larsenb wrote: ↑August 29th, 2017, 1:17 pmThe seer stones exhibit a banding/ring pattern that looks very much like what is called liesegang banding. Can be very beautiful.brianj wrote: ↑August 26th, 2017, 10:56 pmI had no idea the stones were in the church archives, or that Joseph Smith had any stones beside the ones from the Urim and Thummim. I anticipated that such stones would be crystal stones, clear as glass, based on Ether 3:1. I had some difficulty with the pictures when they were first released because they didn't look like this. It took some time for me to start seeing the simplistic beauty of the stones.AI2.0 wrote: ↑August 25th, 2017, 2:19 pm Were you not aware that we had seer stones in the archives? I thought that was common knowledge. They have lots of things they've collected that would be of interest to us.
There's no question the position of the church has changed over the years to put this information out there, rather than not discussing it. It's the change of leadership, older people dying off and their beliefs dying out. 20 years ago we were regularly cautioned to not read or look at anti mormon stuff--now, I think they figured out that didn't work, there's too much of it and denying it exists didn't help. They come to realize that they should put potentially controversial things out there and give their side. The essays are perfect examples of this change in attitude. I think it's great, but I don't fault the church too much for past policies and positions. They thought what they were doing was right, and maybe it was--for that time period. Now, in this time period, changes needed to be made and they're making them.
And frankly, some members can't handle it. We do need to be careful. Some can have negative reactions and there are many different types of people on different levels of learning and understanding.
I have wondered if Joseph's seer stone was made from onyx, which is the stone in the breast plate of Aaron representing the tribe of Joseph. Onyx is usually brown with stripes and isn't natively black but commonly and artificially dyed black.