Is faith the answer to cognitive dissonance?

Faith writes:... you seem to have fallen for the EvC debunkery bit that says witness evidence isn't evidence.

They think they want to see the wounds that Thomas saw? Why don't they just believe that Thomas saw them? They think they want to see the Red Sea part? Why not just believe Moses and all those who experienced it?

The Bible is clear that multiple witnesses are required to validate any claim -- ABE: well, not any, but extraordinary claims such as the Bible makes /ABE -- as I said, and the Bible provides them abundantly. Both Mohammed and Joseph Smith have no other witnesses than themselves.

ABE: Plus character witnesses against them.

Despite the rather lucid description given by these men, it appears that their familiarity with the plates is not as it first appears. Did the witnesses actually see physical plates with their naked eyes? Or was this some sort of mystical experience that involved seeing an object that was not really there?According to the History of the Church (1:52), Smith stated,In the course of the work of translation, we ascertained that three special witnesses were to be provided by the Lord, to whom He would grant that they should see the plates from which this work (the Book of Mormon) should be translated; and that these witnesses should bear record of the same, as will be found recorded, Book of Mormon, page 581 [Book of Ether, chapter 5, verses 2, 3 and 4, p. 487, edition 1920], also page 86 [2 Nephi, chapter 11, verse 3, p. 73, edition 1920].As a result, he obtained a revelation from the Lord that can be found in The Doctrine and Covenants 17. It reads:1 Behold, I say unto you, that you must rely upon my word, which if you do with full purpose of heart, you shall have a view of the plates, and also of the breastplate, the sword of Laban, the Urim and Thummim, which were given to the brother of Jared upon the mount, when he talked with the Lord face to face, and the miraculous directors which were given to Lehi while in the wilderness, on the borders of the Red Sea.2 And it is by your faith that you shall obtain a view of them, even by that faith which was had by the prophets of old.3 And after that you have obtained faith, and have seen them with your eyes, you shall testify of them, by the power of God;4 And this you shall do that my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., may not be destroyed, that I may bring about my righteous purposes unto the children of men in this work.5 And ye shall testify that you have seen them, even as my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., has seen them; for it is by my power that he has seen them, and it is because he had faith.Reading these passages, one can’t help but notice that the only way the three men would see the plates at all is if they had faith. While it seems clear that faith was a prerequisite to be allowed to see the plates, can we not also conclude that seeing the plates also took an act of faith? Smith continued his narrative on 54:Not many days after the above commandment was given, we four, viz., Martin Harris, David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery and myself, agreed to retire into the woods, and try to obtain, by fervent and humble prayer, the fulfilment of the promises given in the above revelation-that they should have a view of the plates. We accordingly made choice of a piece of woods convenient to Mr. Whitmer's house, to which we retired, and having knelt down, we began to pray in much faith to Almighty God to bestow upon us a realization of these promises.According to previous arrangement, I commenced prayer to our Heavenly Father, and was followed by each of the others in succession. We did not at the first trial, however, obtain any answer or manifestation of divine favor in our behalf. We again observed the same order of prayer, each calling on and praying fervently to God in rotation, but with the same result as before.Upon this, our second failure, Martin Harris proposed that he should withdraw himself from us, believing, as he expressed himself, that his presence was the cause of our not obtaining what we wished for. He accordingly with drew from us, and we knelt down again, and had not been many minutes engaged in prayer, when presently we beheld a light above us in the air, of exceeding brightness; and behold, an angel stood before us. In his hands he held the plates which we had been praying for these to have a view of. He turned over the leaves one by one, so that we could see them, and discern the engravings theron distinctly.Praying to see the gold plates out in the woods seems rather odd. After all, Smith had already commenced translating the plates. Why not just allow the three men to see the gold record at that location? Why was prayer necessary to see the plates if they were in fact, tangible? Harris’ behavior also seems strange if the plates actually existed. How would his doubt be a detriment to seeing a physical object?

All stories I've read about Joseph Smith's finding of the golden tablets have him finding them alone. You produce a document about eleven witnesses but we know they weren't there at the time of the finding and if you just read that document it's highly doubtful that any of them truly saw the tablets anyway.

The Bible is clear that multiple witnesses are required to validate any claim

That's simply the situation with historical events. You have to decide whom to trust about those events and put your trust in their witness accounts. {ABE: Their accounts ARE evidence.

I would say that their accounts are testimony. If we compare the testimony to any physical evidence that is available we can make a judgement as to it's veracity. If there is no physical evidence and all that you have is the testimony (translated many times) then it is prudent to determine that you can not know for sure.

However, things like physical laws are evidence that some things could not have happened as reported.

For example, the walls of Jericho were not felled by trumpets. It is a physical impossibility. This is strong evidence that the testimony is not accurate.

Oh but they were eyewitnesses, all the writers of the New Testament except Luke and Paul were eyewitnesses of the events of Jesus' life, and Luke had contacts among all the eyewitnesses and had studied all their claims, and Paul was illuminated by Jesus Himself from heaven.
Nobody says Moses literally scribed all of the Torah, only that the books ascribed to him covered his time, and he probably did write most of it, and we assume he had either oral or written records to work from.