Mormonism

em200727 · Post by **em200727** » Tue May 03, 2005 3:10 pm

Hey i would like to know more about Mormonism. I love researching other religions so if anyone has any questions, or would like to discuss that would be great

AlAyeti · Post by **AlAyeti** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:48 am

The best way to understand Mormonism is to visit a Mormon Stake. Also it is good to visit a Reorganized Church of . . .. I have the Book of Mormon from both groups. Also the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. Utterly fascinating religion (s).

I was so close to joing the LDS church when I was a teenager. I had great friends that were Mormons. But comparing the Biblical standards of revelations led me to a standard historic Christianity.

Read religions from original books and compare, compare, compare. Trying to listen to pro and con speakers is not all that necessary when you can go to the source texts.

I am not a Mormon.

Cathar1950 · Post by **Cathar1950** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:03 pm

My Grandfather was a pastor in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of the later day saints. Many fine relative and people I know still are. I was baptised in the Church at 9 years old. I use to question why only we had the true faith while glad by chance I was raised in the church by my family. As I matured I extended my doubts. The Mormon Church is an interesting American Phenomena coming out of a time of heated religious reformers and preachers. I remember reading at about 11 some books against Mormons. One thing they wrote was that if they were Jews why did they have pigs. Of course The pigs were from people before the Jewish group was suppose to come over. These people were suppose to come after the tower of Babel incident. So they could have pigs. What I realized was they had not read the book of Mormon. Of course I can hardly stay awake when I read it today which is not to often. I think it is interesting that the RCJCLDS didn't have polyigamy. This group was started after J. Smith died by his wife and son. I don't think it is a quincedence.
I Have a friend that is a women and a minister in the church and they broke up again over it. Now half of my relatives are in the RCJCLDS Restored. Because they don't think women should be deacons,elders or anything else.
It makes family reunions interesting.

Tycho23 · Post by **Tycho23** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 1:07 am

I myself find this very interesting...

http://www.comevisit.com/lds/bom-evid.htm

Dilettante · Post by **Dilettante** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:40 pm

windy wrote:

When I first read this thread I could see what was coming.
As you read the replies you can see that each post gets steadily worse in contradicting a personally sincere belief that this person has.

Windy, sincerity has nothing to do with it. The issue is whether or not the BOM is authentic. If it is a 19th century fiction (which is not hard to prove, IMO) then it doesn't matter how sincerely one believes it to be true... because no amount of sincere faith can make it so.

Dilettante · Post by **Dilettante** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 8:03 pm

Tycho23 wrote:I myself find this very interesting...

http://www.comevisit.com/lds/bom-evid.htm

I find it interesting too, but not for the same reasons. As an attempt at rationalizing the Mormon faith, it is fascinating, but not at all convincing. Don't forget the BOM claims that Native Americans are descended from the Hebrews. DNA tests prove otherwise: Native Americans are of Mongolian ancestry. The BOM is not written in the language of Joseph Smith's day, but in 17th century English. Ancient documents are written in the original languages and are authenticated according to commonly accepted criteria. If the provenance of the document cannot be traced back to the original owner, if one link in the chain is missing or the track gets lost, the red flags of forgery are instantly raised. With the Golden Plates no such authentication process is even possible because the plates themselves vanished into thin air... Before I even consider those alleged coincidences (most of which can be explained otherwise) I need to see the remains of those civilizations that supposedly inhabited Mesoamerica according to the BOM. Unfortunately for the LDS Church, there is not a shred of evidence that those peoples existed. And we are talking about entire civilizations with cities and cemeteries and artifacts. Today we know lots of details about the Aztecs, the Toltecs, and many less important pre-Columbian cultures occupying the same land the BOM people allegedly lived in. By contrast, not a single archeological find points to the existence of such people as the Lamanites, Nephites or Jaredites.

Anyway, you may be interested in reading a critique of Nibley's approach to Mormon apologetics written by a BYU professor here:

http://www.lds-mormon.com/nibley1.shtml

As you can see, not all Mormons were impressed with Nibley's tactics.

Cathar1950 · Post by **Cathar1950** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 9:29 pm

In response to windy, I would like to say your right.
In all fairness they do try to convert. You shouldn't try to convert some one if your beliefs should be able to with stand "contradicting a personally sincere belief".
It is a problem. What if some one has a belief that is just wrong or misguided? How do you talk to them their beliefs when they want you to belive and you are forced to reason?
I know people that the only thing they have to hang on to is their faith.
A friend of mine once said you can not take away their crutches unless you have something to replace it. I think if they are beating you over the head with the crutches, You need to do something.
Dilettante wrote:

I find it interesting too, but not for the same reasons. As an attempt at rationalizing the Mormon faith, it is fascinating, but not at all convincing.

This is not a unique phenomena of the Mormons.
The data is less disputed because of smaller numbers of believers.
Given enough money and members they very well could make beliefs law.
They did before they became a state, at least in Utah.

DNA tests prove otherwise: Native Americans are of Mongolian ancestry.

I think there is some European and Polynesian ancestry also. just no Jewish.

Tycho23 · Post by **Tycho23** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 1:09 am

http://www.mormonstudies.com/defense1.htm

http://www.fairlds.org/apol/bom/bom05.html

feel free to explore these sites,

In fact, please do, and if you feel that these sites do nothing but bend and fabricate new facts and logical thinkings to further their own goals, don't worry! I think the same exact thing about any ex-mormon/BOM site I come accross. But I Do try and keep an open mind... Mind you...

Dilettante · Post by **Dilettante** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 6:50 am

I will explore those sites and tell you what I think afterwards. Being open minded means looking at all the evidence, no matter where it comes from (ex-Mormons included) without prejudice, and following that evidence wherever it leads. If we think we already know the truth, we will never find it.

Tycho23 · Post by **Tycho23** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 10:19 pm

Nicely said.

CubicU · Post by **CubicU** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 6:37 am

http://www.jefflindsay.com/BMEvidences.shtml

found this site pretty interesting on the Book of Mormon if anyone is still interested