I never like to knock other people's beliefs but... I was reading about the origins of the Mormons' holy book and it made me chuckle. Here's an extract (for the full article by Christopher Hitchens visit
http://slate.com/id/2165033 ):
"In brief, Joseph Smith announced that he had been visited by an angel named Moroni. The angel informed him of a book, "written upon gold plates".... There were, further, two magic stones that would enable Smith himself to translate the book. He brought them home with him, about 18 months after a conviction for fraud, and set about producing a translation.
"The resulting "books" turned out to be a record set down by ancient prophets... Smith refused to show the golden plates to anybody, claiming that for other eyes to view them would mean death. But he encountered a problem... he could not write. A scribe was therefore necessary. This scribe was at first his wife Emma and then a luckless neighbor named Martin Harris.
"Harris mortgaged his farm to help in the task and moved in with the Smiths. He sat on one side of a blanket hung across the kitchen, and Smith sat on the other, intoning through the blanket. Harris was warned that if he tried to glimpse the plates, or look at the prophet, he would be struck dead.
Mrs. Harris was having none of this, and was already furious with her husband. She stole the first 116 pages and challenged Smith to reproduce them, as presumably�given his power of revelation�he could. After a few weeks, the ingenious Smith countered with another revelation. He could not replicate the original, which might be in the devil's hands by now. But the Lord had meanwhile furnished some smaller plates which told a fairly similar tale. With infinite labor, the translation was resumed... and when it was completed all the original golden plates were transported to heaven."