2. The story of its use plays into the bogus but popular Anti-Mormon theme that Joseph Smith was a money digger, using magic or divination to locate treasure.
3. It is inconsistent with the word of God as revealed in scripture.
--The stone is not the Urim and Thummim which is clearly described in holy writ as clear stones (Plural) fastened in the rim of a bow. Ether Chapter 3, JS History 1:35, etc. For Biblical references one need only look in the Bible Dictionary under Urim and Thummim, which words, it should be noted, are also plural in the Hebrew.
--D & C 28:11 Does mention a singular stone, but it was the one used by Hyrum Page to obtain FALSE revelations.
--Mosiah 8:13 wherein Ammon clearly teaches that the interpreters (plural), can only be used by the command of God and that if anyone tried to look for that which they ought not,(treasure) they would perish. Which contradicts the folk lore story of Joseph first using the stone to find treasure .
--Multiple B of M scriptures refer to the true interpreters as plural, consistent with the Urim and Thummim. Alma 37:21 & 24, Ether 4:5, Mosiah 28:20. Even the one use of stone singular (Gazelem) Alma 37:23-24 is immediately referred to in the next verse in the plural (Interpreters)
4. It is inconsistent with God, being a God of order, to supply the perfect system for translating, known as the Urim and Thumimm, and then to later supply a lesser system, whose symbolism is tied up in the occult.
5. The flesh based revisionist histories which support its use, suffer from credibility issues.
a. Both Emma Smith’s and David Whitmer’s accounts of the use of the seer stone, with the Hat, were written while both were in apostasy. In fact, one need only read Whitmer’s writing “An Address to All Believers in Christ” in its entirety to recognize his apostate, self-justifying and spiritless state when he shared the account.
b. The stone itself came to the church from those who had been estranged from it, and there is no chain of custody to verify its authenticity.
c. Multiple accounts of Joseph finding and using the “peep stone”, contradict each other and have various differing descriptions of the stone and how it was used.
Just as with the Salamander letter, I believe in a coming day we will know the absolute truth regarding the matter. However, since I already know by direct revelation from God, that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, this current controversy is only important in that is serves as a timely and potent reminder, that the absolute truths with regard to LDS history, can only ever really be known by revelation from God. Fleshed based and flawed histories and stories, (even those support by some physical symbol), without verification from God by his Holy Spirit, are still mere mythology