Interesting quote from an early critic of the Mormon Church.

[mwb970]

With all the talk of Mitt and Mormonism in the air, I thought it would be a good idea to read up on this strange religion. So I bought a copy of One Nation Under Gods: A History Of the Mormon Church by Richard Abanes, which has been well-reviewed and is generally considered "fair and balanced" (although not by Mormons, who do not brook criticism in any form).

The book is really good, and I recommend it highly. One passage that caught my eye dealt with community reaction to the new Mormon church back in its early days in the 1830s.

Mindless devotion to {Mormonism founder Joseph} Smith's teachings also raised the ire of non-Mormons attempting to reason with the Saints {i.e., believers} about the folly of their beliefs. Reason and logical thinking meant little to Mormons, who commonly rejected analytical thought in favor of supernatural experience. Most claimed to have received "actual knowledge" of their faith's validity from God himself through revelations, visions, or angelic visitations. No amount of argumentation could dissuade them, as one non-Mormon explained in a letter to the Painesville Telegraph (Ohio):

The great mass of the {Mormon} disciples are men of perverted intelligence and disordered piety, with no sound principles of religion, with minds unbalanced and unfurnished, but active and devout; inclined to the mystical and dreary, and ready to believe any extraordinary announcement as a revelation from God. None of them appear to be within reach of argument on the subject of religion.

Boy, that sure sounds familiar.

[bpeale]

1. sounds like he's perfectly suited to be president! LOL

[Az]

2. Experience nearly always overrides reason

Even when the validity or interpretation of the experience is of a questionable nature. Its emotions. Belief is about how you feel about things. What you feel the truth is. And unless there is doubt in your mind about what you believe you are not going to turn to reason to try to overturn it.

Doubt enters into the mind when you have conflicting beliefs. If there are a set of ideas within your mind that lead you to different conclusions then you will be left with an inability to come to a conclusion or at least experience a good deal of anxiety over your conclusion. The mind does not enjoy this state so it seeks ways to overcome it. It turns to tools such as reason to deal with such things. But reason is not the only tool in our brains grasp. Superstition, signs of portent, omens, any sort of patter recognition that we associate with the issue can become a tool to overcome the indecision in our mind. Reason is a more complex tool and may not be the first thing we reach for. But it remains one of the most reliable tools and should be embraced.

[Sequoia]

3. Another good book is "Under The Banner of Heaven"

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/510E2NQ2YXL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg

Joseph Smith was a sex-crazed junkie and would visit cat houses. He made up the polygamist law so he could indulge to his heart's content. Just as an aside: Mitt's grandparents were polygamists.

[kestrel91316]

4. Several of my great-great-grandparents were polygamists.

Anybody in UT or NV with my not-so-common last name is almost certainly a third-cousin or closer.

My assistant is a seventh-cousin, lol, and one of my clients is probably a third-cousin.

We descendants of polygamy are MANY in the West.

[mulsh]

5. My mother-in-law's family is mostly Mormon or as she likes to

say "moron". she was raised in the Lutheran Church and secretly longs to convert to Irish Catholicism.
Through her I have learned how it is to profoundly hate a religion. If the subject comes up she is the personification of vitriol and spite. I thought some of my more neolithic Irish Catholic relatives had a handle on hatred but she's shown me the error of my way. On their side, the Mormon relatives I've met have been nice, money obsessed, back stabbing and very shallow, but nice.

The Mormons I grew up around in Oakland were all pretty much like every one else, except they had that big new temple on the hill and tried to sell us tickets to view it before it was consecrated or what ever. I've learned that Mormons from Zion are a very different breed.

One of my oldest friends converted to Mormonism a few years ago. He no longer associates with anyone who isn't a member of the church. The last time I saw him we nearly got into a fist fight, at least as far as he was concerned, over my lack of interest in converting. He moved to Salt Lake City about 12 years ago.

[Ganja Ninja]

6. Sounds like a description of the Bush cult. n/t