Mormons love to talk about how stupid other religions are.

I recall hearing the Catholic church being bashed regularly by
Mormons when I was a kid growing up. When meatless Friday was
changed half a century ago my father mentioned it from the
pulpit as evidence they weren't inspired because, hey, they
CHANGED something.

The JW's thought the world was going to end in 1914, but it
didn't so they "reinterpreted" the date to mean something else.
"Shows how out to lunch they are (sniggle)."

Mormons are quick to notice and shake their heads at
contradictions in the records of other religious movements.

So let's pretend something.

Let's pretend that the traveling mummy show never hit Kirtland.
And that Joseph Smith never "translated" the BOA. However some
OTHER cult leader did translate the same papyri into the same
text--the BOA (complete with facsimiles etc.).

Further pretend that the papyri resurfaced in 1966 and it was
found that the "prophet" of this religion had translated a
Ptolmaic-era pagan funerary document into the Book of Abraham.
Suppose that Egyptologists had determined that their prophet had
gotten it all wrong.

How would the average Mormon view this? Would they accept the
excuses: "maybe 'translate' doesn't mean translate," or "maybe
it was on a different part of the missing papyrus roll," or
"maybe Egyptian has a hidden second meaning etc." Would they
think the members of the other sect had a point by saying, "I
don't know about Egyptology, I just know our leader translated
it into the word of God? No, they'd bring it up as absolute
proof the other religion was "obviously" fake.

These are the kinds of things that Mormons roll their eyes and
shake their heads over when they come out of other religious
organizations. I couldn't imagine a large numbers of the
Mormons I know keeping a straight face when being confronted
with BOA apologetics if it were part of another religion. If it
were part of another religion the BOA evidence would be
considered by the average Mormon as a slam dunk on the bogus
nature of said other religion.

But not Mormonism.

I saw this double standard in myself when I lived in France. I
was friends with many of the missionaries tracted out a guy who
was a member of a small local cult. His cult was headed by God,
Himself incarnated in the body of their leader, Georges Roux.
And the member was able to received revelation by "verbing" for
them. He'd sit with eyes closed and palms upwards and recite
revelation to them. "Your religion has prophets," he said, "but
mine has God Himself." They thought it was rather funny and
OBVIOUSLY crazy.

I told a nevermo friend of mine about this weird guy my
missionary friends had run into. I was making light of his
weirdness. My friend asked me what's the difference between
this "weird" guy and what I believed about Joseph Smith. I
realized that there was no appreciable difference. If I had
been talking to a Mormon I could have said something
self-serving like, "Satan deceives by mimicking truth" yadda
yadda. But the fact that it was a nevermo friend I was talking
with made me look at it through his eyes--objectively. And it
didn't look good.

So Mormons worry about how easily we exmos are deceived by
Satan. But they laugh at others who are like them much closer
than they admit to themselves.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2017 09:48PM by baura.

It almost sounds like you are insinuating that Mormons are arrogantly hypocritical. :)

What does it take to be so sure you are right with no evidence and a history as wacko as any other group's? Faith or bloated ego?

I had never heard of Jehovah's Witnesses until I attended BYU (Mom always answered the front door). They came up when RMs in the dorms would talk about their missions. Often, it was about Bible-bashing with "J-Dubs." For you, Baura, TJs.

There were quite a few Catholic-bashings and the stale jokes about the Vatican practicing baptisms for the dead by instilling a sprinkler system. Oh, and the Pope with good news and bad news--Christ has returned, but he's calling from SLC.

I chalk these up to immature men with limited world views--and boy, was I one of them!

To get to the real Mormon viewpoints on other religions--take a look at James E. Talmadge's The Great Apostasy or Bruce R. McConkie's Mormon Doctrine. And, as to the JWs, Joseph Fielding Smith had quite a bit of negatives things to say in Answers to Gospel Questions--The JW's purpose is to hinder the work of the COJCOLDS.

As a now mature (old fart) man, I find others' beliefs or non-beliefs interesting. If the topic comes up, and a person isn't pushy, I generally ask them about their views. I've even been known to catch TBNs off-guard by asking them to bear their testimonies. This generally gets a deer-in-the-headlight-look with a "I hope he doesn't pounce on me!" expression. I generally don't.

I'm old, kind of smelly, and don't hear as well as I used to. I've learned I've been wrong a lot. Not to worry! When I'm dead, if there's no God, I'll be fast asleep obviously to anything. If there is a God, I'll probably be frisking along by the pearly gates with you folks. If there's a Badass God, I'm going to be in a lot of trouble trying to explain my vulgar language and friendships with all of you wankers! Big Boner Hugs to all!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2017 12:22AM by BYU Boner.

Meanwhile, there are people here who will mock the stories in the BoM while giving Bible stories a pass even though they're just as ridiculous -- or more so. Because the Bible is older and more culturally imbedded. It's "normal" to most of us.

Agreed

Reminds of when one of my non-mo brothers went to the Institute of Religion across from his Junior College and said they "described other churches...and then described what was wrong with them."

It a appears that in a world of make-believe that the crazier the story the easier to believe. Fantasy is very seductive, especially when it "proves" you are not only right, but superior.

And when you say to these true believers, "Your story has no evidence," they say, "Prove there is no evidence." Fantasy wins again because reality has nothing to offer some people.

I have a hard time with 'somewhat' believable religious guff. But that was tempered with other religions paid clergys interpretations and general willingness to be there to help people as needed. No strings attached. So charity over requiring faith as a pre-requisite to receive support.

I can dig that.

Then I moved to Utah.

Wow.... the crazy fairy tales they expect the average Morgbot to swallow. The 10% they have to cough up just to get permission to wear the Magic Underpants and participate in those nutty temple rituals. Then they have the gall to call Jehaovas Witnesses mental. I really, really struggle with how any logical, sane individual can willingly believe all that nonsense, never mind actively participate.

It all sounds to me like the worlds cleverest Pyramid Scheme.