Not long ago, I identified myself as a humanist, and recently joined the A.H.A. and the local chapter. There was an important question I wanted to answer before I left Mormonism: "How Did It Happen?"

The biography of Joseph Smith by Brodie is the most famous book on the beginnings of Mormonism, and is widely read by most people wanting to know about the church. Mormons do not read it, and I hadn't until now; but I knew about it, which Mormons don't. The book does answer the question about how Mormonism happened as well as it can be answered. No one will ever know absolutely, and books, articles and studies continue.

The other book, by B.H. Roberts, is more interesting because it chronicles the efforts by Roberts, known as the Defender of the Faith, to prove the validity of the Book of Mormon, which is central to the claims of the LDS Church. He made an exhaustive research of all available information of the time, and although his studies were completed in 1927, they were only recently published.

Roberts begins his study with just a few questions, and as he piles one piece of evidence upon another he becomes a skeptic, then a doubter, then he pokes fun, and in the end he becomes a disbeliever, but he does not renounce his faith.

The book speaks for itself, it did answer my questions, and I now know how it happened.

--Bob Green