Belief-O-Matic!

[Zhukov]

Originally posted by gop_jeff
My wife had some Mormons come to the door a while ago (WA has a high Mormon population). She asked them a couple of questions about how their faith conflicts with the Bible, which they claim to uphold. One girl actually said, "Hmm, I never thought about that." The other girl changed the subject!

On a message board I contributed to before I came here, the subject of Mormons came up (I didn't know much about the Church of L.D.S. at the time) and someone posted the most damning indepth rejection of anything I have ever read.

All the same, even if it is a completely fabricated religion, I've never met a mean or discourteous Mormon.

 

[DKSuddeth]

Who's to say Joseph Smith was not a true prophet? We've certainly seen stranger crap be the truth, have we not?

 

[5stringJeff]

Originally posted by Zhukov
On a message board I contributed to before I came here, the subject of Mormons came up (I didn't know much about the Church of L.D.S. at the time) and someone posted the most damning indepth rejection of anything I have ever read.

All the same, even if it is a completely fabricated religion, I've never met a mean or discourteous Mormon.

Very true. I've known sevearal Mormons (even dated a Mormon girl in high school - and she was HOT!) and they have all been nice, except that Mormon girl's father...

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
Who's to say Joseph Smith was not a true prophet? We've certainly seen stranger crap be the truth, have we not?

Joseph Smith's prophecies haved failed to come true on numerous occasions, and his stories about Jewish tribes in North America are completely unsubstantiated by archaeology. The Egyptian text that was supposedly the original "Book of Abraham" in the Book of Mormon is actually part of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.
I can give you some websites regarding Mormonism, if you'd like, but you can probably tell that I am far from sympathetic to their views.

 

[Zhukov]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
Who's to say Joseph Smith was not a true prophet? We've certainly seen stranger crap be the truth, have we not?

What gop_jeff said, and if you like I can go fish up the post I mentioned before for you. The main difference between the Mormon faith and other more popular Christian denominations, is the abundance of contemporary commentary about the conduct and character of Joe Smith.

 

[DKSuddeth]

Ok, cool. thanks for the info.

 

[5stringJeff]

DK, just so you know:

Mormonism adds the teachings of Joseph Smith above those of the Bible, and hold that the Bible is true only to the extent that it is "properly translated" (which, in practice, means to the extent that it agrees with church doctrine). Mormons believe that the Church President is a prophet of God, and that their prophecies hold equal weight to the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Throughout the ~200 years of Mormonism, the doctrine has eveolved into one in which God once was a man who attained godhood through the practice of Mormonism, and that by aspiring to the teachings of Mormonism, people can attain the same level of godhood.