this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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Hot take: Mormon doctrine is no stranger or harder to believe than any other flavor of Christianity. They're just a minority so they stand out more.
Mormon church practices however are straight up low level cult behavior.
I mean, I can't think of another sect of christianity that requires special underwear. Outerwear, sure, but underwear? Creepy.
Is that really creepier than other Christian practices, or is mainstream Christianity just so normalized that you don't question it?
It is a little different when your origin story is very obviously a mediocre conman having his shitty cons described by multiple eye witness accounts and having your myths be 2000 years old with no first hand accounts.
As opposed to the obvious con man Saul of Tarsus?
Like I said, it's different when you have the actual daily journals of people calling it a con.
Or his wife calling him a liar after he stuck his head in a hat to get his prophecies.
Like, regardless of the fact that to religious types the age of the belief has value, it's just a whole different level of obvious bullcrap beyond simply believing in the supernatural.
Most christians pretend to be cannibals as a weekly rite.
The person they are cannibalizing is the same one they worship.
The extra layer of clothes is the most boring thing about mormons.
Just Catholics, iirc.
No, there are plenty that do it. Not weekly, but most do it yearly. I've known nondenominational places, lutheran, baptist, episcopalian, and methodists that do.
I think Protestant do it too
yep, which is most christians
50.1% as of this writing! They should call a vote now while they still can.
Eastern and Oriental Orthodox are also Catholics (just not roman catholics)
Catholics are the only ones who aren’t pretending, they honestly believe they’re cannibals
Really? Is it not painfully obvious this is a symbolistic practise / metaphor
You can say whatever you like bud, its creepy to roleplay as cannibals as a core of your religion.
Well, when you put it like that...
It's harder to believe because it's easily disproven. Turns out Joseph's "translation" of ancient Egyptian wasn't inspired.
The Bible is just as easy to disprove my dude. Neither book is real, our society just pretends one is more reasonable.
Not just as easy. There's a lot of room for someone to say "this was actually just metaphor" or even "these are just stories to convey values".
Take the tower of Babel, for example, we know it never happened. However, a more progressive Christian or Jewish tradition can use the story to talk about how sometimes cultural differences are simply surface level, we are all ultimately the same people. Mormons aren't so lucky because the book of Mormon was pitched as a literal history and part of the book has literal refugees from the tower of Babel.
Unlike the Bible, we have the author of the religion who very well documented how literal everything is. We don't even know who authored nearly any book in the Bible or their motivations.
I'm not arguing for a god, I'm an atheist exmo. However, there's a pretty big difference between a bunch of old stories compiled together into a book and a book of fiction that the author went out of his way to claim was "the most correct book ever written".
The only difference is time my dude. You can just say stories from the Book of Mormon are metaphor, give them the exact same treatment and get the same result.
I'm an atheist exJW myself so I have a similar background.
I mostly agree with you, though the babble has the upper hand with older and better-funded propaganda campaigns spanning more time and regions and organizations using it for political manipulation. It's had more polishing, rewriting, adapting, and state-backed proliferation (including by use of armies to wipe out competitors). It also borrowed many more mythical elements from other existing religions. Joseph Smith's version is newer, and the mythology a bit sloppier, so the average person can conceivably judge the odd parts of its modern context easier. One is star wars and the other is an underfunded filler show on Netflix on its second season in 10 years by comparison. Which one has the better chance of having someone in your life convince you to give it a shot, and disincentivizes you from criticizing it in social settings more?
No but any religion is similarly "illogical", Mormons are the same as other Christians with extra "m"