S/O Mormonism... I just don't get it...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All religions have bizarre narratives--it's what you are used to.

Judaism: burning bushes, tablets from God, a man who almost sacrifices his own child because God told him to. Don't forget the circumcision business, too. It's weird.

Christianity: Macabre. A father--omnipotent, omniscient-- allows his son to die a torturous death--he's nailed to wood. Uh huh, exactly.

Your point is?

Really? You don't get the point?

My point is that a lot of people--not just Mormons--have "drunk the Kool Aid," as OP worded it. All these religions have bizarre narratives, but we are accustomed primarily to the Jewish and Christian ones to the point where we don't see how strange they are.

All adults should take a college level religion course. It is eye-opening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All religions have bizarre narratives--it's what you are used to.

Judaism: burning bushes, tablets from God, a man who almost sacrifices his own child because God told him to. Don't forget the circumcision business, too. It's weird.

Christianity: Macabre. A father--omnipotent, omniscient-- allows his son to die a torturous death--he's nailed to wood. Uh huh, exactly.

Your point is?

Really? You don't get the point?

My point is that a lot of people--not just Mormons--have "drunk the Kool Aid," as OP worded it. All these religions have bizarre narratives, but we are accustomed primarily to the Jewish and Christian ones to the point where we don't see how strange they are.

All adults should take a college level religion course. It is eye-opening.

Of course all religions require some suspension of disbelief. And I don't think anyone is unaware of how odd and improbable the whole virgin birth thing is. But Mormonism requires this and so much more - the whole Jews=native americans thing, the whole magical tablets found by this convicted fraudster and so on. Even thinking about it for a second it is obviously ludicrous. The same cannot be said for Islam or Buddhism. Only Scientology can rival it for sheer obvious fraudulence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All religions have bizarre narratives--it's what you are used to.

Judaism: burning bushes, tablets from God, a man who almost sacrifices his own child because God told him to. Don't forget the circumcision business, too. It's weird.

Christianity: Macabre. A father--omnipotent, omniscient-- allows his son to die a torturous death--he's nailed to wood. Uh huh, exactly.

Your point is?

Really? You don't get the point?

My point is that a lot of people--not just Mormons--have "drunk the Kool Aid," as OP worded it. All these religions have bizarre narratives, but we are accustomed primarily to the Jewish and Christian ones to the point where we don't see how strange they are.

All adults should take a college level religion course. It is eye-opening.

Of course all religions require some suspension of disbelief. And I don't think anyone is unaware of how odd and improbable the whole virgin birth thing is. But Mormonism requires this and so much more - the whole Jews=native americans thing, the whole magical tablets found by this convicted fraudster and so on. Even thinking about it for a second it is obviously ludicrous. The same cannot be said for Islam or Buddhism. Only Scientology can rival it for sheer obvious fraudulence.

Mormonism is not any more ludicrous than the others. If you actually read the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, there are a lot of bizarre and horrifically violent stories in there that most Jews and Christians reason away or conveniently forget about. BTW, not all Mormons believe all of the Book as literal--just as Jews and Christians don't.

[Anonymous]

From my perspective, Christianity seems as much of a cult as Mormonism, it's just been around a lot longer. Christianity 2000 years ago was a cult of personality - that of Jesus. Same with Mormonism in the 1800s - a cult of personality of John Smith. I am actually fascinated by both, and how they managed to "stick" when other cults don't survive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All religions have bizarre narratives--it's what you are used to.

Judaism: burning bushes, tablets from God, a man who almost sacrifices his own child because God told him to. Don't forget the circumcision business, too. It's weird.

Christianity: Macabre. A father--omnipotent, omniscient-- allows his son to die a torturous death--he's nailed to wood. Uh huh, exactly.

Your point is?

Really? You don't get the point?

My point is that a lot of people--not just Mormons--have "drunk the Kool Aid," as OP worded it. All these religions have bizarre narratives, but we are accustomed primarily to the Jewish and Christian ones to the point where we don't see how strange they are.

All adults should take a college level religion course. It is eye-opening.

Of course all religions require some suspension of disbelief. And I don't think anyone is unaware of how odd and improbable the whole virgin birth thing is. But Mormonism requires this and so much more - the whole Jews=native americans thing, the whole magical tablets found by this convicted fraudster and so on. Even thinking about it for a second it is obviously ludicrous. The same cannot be said for Islam or Buddhism. Only Scientology can rival it for sheer obvious fraudulence.

Mormonism is not any more ludicrous than the others. If you actually read the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, there are a lot of bizarre and horrifically violent stories in there that most Jews and Christians reason away or conveniently forget about. BTW, not all Mormons believe all of the Book as literal--just as Jews and Christians don't.

Absolutely.
Come on, people: woman being created out of the rib of man 5000 years ago, oil magically burning a lot longer than it should (well ok, could have been a different fuel), virgin birth, original sin, walking on water, etc. etc. and this relentless drive to impose the edicts of their imaginary friends on those of us who could care less.
And then they complain that their religions are under attack. No, it's not the religion that's under attack. I don't care what you believe as long as you keep it to yourself. It's your insistence on forcing your views on me and my life that is justfiably being rejected.

[Anonymous]

If you think Mormonism is ridiculous, please read the entire Christian bible and check back in with us.

[Anonymous]

I don't think that many "smart" Mormons actually believe what they are told in church, but it is a social club with perks for members. It's a community that once you walk away from, you aren't welcome in it any longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think that many "smart" Mormons actually believe what they are told in church, but it is a social club with perks for members. It's a community that once you walk away from, you aren't welcome in it any longer.

Agreed, there are social Mormons, and out in Utah it's a cultural way of life much like Judaism is a cultural way of life in Israel and in parts of several large US cities (incl. parts of MoCo).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a nasty post, OP. Are you a bigot about every religion you don't "get" or are you just bringing this up because there are a couple of possible republican presidential candidates who are mormon? I happen to be a liberal democrat and whichever your reason, I'm appalled.

Oh get over yourself.

1. If people believe a bunch of ludicrous stuff then other people are inevitably going to question it.
2. This Church's beliefs has real-world impacts. For example they played a significant role in the battle against same-sex marriage in California and elsewhere. So they aren't some quiet little religion minding their own business. They are taking their bat-shit crazy nonsense out into the public sphere, and they deserved to be called out on their bullshit.

Yeah, but it is interesting how acceptable it is to bash Mormons over, say, Catholics. I raise the same question about Catholics and am eviserated on here, probably because there are way more Catholics on this site than Mormons (an interesting commentary on the influence of the religions on people's senses of morality given the behavior on here, eh?).

So, I'll say this...Catholicism...I just don't get it, especially for the women.

[Anonymous]

Catholics believe bread turns into flesh and wine into blood...well, that is if a celibate male priest utters the correct words over it and blesses it.

They have "magic water," (aka holy water) that they smear on themselves.

They self-flaggellate, believe the Virgin Mary or God or Jesus occasionally shows up in cracks in walls, makes statues cry, and otherwise "visits" us.

The all male priests (who by the way are prohibited from masturbating, like everyone else) "saint" people, like John Paul who they've fast tracked.

Now watch me be called a bigot. I know I will be, because I have been before. But you are all being just as flippant as dismissive of the Mormons.

[Anonymous]

Mormons feel bashed because of their martyr culture. Kids are raised on the mormon origin stories which include a lot of gory details about tarring and feathering and being kicked out of this town or that.

There are a lot of very weird things about the mormon church.
1. Baptism for the dead - converting people to the mormon faith after they have already died (lots of American presidents and other famous people are included in this number)
2. Polygamy after death - while polygamy in this world was given up out of political necessity, mormon men will still have LOTS of wives in the next world
3. Polytheism - while mormons believe that our world only has one god, they believe that there are millions of other worlds out there each with their own god.
4. Afterlife - mormons believe that this world is just a test to see which men live virtuous enough lives to become gods of their own worlds after the final judgement.
5. Women - blessed with motherhood and eternal pregnancy

This isn't mormon bashing, its just the plain truth about the church's teachings. I'm sure that while both Romney and Huntsman are active mormons, they don't believe that they will become God of their own worlds some day. Both seem pretty content making their millions in this life.

[Anonymous]

Isn't there a certain necessity that religion have unbelievable and hocus-pocus type teachings. How much faith would be involved in something completely logical and provable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, it is just that the Mormon story seems so much more far fetched than some other religious "stories". This dude, Joseph Smith was led to these golden plates by the angel Mornoni and the ONLY witnesses to these plates existence are Joseph's father, brothers and brothers in law....and let's not even get started on the crazy shit in the book of Mormon, like how Indians and Africans were "cursed" with a dark skin, because being white is clearly better (for any religion started in the US pre Civil war)

Others have addressed this, but it's tough to get more "far-fetched" than mainstream Christianity. Parting the Red Sea, turning water into wine, transubstantiation (for Catholics), just to name a few. Point being, all religion requires suspension of disbelief and faith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All religions have bizarre narratives--it's what you are used to.

Judaism: burning bushes, tablets from God, a man who almost sacrifices his own child because God told him to. Don't forget the circumcision business, too. It's weird.

Christianity: Macabre. A father--omnipotent, omniscient-- allows his son to die a torturous death--he's nailed to wood. Uh huh, exactly.

Your point is?

Really? You don't get the point?

My point is that a lot of people--not just Mormons--have "drunk the Kool Aid," as OP worded it. All these religions have bizarre narratives, but we are accustomed primarily to the Jewish and Christian ones to the point where we don't see how strange they are.

All adults should take a college level religion course. It is eye-opening.

that is idiotic. your example is the worst one out of the new testament, because Jesus was nailed to a cross and died a torturous death. that is a historical fact that all historians accept. the Romans would routinely crucify their prisoners when they wanted to make a point. and unlike most other religions, Jesus wasn't in it for the chicks or the money - clearly the motivating factors for Joseph Smith. Yes, all religions have faith based angles that require you to suspend disbelief, but Mormonisn takes it a step too far with assertions in their book that go beyond faith are are completely factually impossible.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Christian. I'm not Catholic and have nothing against Catholicism, but I've posted many times before and will continue to do so about my issues with cafeteria Catholics. You are either Catholic or you are not. You either agree with church doctrine or you don't.

Mormonism is a cult.