I was curious as to exactly what Mormons believe, and their beliefs compared to other major religions. What are some of the proofs and disproofs for Mormonism. I have heard that it is a very far-fetched religion, and I am curious as to how true that statement was.
I have made this simple and fun but surely what i say should not in any manor insult you.
Okay lets start from top
Read the Jewish Scripture(old testemant) This is god with the Jews. After the old testemant a fellow named jesus he does some stuff, its in another book called New covenant(new testematn).
But what the mormon’s REAL faith or what seperates them from the original christans, is they belive that Jesus did a few more things, a few things that were left out of the new covenant. Perticularly stuff in the new world. something about him visiting the indians.
If your jewish you definatly wont belive in this load of crap(a harsh jewish view point)
If your muslim this will just be another bit of christianity for you to hate(if your a hard liner conservative weirdo muslim)
If your catholic then your thinking about mormonism requires confession(i think its a sin to think about other religions isnt it?)
And heaven forbid if your an athiest well, Comedy is comedy(that is if your an athiest who belives in humor)
From the little I know Mormons core beliefs stand in the visions of a man, another disciple here in America, who claims Jesus came to the New World. They believe Jesus was also married, I think to Mary Magdalene. The ‘Book of Mormon’ which you can get for free (along with a little visit from some Mormon ‘brothers’) is, for the Mormons, an extension of the Holy Bible written by men in America who claim to be Christs’ other disciples.
They believe all sorts of stuff like no masturbation, no premarital sex, no caffeine, no smoking, modest clothing, tithing 30% of your income to the church, having a lot of children. To have children guarantees you a place in heaven, or so they say. Their ceremonies, marriages, and all that, are private, no non Mormon can witness them.
I personally do not believe in the Mormon faith at all, but I find it quite fascinating. They say it’s quite ‘cultish’ like the Jehovahs Witnesses. I’d do a Goodle search if I were you.
I have had 5 contacts with Mormons in which we have discussed many of their doctrines for many hours. They say the have the truth, but when I ask for substantial evidences, such as archaeological proofs they say there is a book that presents these evidences. I have asked 4 times to see this book, and nobody has ever returned with the “book.” 
Something is amiss. They also say that they honor the Bible as God’s revelation and then turn around and attack the same and claim it is flawed. Okay, explain that one to me?
I have heard of a few cases in which an author will write a book about the flaws / contradictions / lies in Mormon doctrine and the Church of Latter Day Saints will actually instruct the congregation to buy as many copies of the books as the can afford so that people don’t have a chance to read it. From what I’ve heard it is preposterous and erroneous.
Does anyone happen to know the books that they use? I believe that there are 3 of them. I know the Book of Mormon, and the Divine Covenent (or something like that), but I forget the third one.
Thanx!
Well, I live in Lethbridge Alberta and there are a whole bunch of mormons. I guess the last statistics Canada report listed the LDS church as the most attended church in our city…which is scary. The three books that they read are: the book of mormon, doctrine and covenants, and the pearl of great price.
best,
Jay Merchant
This is off the point, but has anyone observed how cult leaders seem to have a run in with the law? ie Joseph Smith and Charles Taze Russell, but Jesus was falsely accused? That speaks volumes of who taught the truth.
Why was Jesus falsely accused? I would suggest that he was accused accurately although, I would agree that he was wrongfully punished as was Joseph Smith. Neither did anything that justified being put to death; however, Christian history shows that they are no less to blame for similar persecution(i.e - the inquisition, salem witch trials, numerous accounts of persecution via the Catholic church against non-believers). In fact, it was a mob of angry Christians that murdered Smith. Seems a bit ironic, don’t you think? Where was the holy spirit then? He seemed to be having an off day. 
Why does that speak volumes for whether he was in accordance with the truth or not?
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Apparently Mormons believe in racism.
The reason that one would lose his blessings by marrying a Negro is due to the restriction placed upon them. “No person having the least particle of Negro blood can hold the Priesthood” . It does not matter if they are one-sixth Negro or one-hundred and sixth, the curse of no Priesthood is the same. If an individual who is entitled to the Priesthood marries a Negro, the Lord has decreed that only spirits who are not eligible for the Priesthood will come to that marriage as children. To intermarry with a Negro is to forfeit a “Nation of Priesthood holders”…
Seems to me racism is un-American.[/size]
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.One of the strangest is that the Mormons baptize the dead … even Hitler, and both victims and perpetrators of the Holocaust.
They did an analysis of American DNA to determine if there was significant Semetic influence in North American tribes etc, and found no evidence. Mormanism is mixed up but it’s probably no better or worse than any religion in the Abrahamic branches we call Islam etc, the only difference is we can specifically call some of their beliefs nonsense due to evidence. With the various churches for example or indeed any schism or lack there of, of Eastern or Western doctrine we can’t dispute matters of faith with evidence.
I asked a Mormon once what scientific evidence that disputed one Semetic tribe moving to Northern America meant to him though, and his response was that it does not matter, he still upholds the core tenants of his faith. The same goes for any religion really, you are not going to be persuaded the whole faith is bunk by parts of it being without merit, no matter how bizarre your faiths claims are.
Anything specific in mind that you have as a question?
What I mean by that is, are you curious over semantic differences, or are you interested in the difference in their view of the metaphysical standing of being human, the metaphysical standing of “God”, and the metaphysical standing of the afterlife?
The esoteric bits of it are a little revealing.
In Mormonism, there are about 5 types of heaven/afterlife one can go to. Even non-mormons can go into a nice version of the afterlife if they lived righteously, most nonbeliever sinner types go into a mundane, harsh purgatory type place, like west Texas or something. Only really awful people go to what you’d consider to be hell.
The greatest afterlife a righteous mormon can have is to ascend into Godhood. God is said to have been a mortal man who ascended as such. Becoming a God puts you in control of a planet, like earth. Your family becomes the souls that populate this new planet, so that’s why they have such large families, the more the better.
I lived in Provo and they will endlessly invite you to church, they are nice people and if they have judgments about you, they keep it to themselves. Their religion states most people have tolerable afterlives and I think that hints toward some idea about the good nature of people and the benevelence of the universe.
I didn’t know they had racist doctrine, seems odd considering how they venerate native Americans and all.
Yes, the easiest translation of Mormonism’s (at least, “LDS”) metaphysical narrative of humankind can be thought of by two concepts:
A) Take Dante’s Inferno and flip it 180 degrees so that instead of detailing how many layers of Hell there are, you are defining how many layers of Heaven there are.
B) In short, today’s LDS Mormonism - in general, philosophically - can be thought of as the most “Buddhist” of Christianity.
OK, that last mark is going to get me some heat from Buddhists around here, but I feel it is relatively accurate.
In the sense that LDS Mormonism is interested in ‘how are you doing?’, and interested in self-peace and a reduction of temporal suffering, temporal ownership is considered as exactly that - temporal, and they have the perspective of ‘paths’ being different for every person (mainly influenced by their metaphysical narrative that proposes that all people generally go to heaven regardless; it is just a matter of which layer you go to).
They also believe each person ‘picks’ their parents from heaven, and believe life on Earth is a sort of ‘growing ground’ for the after-life (I would say, ‘testing ground’, but that doesn’t really quite grasp the concept as well).
So they tend to have less philosophy and theology which supports a stance of being against the world, and instead within the world - that this life and experience (which they picked for themselves before being born) is what it takes to get to where they are headed in the afterlife.
They also do not consider the ‘path’ to end once arriving in the afterlife; they see it as a continual growth even after death - that one continues further growth in heaven just as on Earth, but somewhat differently.
Their theological approaches are different, obviously, than Buddhism (radically different, in fact), however, the gist of their focus is about the same.
I would say that LDS Mormonism is probably about as close as organized modern Christianity has come to addressing the same tangents of concern as Buddhism focuses upon for the individual.
That all being said, personally, I still walked away.
The idea that Willard Mitt Romney is a defacto Buddhist has the Buddhist in me rending his garments.
Politicians are the worst examples of any religion they adhere to.
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[size=50]…[/size][size=150]The Face of Mormonism[/size]
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Wow… I mean… seriously… wow… emm… uh… wow… where.in.the.Hell.did.that.come.from.
I have been familiar with many of each and their beliefs and practices, and I am seriously not seeing that one.
I couldn’t care less what some politician says his religion is, especially since Obama got away with claiming to be a Christian. That was about like Osama Bin Laden claiming to be Catholic.
But Mormon and Buddhist? On the same planet? I have a degree of appreciation for both, but in Buddhism, other than some precision issues, I feel at home. In Mormonism, I feel like I am in a cold stone castle; echoing walls, heating issues, big expensive chandeliers, square carpets in elegant rooms, always under reconstruction, and a huge cleaning staff.
Granted they both have a type of “stairway to Heaven” concept. And they both… emm… uh… emm… are sort of religious… sortta.
The Utah LDS is an apostolic formation from the Freemasons. And it shows.
Buddhism is an aggregation of students of the mind and heart.
One is a stone pyramid on a sandy beach always shifting with the tide.
The other is an ethereal mist hidden in the clouds atop a mountain.
I literally had to teach a Mormon bishop and his wife the concept of agape (which immediately shutdown their pending divorce). They had never heard of such a thing. But then again, I had to explain to a Buddhist monk that his notion that Jesus had nailed himself up on a cross wasn’t exactly the written story.
I’m just not seeing this “similarity” thing.
I agree with you here, James. Jayson anticipated blow back when prefaced his remarks with “OK, that last mark is going to get me some heat from Buddhists around here, but I feel it is relatively accurate.” I can’t validate some of your other remarks, however.