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Is Mormonism any less true or sillier than other religions?

Travis

Misanthrope of the Mountains
Travis
Joined
Mar 31, 2007
Messages
24,133
I admit, as someone who was raised in the LDS church, that it strikes me as weird that so many people regard Mormonism as more weird than other religions.

I just don't see it. I really don't get why the garments are something to snicker about but transubstantiation, special facial hair grooming requirements or reincarnation are not.

Am I insane? What is your opinion?
 
No more or less silly, but invented more recently so it doesn't have the veneer of tradition to coat the silliness with.
 
I think it's just the fact that it had its origins in an era where people were much more literate than in ancient times. Of course, literacy rates today are even higher and people still believe in plenty of weird things. Being able to read doesn't protect you from believing in woo.

Steve S
 
It strikes me as silly. Bu then again, I grew up hearing bits on TV such as:

"The story of Mr. Canoehead is so incredible that only Mormons would believe it."

or

"How do I know you're the -real- Joseph Smith?"
"Simple. You're a Mormon- you'll believe anything."
 
Well, roughly speaking, doesn't Mormonism require a belief in the Old Testament and the New Testament, plus the Book of Mormon? In one sense, that makes it less true than mainline Christianity in that it asserts not only the claims that other Christian faiths do, but also some additional counter-historical facts.
 
godless dave said:
No more or less silly, but invented more recently so it doesn't have the veneer of tradition to coat the silliness with.
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Exactly. Similar thing with Scientology.

Plus with Mormonism you have the Book of Mormon, with all those "and it came to pass..." occurrences. :D
 
Travis said:
I admit, as someone who was raised in the LDS church, that it strikes me as weird that so many people regard Mormonism as more weird than other religions.
Click to expand...

I don't know why either, but that's the way it is. I was at friends wedding in the Cardston Temple a few years back. She asked me if I would stay in the waiting room with a group of catholic friends of hers who were there for the reception while she and the groom went through the ceremony inside.

As we were waiting, I cautioned them that at mormon wedding receptions it is considered taboo and deeply offensive for outsiders to ask questions about the squeegee and the flyswatter, they looked at me as if I was on drugs. When they asked how much longer it would take and I told them that the lights hadn't dimmed so that meant they had not reached the Chamber of Purification, they nearly bolted for the door.

Some people are just like that. They are stuck in their own worlds and can't see outside them, I guess.
 
Travis said:
I admit, as someone who was raised in the LDS church, that it strikes me as weird that so many people regard Mormonism as more weird than other religions.

I just don't see it. I really don't get why the garments are something to snicker about but transubstantiation, special facial hair grooming requirements or reincarnation are not.

Am I insane? What is your opinion?
Click to expand...
I had a friend who was a Jewish captain of the Alameda police force in CA named captain Jack Fink. He was an atheist like me and whenever he heard someone put the the LDS down he said "well I don't believe Moses walked up some mountain and had some god hand him the ten commandments". "When it comes to religion I don't believe in any of it so why single the Mormons out fro ridicule"?

I feel the gentleman was right. Its all equally absurd.
 
I think the more recent the more absurd. You get brainwashed from toddlerhood with your families religion. But to choose to believe Mr Smith, and even more bizarre Mr Hubbard in this day and age seems very strange!
 
I think there are probably degrees of silly, but it's based on a person's perspective of course.

If I had two people standing before me ... both claiming to be able to perform magic .... one of them dressed in a tux, the other like a wizard with a stuffed owl on his shoulder, I would probably think that the wizard was more silly.

On the other hand, if I was at a renaissance festival, I wouldn't perhaps find the wizard silly, but the tux guy would seem out of place.

Likewise, if someone said they could turn me into a toad with their magic wand, I would find it silly. But if they said they could turn me into ... say ... a pile of bantha fodder (and they were serious), I would think they were "sillier".
 
There is one way it's sillier: all the languages used in the the Bible were real languages that people spoke and wrote down at one time. In contrast, "Reformed Egyptian" was a language Smith made up on the spot.
 
Critical Analysis

Well I would like to take issue with those who think religion is silly or meaninless. I am not that well versed in Latter Day Saints but they do seem to lack any serious attempt to answer the human condition.
 
Open mind

I mean really I think that you must have your head in the sand if all the injustice and inequity in life doesn't force your mind to ask the questions.
 
Well I've been a Baptist and a Mormon and I felt the LDS church was far more organized, especially with charity works, than what I saw elsewhere. It was also refreshing to not have to hear about the horrors of Hell every Sunday like the Baptists seemed to love so.
 
dylan2001 said:
I mean really I think that you must have your head in the sand if all the injustice and inequity in life doesn't force your mind to ask the questions.
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This has absolutely nothing to do with the proposition that religions are silly and meaningless. Religion isn't about asking questions, it's about providing made-up answers to questions.
 
Some of the old religion beliefs would seem logical or even intelligent in the bronze age. Believing similarly crazy stuff in the 19th-20th centuries....way dafter.
 
I'm not exactly sure how any religion could be "less true" than any other; however, yes, Mormonism is sillier than Judaism and Christianity...and a hell of a lot more cultish, as well.
 
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