OK I feel like I gotta post on this topic because I probably have the most experience on this topic on this board.
You see, I am an ex-mormon and for a short time I used to actually believe that crap (when I was young and naive).
For those of you who don't know the story, I'll try to paraphrase it for you but I gotta keep it short because it's really messed up and I've been through that phase and it wasn't pretty. Well here's the story, children's fable, whatever.
Joseph Smith (the main "dude" and prophet and actually founder of the religion) in the 1800's supposedly had God and Jesus appear to him in some forest in NY or Illinois (I forget which). Basically noone was with him so it makes it easy to tell. Before he started polygamy and stealing of other members wives (another "vision" of course), the pre-church history of Joseph involves him being thrown in jail for selling a "gold finding device" but like lots of things these records have been covered up by the church....but I digress.
In the vision, God (yeah the same old testament Jehovah, yaweh, tribal "jealous" war-god that told people to kill their sons to "test" their faith) told Joseph all the religions were wrong and to start his own. Visions told him where to find some buried gold plates in Illinois and so he found them, and some other church founder was given a "gift" for being able to read them through some device (u can't make this stuff up)...and this was an Alternate History of South America. Of course, the "plates" were never found and there's some BS story where god "took them up" or something.
OK, I have read this crap cover to cover in my youth. Bottom Line: The Book of Mormon is a chronicle of how people came from Israel or thereabouts on some boat god made them make (noah again) and one of the brothers became "evil" and so god made his skin dark...so you get Lamanites (evil dark skinned indians...just like everyone knew indians were evil in the 1800s). It then goes on to chronicle CONSTANT wars, condoned by god, between the GOOD GUYS and the BAD GUYS ad nauseum... As soon as the good guys get a little bit bad....they get their ASSES KICKED by their enemies. This is the message, lovely as it is, and I dare any mormon to say otherwise, if they do, they are ignoring their subconscious....hell, they are ignoring the text. Well after all these constant wars there is only one good guy left, (white of course) and because all his "brethren" (vomit) were bad guys they got wiped by the dark skinned heathen. Well this one guy of course was instructed to bury the plates which were the diaries of his people.
Just like the bible (which mormons also believe in, along with things like "baptism for the dead"..wearing "temple undergarments" and using them to identify the "good" mormons who gave 10% (the critical thing here) ...there is ZERO archaeological or historical evidence for these claims. Another thing on the undergarments, I lived in Utah and I heard from people in the know that if you got these on (not sure how they are visible)...you have a shoe in at most any important job interview in the state.
Some facts before I get sick from pondering the stupidity of organized religion and the sheer horror of imagining people believing this story.
1. Mormons did NOT allow blacks into the church until around the 1970s, when (you guessed it) some church leader had a vision from god telling him to do so. In fact, there are official writings (hushed up somewhat) that state that god marked Cain (the evil one) by making him black.
2. Yes they practiced polygamy and yes some (not officially condoned) still do today, in fact Joseph made some early followers give them his wife and daughters because "god" told him to do so.
3. I don't know about other "christian" religions, but I grew up mormon for a short while until I managed to free myself...but bottom line is, if you aint a baptised and 10% giving mormon you ain't going to heaven. That's a law. And the ones who get to be in the worst depths of hell (sorta like living in utah) are the ones like me who rejected the faith. I'm happily looking forward, "my friends are gonna be there too" Bon Scott.
4. OK not a fact but an amazing experience of mine: at one "sunday service" there was a death announcement followed by a speech. Not much was said about the giving, loving nature of the deceased, but only one form of giving was paramount...a relative said that the deceased requested to give a full back-log of their 10% $$, and wanted to repent for not having ponied up recently, before they died. The family was in tears about this, going on and on (as were other subsequent speakers) that now they are assured a spot in heaven. I learned nothing about the personality of the person.
I lived in Utah for a few years, and I don't know if any of you are sensitive to this, but there is a wavelength to the air when you live among fascists. There's about 2 black people in the state and they are always planning on getting the heck out next month. A good example: the only hardcore mormon next-door neighbor I had, the little couple would come over and bang on my door, not say anything just bang on it whenever I had more than 3 friends over and was listening to music, or playing music. I'm NOT talking anywhere near loud volumes. One time I went to the store (not to buy beer, you can't) and came back to find pissed-off petty tyrant little cops at my door. They proceeded to handcuff me and take me to jail "disturbing the peace". Neighbors came out that I didn't know and one of them supported me, saying they had problems with the same mormon neighbors in the past, calling them names, it was a scene. But it was a blessing in disguise, you see, once the tyrants show their faces, intelligent people start questioning reality.
OK I'm done, that's all I can stomach right now.
Here's a link on Romney's mormonism...Youtube censored the video. Youtube also promotes Mormon Propoganda videos as "promoted video" on the list whenever I watch an Advaita / Eastern Philosophy vid. Puke.
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2008/01/r ... rmons.html
