Neal A. Maxwell
"Granted, the great answers in the Restoration scriptures will not now be accepted by disbelievers. Such would not believe the Lord’s words—whether coming through Paul or Joseph Smith—even if they had an original Pauline parchment or direct access to the gold plates. Referring principally to those plates, the Lord once comforted Joseph Smith by saying that such individuals would ’not believe my words… if… [shown] all these things’ (D&C 5:7).
"Usually the ’learned shall not read [these things], for they have rejected them’ (2 Nephi 27:20). The reference suggests a mind-set of many of the learned of the world, who, by and large, if they know of it do not take the Book of Mormon seriously. Even when they read it, it is with a mind-set which excludes miracles, including the miracle of the book‘s coming forth by the ’gift and power of God.’ Their flawed approach diverts them from scrutinizing the substance. Sometimes, as has been said, certain mortals are ‘so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out’ of their mind-sets.
“Obviously those with the anti-miracle mind-set discount the Book of Mormon because they cannot see the plates from which it was translated. Furthermore, some say, we do not know enough about the actual process of translation. But Moroni’s inspired promise (Moroni 10:3-4) concerns reading and praying over the book’s substance-not over the process of its production…The reverse approach, scanning while doubting, is the flip side of Moroni’s methodology, and it produces flippant conclusions.” (Not My Will, But Thine, p. 24-25)