Grant H. Palmer

Author of An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins, a revisionist history of LDS origins. Kyle’s notes describe Palmer as a fourth-generation Mormon and retired CES (Church Educational System) instructor writing a revisionist account of Mormon origins. In the book Palmer reconstructs Joseph Smith’s translation method and shifting godhead theology, and weighs the testimony of Book of Mormon witnesses (such as David Whitmer) against a fabrication thesis.

Kyle read the book with active disagreement — most of his notes flag a logical gap or historiographical flaw rather than accept Palmer’s conclusions. One thread he singles out is what he calls Palmer’s “grand-conspiracy assumption”: that all the witnesses and inner-circle figures held to a fabrication “despite unending suffering,” a conspiracy theory at scale that, in Kyle’s reading, requires more believing than the alternative.

Where this appears

• An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins — Palmer is the author; the page reads his revisionist case for early-LDS origins against the grain, flagging historiographical flaws.