Joseph Smith: The Moon is Inhabited

Joseph Smith Jr., the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints taught his followers that men lived on the moon. One of Joseph’s many failures was his short-sightedness. No one in the early 1800′s had been to the moon or had any way to go to the moon to verify whether people lived there or not. Joseph preyed on common ignorance and many of his followers believed there to be men on the moon based on the authority of Joseph Smith, self-proclaimed prophet of God.

In the Young Woman’s Journal, vol. 3, published in 1892, Oliver B. Huntington wrote:

Pages 263 & 264 of The Young Woman's Journal, Vol. 3 (click to enlarge)

As far back as 1837, I know that he [Joseph Smith] said the moon was inhabited by men and women the same as this earth, and that they lived to a greater age than we do – that they live generally to near the age of a 1000 years

He described the men as averaging near six feet in height, and dressing quite uniformly in something near the Quaker style.

In my Patriarchal blessing, given by the father of Joseph the Prophet, in Kirtland, 1837, I was told that I should preach the gospel before I was 21 years of age; that I should preach the gospel to the inhabitants upon the islands of the sea, and – to the inhabitants of the moon, even the planet you can now behold with your eyes.

The first two promises have been fulfilled, and the latter may be verified.

From the verification of two promises we may reasonably expect the third to be fulfilled also.

Mr. Huntington was undoubtedly a loyal Mormon. His entry in this Journal attests to a life of preaching the Mormon gospel and his anticipation of somehow traveling to Earth’s moon and preaching to the inhabitants which Joseph assured him were there.

It must have been more than a slip of the tongue for Joseph Smith to teach this doctrine in such detail. We know from this source that he talked about their clothes, physical appearance, life span. It is likely that this captured the minds of his trusting audience and they asked questions and he spun answers.

No doubt his successor Brigham Young was present when Smith taught this doctrine. It made enough of an impact for him to take it to Utah and proclaim in a sermon 26 years after Smith died:

Journal of Discourses, pages 270 and 271, spoken by Brigham Young on July 24, 1870

Who can tell us of the inhabitants of this little planet that shines of an evening, called the moon?… when you inquire about the inhabitants of that sphere you find that the most learned are as ignorant in regard to them as the ignorant of their fellows. So it is in regard to the inhabitants of the sun. Do you think it is inhabited? I rather think it is. Do you think there is any life there? No question of it; it was not made in vain.

Somewhere along the line Brigham picked up the idea that the Sun was inhabited. It might have been from Joseph Smith but we will never know. Regardless, the facts remains that Brigham 1) affirms the existence of the moon’s inhabitants and 2) casually mentions the existence of the Sun’s inhabitants. Evidently such a claim didn’t warrant a pause to explain or defend against possible objections in the minds of his audience. Objections such as “wouldn’t they catch on fire?” “where would they get water?” “how can they see each other when we can’t look at the sun for more than a few seconds without pain?” No doubt Brigham had talked about this before and they were used to the idea, he didn’t have to justify anything more than his authority “from a superior being” (see below the highlighted section in the photo).

In the late 1950′s and early 1960′s space probes had made it to the moon and photographs have been available ever since. For instance, Luna-3, the Soviet probe sent back photos of the far side of the moon in 1959:

Luna-3 photograph of the Moon

You would expect to see lights and cities of the inhabitants which Joseph Smith Jr. and Brigham Young assured early Mormons were on the Moon. There was no such evidence. No lights, no streets, no houses, nothing. Apollo 8 took this picture on Christmas Eve 1968.

Image of Earth from above the Moon, taken by Apollo 8 in 1968

I could overload you with 100′s of photographs taken of the moon from orbit and from the surface, but I don’t believe that would be necessary. When Neil Armstrong first walked on the Moon on July 21st, 1969 he did not report seeing any of the inhabitants of the moon which the founding prophets of the Mormon Church assured their followers were there. Were Brigham Young alive he would probably list Neil Armstrong among the “ignorant” who don’t know the truth about the moon’s inhabitants. I could dig up a list of astronauts who have walked on the moon’s surface, but that too would not be necessary. Everyone who has photographed or been to the moon can tell you that no one lived there and that there were no ruins of cities or civilizations in which they might have lived.

Would you trust a religion whose founding prophets taught that the moon was inhabited? Could you trust them in other areas (such as theology) after knowing they have made such outrageous claims?