Compare Mormons v.Mainstream Xianity
Offline Love the site, & am encouraged to see a collection of folks, like yourselves, doing such a good job in defending rationality.
Here's a point that may have already been addressed, but I'm struck by the similarities between the Mormon's advance from a whacked out persecuted cult to a mainstream, and admired Christian sect. All this was done within well recorded modern history.
Joseph Smith had all the trappings of a charlatan. His ridiculous storyabout digging up golden plates with the story of an ancient migration from Isreal to the America's is total comic book.
The Smith fairy tale appealed to the fringe elements. Their belief outraged their neighbors, created a martyr with the murder of Smith & made them to flee to Utah. Nevertheless, in 2007 Mitt Romney, a committed Mormon, the Governor of Massachusets, is a serious candidate for the presidency.
How did they do this?
They did it like the early Christian Church slowly became the dominant religous/political force in its day, They seperated themselves from their contemporaries, the Christians in the catacombs, the Mormans in Salt Lake City. They both survived persecution, took care of each other, dropped
practices that seriously clashed with society (polygamy, overt racism?), became model citizens, & EVANGELIZED.
The Mormon history presents a well documented model of how an irrational set of beliefs can gain currency in the face of facts, There is no archeological, anthropological, or biological trace of an ancient Jewish incursion into the Americas. It's all hogwash, & the Mormon Church will go to extraordinary means to hide/downplay it's fairy tale origin. & silence any internal disension. Sound familar?
I think that drawing such a comparison can point out to today's Christians, who claim that the success of Christianity proves that it is directed by a living, active god, the gullability of people for a good if ridiculous story.
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Welcome Jim052.
When you get a chance, we'd love it if you'd hop over to General Conversation, Introductions and Humor and introduce yourself.
As for Joseph Smith, yup, he was a snake oil salesman of the worst kind. He must have been quite the salesman, though, because he got folks to buy into his tall tale.
What really fries me is that the Mormon church is big on family history and they try to hide anything that contradicts church fairy tales.
An excellent example is detailed in the book The Mormon Murders A True Story of Greed, Forgery, Deceit, and Death by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith. It's the story of a forger who created several documents that, if true, would shake the Mormon church to the core. The documents were validated (they were excellent forgeries) and guess who bought them and hid them in the vault so no one could see them. Yup, the Mormon church.
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I wonder how long before a scientologist has a credible shot at the presidency. I fear it will be sooner than an atheist does.
christians who wish not to accept mormons into their club have a ready excuse for that (including one contributor here, whose not-so-sweet name I won't mention). christianity's rapid spread proves beyond any doubt that it is the true faith. mormonism's (or islam's, or scientology's or whatever's) rapid spread proves beyond any doubt that it is a "false prophecy".
There are no theists on operating tables.
I wonder if Mitt wears the special Mormon underwear? I like to think of it as "God's Kevlar"
I recall reading somewhere that Joseph Smith had been convicted of fraud and spent time in prison, having been released shortly before he came up with his mormon con.
"Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society." Thomas Jefferson
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