Mormons

[shocked believer]

As friendly as they may seem, Mormons can be a bit of an annoyance to me, can anybody tell me a little bit more about these men?

[natlegend]

I have read instances of Mormon fathers 'breaking' their infant children by water boarding them under a tap.

http://moronia.us/front/2011/01/witness-says-fundamentalist-polygamists-subject-babies-to-a-form-of-waterboarding/

Sickening.

[jetson]

I have a friend at work who is Mormon.  He does not agree with much of the dogma wrapped in various flavors of Christianity, which he says makes him feel isolated and marginalized as a Christian.  He is aware that his Mormon views do not appear to be any more rational according to mainstream Christianity.  I'm not sure if this is relevant, but when I talk to him about my atheism, he is very understanding, and does not seem to want to heap his beliefs upon me.  He gave me a book to read - and he has said that he would be interested in knowing what I think about the Mormon Faith.

I just can't get myself to actually read it.

[Nick]

They are like the borg and cult like. Seem fake...like Romney.

[shocked believer]

I have a friend at work who is Mormon.  He does not agree with much of the dogma wrapped in various flavors of Christianity, which he says makes him feel isolated and marginalized as a Christian.  He is aware that his Mormon views do not appear to be any more rational according to mainstream Christianity.  I'm not sure if this is relevant, but when I talk to him about my atheism, he is very understanding, and does not seem to want to heap his beliefs upon me.  He gave me a book to read - and he has said that he would be interested in knowing what I think about the Mormon Faith.

I just can't get myself to actually read it.

I too received their book. It's called the Book of Mormon, and I too Don't feel like reading it either

[screwtape]

As friendly as they may seem, Mormons can be a bit of an annoyance to me, can anybody tell me a little bit more about these men?

they are nice on the surface, but underneath, a threat to civilization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Banner_of_Heaven

[inveni0]

Their book is crazier than the Bible.  Jesus lives with God on the planet Kolob.  And blacks are black because of the curse of Cain.

Yeah......Romney's got my vote.  /s

[Nam]

I have actually read The Book of Mormon and this is what I got from it:

1. Black people used to be white people but they sinned against Biblegod and that's why they are black. If they repent and ask forgiveness, Biblegod will turn them white again. 'Cause only white[1] people get into Heaven.

2. All religions/churches[2] are headed by Satan, especially the Catholic church.

3. Women are the pawn of men. They should be submissive, and never wear men's clothing[3].

4. All humans were formerly angels in Heaven. "We" just don't remember, and when we die, we'll be angels, once again.

There's a whole lot more crazy shit, like Jesus was known to Mormons before anyone else knew him, and how Jesus visited the U.S., and some crazy shit about the Native Americans being the descendants of Hebrews[4], and a slew of other stuff. But those 4 things stood out to me.

-Nam

1.	Light vs. Darkness
2.	except LDS
3.	i.e. t-shirts, slacks and the like
4.	though we all know they migrated from Asia

[eye over you]

I have actually read The Book of Mormon and this is what I got from it:

1. Black people used to be white people but they sinned against Biblegod and that's why they are black. If they repent and ask forgiveness, Biblegod will turn them white again. 'Cause only white[1] people get into Heaven.

1.	Light vs. Darkness

    I am a descendant of Mormon pioneers. I was raised in that cult. They actually preached that if a black person was good, they would be able to "serve" white people in heaven. They preached that up until the 50's or 60's. They finally allowed blacks to hold the priesthood in 1978. God likes to keep up with the times, you know.
   My mom likes the Mormon cult better than the Catholic cult because the Mormon one tells her that her dead kitty cats will all be waiting for her in heaven.
   I'm thinking of rejoining the cult so I can be with all the kitty cats I have owned that passed on too. I miss them more than I will ever miss any human I have ever known. 

[natlegend]

^^^ My dead cat[1] is there? Well that's it, I'm a Mormon now.

1.	Soooo... what happens to black cats when they die?

[Nick]

Will helicopter cat be there also?  Nam, from just those 4 things alone these people are bat ass crazy and we are about to have one in the White House.

[stuffin]

   My mom likes the Mormon cult better than the Catholic cult because the Mormon one tells her that her dead kitty cats will all be waiting for her in heaven.

   I'm thinking of rejoining the cult so I can be with all the kitty cats I have owned that passed on too. I miss them more than I will ever miss any human I have ever known. 

Way back in the early to mid 60s I was told in (Catholic) Sunday School that my dog will not be in heaven when I die and go there. I had an 11 year conversation with a nun who couldn't convince me I'd be happy in heaven without my dog. I was devastated!!! I guess this may be where my Atheism began.

Those Mormons sound batshit crazy but at least they their pets into heaven.

[Nick]

How do you know the pet is in heaven.  Spot may be in hell for pooping on the couch, eating the paper, biting the mailman, etc.  Then what are you going to do?  See...not that easy...is it?

[Quesi]

Do the cows that died to make 4th of July hamburgers get to go to heaven too? 

What about the tiny, innocent bacteria who die when I make my daughter take antibiotics?  Do they get a celestial afterlife? 

[stuffin]

How do you know the pet is in heaven.  Spot may be in hell for pooping on the couch, eating the paper, biting the mailman, etc.  Then what are you going to do?  See...not that easy...is it?

Do the cows that died to make 4th of July hamburgers get to go to heaven too? 

What about the tiny, innocent bacteria who die when I make my daughter take antibiotics?  Do they get a celestial afterlife?

Party Poopers! 

[nogodsforme]

Their book is crazier than the Bible.  Jesus lives with God on the planet Kolob.  And blacks are black because of the curse of Cain.

Yeah......Romney's got my vote.  /s

Every religion has crazy stuff in it. The bible seems less crazy than the book of Mormon because people are more familiar with it and hardly anyone has actually read it all. Besides, Mormon crazy is basically an offshoot of Protestant Christian crazy, like Adventists and JW's.

Can you imagine how people in the US would react if Christianity (any version) was introduced as a new religion today? It would be treated like Scientology--which is another good example of "people will believe anything if you call it a religion"....

[eye over you]

Way back in the early to mid 60s I was told in (Catholic) Sunday School that my dog will not be in heaven when I die and go there. I had an 11 year conversation with a nun who couldn't convince me I'd be happy in heaven without my dog. I was devastated!!! I guess this may be where my Atheism began.

    Definite deal-breaker! I can't believe the Catholic god can consider anyplace heaven without our four legged loved ones that helped us get through our brief time on the planet. Booooo!

Will helicopter cat be there also?

    Helicopter kitty will definitely be there. He will have to trade his propellers for kitty angel wings though. Let one kitty have them and they will all want them.

Do the cows that died to make 4th of July hamburgers get to go to heaven too? 

What about the tiny, innocent bacteria who die when I make my daughter take antibiotics?  Do they get a celestial afterlife? 

   I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that only pets go to heaven, not food. I could be wrong though.

[nogodsforme]

We were told, as little JW kids living in the shadows of the Chicago stockyards, that there would be no need to kill animals for food after Armageddon. You know the deal, "death will be no more." Jehovah would give us some kind of non-animal food to eat. Probably a million kinds of tofu. Yech.

We would have to feed the tofu to all the animals of the field and forest. Lions, tigers and bears hunting for tofu. Whales eating tofu by the metric ton. Hyenas knawing on the tofu carcasses left by the lions. Even tapeworms and mosquitoes would eat the tofu. Dude. New age vegan hippies couldn't think up a scenario this bad.

Now, since JW's are notoriously bad at basic science, they could not explain how plants would grow without organic material in the soil. Or how our bodies would regenerate without cells dying, or if we would have hair or fingernails. Or what we would look like all covered with mountains of eternally living bacteria.

[eye over you]

Or how our bodies would regenerate without cells dying, or if we would have hair or fingernails. Or what we would look like all covered with mountains of eternally living bacteria.

    Mormons believe that when you get to heaven, your body will be as it was on Earth, only perfect. I always asked about that as a little kid. My body at what age??? Will I have 6 pack abs? etc. Mormons don't believe in being cremated either. I guess it's a little tricky in heaven to put a cremated body back together. It couldn't be much harder than one that is decomposed, or one that was vaporized by a bomb in one the Earthly wars.

[Ivellios]

About all I know about the Mormons comes from the movie: The God Makers. Somehow I have ended up with a Book of Mormon, and I almost opened it up to read, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

When I was being raised Catholic, I was told Mass was practice for Heaven and we'd be doing that forever. I wasn't even ten yet and I told my mother, "I'd rather go to Hell." Freaked her out, it did.

[Nick]

Or how our bodies would regenerate without cells dying, or if we would have hair or fingernails. Or what we would look like all covered with mountains of eternally living bacteria.

    Mormons believe that when you get to heaven, your body will be as it was on Earth, only perfect. I always asked about that as a little kid. My body at what age??? Will I have 6 pack abs? etc. Mormons don't believe in being cremated either. I guess it's a little tricky in heaven to put a cremated body back together. It couldn't be much harder than one that is decomposed, or one that was vaporized by a bomb in one the Earthly wars.

They do that thing on Star Trek where you beam out and in.  Looks pretty easy to me.

[flapdoodle64]

As another poster pointed out, Krakauer's great book 'Under the Banner of Heaven,' is an excellent source, not just to understand the Mormon thing, but religion in general.  I'm sort of spoiling it here, but Krakauer uses the LDS Church as a case study in the way religions are actually invented because the LDS was invented in a time and place where records were kept and there were journalists, historians, etc. 

Anybody on this forum, including the lurkers, who have not read this book need to get off their duffs and read it.  Actually, I guess you get on your duff when you do the actual reading. 

He gets to the heart of the whole deal with the Abrahamic religions.  Hint: all the Abrahamic religions are batshit crazy! JWVH inspires murder and worse! The Bible could have been written by Richard Matheson!

IMO, the 'moderate' or 'mainstream' Xians don't call out Mormon or Jehovah's Witness or 7th Day Adventist silliness much is because they secretly know they are all standing in glass houses. 

As another poster pointed out, if a person were raised a religion free environment, Mormonism wouldn't look much different from any of the other Abrahamic religions. 

Anecdotally, most of the Mormons I've met are nice.  They do cover up their own problems, there's a lot of secret alcoholism and family abuse, but they have these 'social services' via their temples...to the outsider, it looks like 'oh how nice, they are taking care of each other!' and maybe that's part of it...but another part is they like to keep outsiders away.  Therefore the elders cover it up and don't report to the law when there is rape or child molesting or stuff of that magnitude. 

[Nick]

As another poster pointed out, Krakauer's great book 'Under the Banner of Heaven,' is an excellent source, not just to understand the Mormon thing, but religion in general.  I'm sort of spoiling it here, but Krakauer uses the LDS Church as a case study in the way religions are actually invented because the LDS was invented in a time and place where records were kept and there were journalists, historians, etc. 

Anybody on this forum, including the lurkers, who have not read this book need to get off their duffs and read it.  Actually, I guess you get on your duff when you do the actual reading. 

He gets to the heart of the whole deal with the Abrahamic religions.  Hint: all the Abrahamic religions are batshit crazy! JWVH inspires murder and worse! The Bible could have been written by Richard Matheson!

IMO, the 'moderate' or 'mainstream' Xians don't call out Mormon or Jehovah's Witness or 7th Day Adventist silliness much is because they secretly know they are all standing in glass houses. 

As another poster pointed out, if a person were raised a religion free environment, Mormonism wouldn't look much different from any of the other Abrahamic religions. 

Anecdotally, most of the Mormons I've met are nice.  They do cover up their own problems, there's a lot of secret alcoholism and family abuse, but they have these 'social services' via their temples...to the outsider, it looks like 'oh how nice, they are taking care of each other!' and maybe that's part of it...but another part is they like to keep outsiders away.  Therefore the elders cover it up and don't report to the law when there is rape or child molesting or stuff of that magnitude.

Sounds like a cult to me.

[Ivellios]

The only thing that seperates a cult and a mainstream religion is the percent of the populace that follows it. I've read the list that Protestant Christians put out on the Characteristics on what makes a cult a cult. Goin gby that, you can put any religion under it, Catholicism and every other. They just don't see thier cult in there because of Speacial Pleading, ie. we're special snowflakes, not regular ones.