Is it true that Joseph Smith & Brigham Young both taught that there were people living on the moon?

no it's not true that they both taught this.

it is apparently true that BY spoke about this (and possibly JS also - records are third hand and after he had died so it's sketchy @best), and that he along with MANY other people of all religions and places may have believed this to be a possibility. prophets (and believers) are products of their time. ie: biblical authors clearly accepted a geocentric (earth centered) cosmos, with a flat earth and heavens supported by four pillars.

God works with man as he is @any given point in the space/time continuum.

you should look @the 1835 (same time period) hoax involving richard locke and john herschel.....

the merely reason some human beings imagine the FLDS are in route of the unique teachings of Joseph Smith and Brigham youthful is as a results of at least one ingredient: the FLDS nevertheless prepare polygamy. have self belief it or not, there are quite a few different doctrines that were taught by the unique LDS church, which at the instant are not taught or practiced by the FLDS. the foremost large difference between both is that the FLDS forsook the tips of a residing prophet (Wilford Woodruff). and also you'll see the outcomes immediately of that action.

Brigham Young and John Taylor (another Mormon prophet) both taught this, Joseph Smith may have as well but the source is a bit more sketchy on that one.

No, not as official Mormon doctrine. many people of the day speculated some interesting things, but inside Christianity and out. Fun speculation of the day, but it was not Mormon doctrine.

Just for comparison, there are those in this 21st Century that still think the earth is flat....members of the Flat Earth Society.

Someone makes up a story about a band of Jews who travel to the Americas in a boat with no windows..... and you're wondering about statements of people living on the moon (and also the sun-Young's idea) is a bit off? And alluded to by those very same authors?

Sheesh.

No. Of course there weren't people on the moon. We don't teach that.

The actual rumor that's going around (one of them, anyway) is that we believe there are Quakers on the moon (sometimes it's the sun). Does that even make sense? If we were going to believe there were people on the moon, wouldn't they be Mormons? Why Quakers?

Whoever came up with this one was smoking something. I really don't care if people speak badly of my faith, but this one's just stupid.

Both of them preached many outrageous well documented concepts to my ancestors - including racism, polygamy, the Garden of Eden in Missouri, men becoming gods.

My ancestors listened, prayed about it, and God told them that these men spoke as living prophets, exactly like today's Mormons listen and pray about their prophets.

Apparently, when God tells you a man is speaking as a prophet, God isn't very reliable.

nah.

but they talked about it...it was a pretty popular belief during that time.