for itself. Christians might try to convince me in the real world, sure, but the Bible is the Bible. The Book of Mormon uniquely felt like a sales pitch. Anyway, that was my experience.

    I get what he's saying about how if other religions believe in the miraculous, that Mormonism shouldn't get so much hate… but, sadly for him, the other religions do have a greater aura of legitimacy around their texts just because they are so old and have been so influential on human history. Like I took a class on the Bible once and how various books were written, and it was honestly fascinating. Like there really is enough mystery around the Bible that a whole field of scholarship is devoted to studying it and analyzing it. But the Book of Mormon just comes across more like a pamphlet that Joseph Smith wrote like 150 years ago.

  46. @adrielaraujo2604

    October 16, 2025 at 4:11 pm

    Nothing wrong about Mormonisn they are great people. But hes wrong about the growth rate or at least the comparison. First there was about 300 million people which is 26 times less people. Now on the extreme end there was probably around 1 million Christians. Which would mean the equivalent of 26 million today compared to the 17 million Mormons. But lets go with lesser populace of 200,000 now you multiply that by 26 and you have the equivalent of 5,200,000 Christians. But Christians were persecuted the entire time. We're as Mormons for 60 years and they fought and killed for there right to exist while Christians were persecuted for 250 years and were peaceful. Now Mormons did have a rougher terrain but the fact they did it in mass groups helped

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