I know this is old but Mr Pengelly is spouting his inaccuracies all over the web and I feel the need to set the record straight. He includes now that Joseph Smith had access to the CD's as well. He states that the gold and brass plates were actually the cd's he refers to. Here is some accurate information.
Joseph smith found the gold colored plates in 1827 buried in a box.
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.js...00176f620a____ - A rendering of what the gold plates looked like and descriptions from Joseph Smith and others. In short:
The plates were approximately 7" x 8" (as compared to a jewel cases 4 7/8" x 5 1/2") and as thin as a piece of tin Too large to have been either cd or jewel case)
The weight of all the gold plates was estimated to be between 40 and 60 pounds (far more than the cd's would have weighed)
They were bound together like the pages of a book with 3 holes in the edges of each page and 3 metal rings used to secure th3 pages together.
There were fine, engravings on both sides that were stained with a black hard stain to make the letters more ledgeble
The writing on the plates was from right to left, similar to Hebrew writing.
Joseph Smith—History 1 - Plates found in stone box buried below the ground. Smith translates the plates (Passage 62)
http://jesuschrist.lds.org/josephsmi...001f5e340aRCRD - Joseph Smith translates the gold plates.
Since Joseph Smith was born and raised in America, cd's with English printing on them would not have required translation
The Voree Plates - Mormon scriptures - brass plates - James Strang finds the three brass plates in 1845, the year after Joseph Smith dies (Smith never had possession of the brass plates)
Earliest facsimile of the brass plates (1845 - Same year as discovery)
Description of the plates: "Other descriptions of the plates were minute, as the account of one stranger who described the plates in the Gospel Herald, 23 September 1847, as "three small pieces of brass about 2 1/2 inches long by 1 1/4 inches wide, and about the thickness of a piece of tin, fastened together at one corner by a ring passing through them" (Far too small to be either the cd or jewel cases).
The plates were 3 in number (as opposed to 1 in a jewel case)
The above links and information contained therein are more than enough to refute the claims that the plates supposedly possessed by Joseph Smith were computer cd-roms brought back from the future.
