Top 10 Reasons For Leaving Mormonism

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Top 10 Reasons For Leaving Mormonism

I wrote this for my Ex-Mormons group on Facebook. Feel free to join if you're an Ex-Mormon, you oppose their theology, or you just hate Mormons all together. I added a works cited for extra credibility, something theists can't do and don't have, respectively. Tell me what you guys think.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8065789103

 

Top 10 Reasons for Leaving Mormonism:

1. The movie The Lost Book of Abraham (watch for free on YouTube), single handily falsifies Joseph Smith’s status as a prophet (The Lost Book of Abraham, 2002). Like the Book of Mormon, Smith simply pulled the Book of Abraham out of his ass. BYU’s Foundation for the Apologetic Research of Mormon Studies (FARMS) doesn’t have shit on this, at least any that sticks. Since the original papyrus has been rediscovered, verified by the Mormon Church as what Smith translated from, and discredited by every Egyptologist to ever analyze it, we can conclude that Smith was a conman.

2. Mormons literally believe in the Biblical account of creation. They teach of Adam and Eve as if they walked the Earth sometime within the past 10,000 years. Thousands of pieces of evidence, some of which you can literally hold in your hands, from paleontology, biology, genetics, and the entire fossil record prove that humans shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees around seven to 10 million years ago. If you don’t believe in evolution, you’re a dipshit and that’s probably why you’re a Mormon or Christian. Either that you just don’t know enough, in which case you should visit Talkorgins.org and humbly educate yourself. We’ve educated ourselves out of (schizophrenic) relationships with Christ.

3. Because there is zero archeological or historical evidence found in Mesoamerican cultures that even slightly verify the myths of the Book of Mormon. Mormons believe Christ came to the Americas and was well received by ancient Native Americans sometime around 33 AD. However, there isn’t one shred of evidence found anywhere that such an event occurred. And then there’s the fact that modern science has proven that Native Americans today did not come out of Israel around 600 BC and that genetic similarities are non-existent, but the Book of Mormon says otherwise. DNA evidence refutes the Book of Mormon.

4. Mormons only believe in the Bible as far as it is translated correctly, but they clearly teach in Sunday school that Noah’s flood literally happened and covered the entire world for 40 days and 40 nights. Mormons (and Christians) believe that two of all 1.8 million species on Earth today, 800,000 of which are insects, lived within walking distance of Noah’s ark. Furthermore, upon the recession of the waters when Noah opened up the ark, polar bears made a mad sprint back to the arctic, marsupials to Australia, and ant eaters to South America where those animals have naturally inhabited for millions of years. And God miraculously hid all evidence of every animal on Earth walking off some boat in the Middle East some 5,000 years ago.

5. Because Utah, which is predominantly Mormon, leads the nation in anti-depressant use at twice the national average (Unhappy In Utah, Study: 'Beehive State' Leads Nation in Anti-Depressant Prescriptions, 2002). Furthermore, as published in the world renowned book IQ and the Wealth of Nations, Utah as the 2nd lowest aggregate IQ score in the country (Lynn & Vanhanen, 2002). By freeing ourselves of Mormon myths we effectively rid our minds of depression and stupidity.

6. Because the laying on of hands, that event all Mormons wet themselves over when someone becomes miraculously healed by the Priesthood, is the manifestation of the placebo effect and nothing more.

7. Because we don’t need fear of damnation to behave properly. The National Institute of Health has proven that altruism is a human trait, not a religious one (Vedantum, 2007). Another study concludes that less religious societies have less poverty, crime, teen pregnancies, children being born out of wedlock, and overall societal dysfunction (Paul, 2005). Education and acceptance of evolution in such societies are also much higher, which is pretty obvious.

We don’t need to fear a god who often condones murder, rape, slavery, ritual human sacrifice, genocide, and infanticide to be decent human beings (Evil Bible). We don’t need to heed the words of his son, because Jesus Christ commands parents to kill their cursing children. Unfortunately, the atonement, the forgiveness of all sins by a god so powerful he can’t even just forgive sins without bloodshed, is the ultimate scapegoat of human responsibility.

8. Because spiritual experiences and testimonies have a scientific explanation, they are brought on by stimulation of certain areas of the brain through meditation and prayer. This explains why Muslims crash into towers when they get spiritual, while Mormons just pay 10% of every dollar they earn and gobble up every piece of bullshit that ever comes out of Salt Lake.

“Findings seem to point to a region of the brain commonly referred to as the 'God Spot' or 'God Module', that when stimulated creates hallucinations that are interpreted as mystical or spiritual experiences. This 'spot' is stimulated during meditation and prayer and is affected by electromagnetic fields and epilepsy. The resulting hallucinations may be the cause of mystical, spiritual and paranormal experiences as they can give feelings such as a presence in the room or an out of body experience. In the case of epileptics, this may be the reason for many of them becoming obsessed with religion. For those who experience the stimulation it is explained related to their own personal beliefs; a visit from an angel or lost loved one, an extraterrestrial encounter, a higher plane of consciousness or a visit from God.”
(God and the Brain)

9. Because we have a likening for validity, not naivety. We let facts speak for themselves. This is the 21st century and we’re not living in the Dark Ages anymore. We respect evidence, rational thought, logic, and science, not faith and superstition.

10. Because as Richard Dawkins says, “Faith is the process of non-thinking.” Faith is gullibility. Also from Dr. Dawkins, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”


Works Cited
(n.d.). Retrieved from Evil Bible: http://www.evilbible.com/

God and the Brain. (n.d.). Retrieved from Atheist Empire: http://atheistempire.com/reference/brain/index.html

Lynn, R., & Vanhanen, T. (2002). IQ and the Wealth of Nations. Praeger Publishers.

Paul, G. S. (2005). Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health. Journal of Religion & Society , 7.

The Lost Book of Abraham (2002). [Motion Picture].
http://www.irr.org/mit/lboa-youtube.html

Unhappy In Utah, Study: 'Beehive State' Leads Nation in Anti-Depressant Prescriptions. (2002, June 3). Retrieved from CBS Worldwide Inc: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/06/03/eveningnews/main510918.shtml

Vedantum, S. (2007, May 28). If it feels good to be good, it might only be natural. Washington Post , A01.

Efrem Schultz wrote:
You can lead a man to reason, but you can't force him to think.


Conor Wilson
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You could have added:

11. President Woodruff, Prophet, Seer and Revelator to the Church in his time, gave a deeply racist teaching at one General Conference.  The importance of this should not be overlooked.  Most Mormons will cite for you a quote from Joseph Smith to the effect that when a prophet is *not* acting as a prophet, then he is as liable to error as any other man.  Well, in Mormon doctrine, any speech given at General Conference by the President is considered to be Scripture on a par with the Bible.  Thus in such situations, the President most certainly *is* "acting as a prophet."  And what did Woodruff teach that time?  He taught, in the most explicit terms, that Blacks were inferior to whites, and that this "inferiority" was something taught by all of the texts that Mormons accept as Scriptures.  Thus implicitly, to accept Blacks as the equals of whites, is to deny, in his view, the very revelation of God.  This, of course, is something which the modern Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints would very much like to forget ever happened.  And with good reason: it puts all Latter-Day Saints in the deeply uncomfortable position of having to choose between open racism on the one hand, and infidelity to God, his Church, and his doctrine, on the other.  No wonder nobody talks about this.

 

Conor

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deludedgod
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They would also rather like

They would also rather like to forget it since their racist policies caused the Carter Administration to threaten to revoke their tax-exempt status. Hence, they had a "revelation" that blacks should be allowed into the Mormon clergy in the 1970s.

"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.

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darth_josh
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Excellent, Reprobate.All

Excellent, Reprobate.

All done without saying anything about the 'special' undies.

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Conor Wilson
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deludedgod wrote:They would

deludedgod wrote:

They would also rather like to forget it since their racist policies caused the Carter Administration to threaten to revoke their tax-exempt status. Hence, they had a "revelation" that blacks should be allowed into the Mormon clergy in the 1970s.

 

My $0.02: I hadn't heard this...but you know...I'm not terribly surprised.

 

Conor

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"Faith does not fear reason."--Pope Pius XII

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Reprobate
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deludedgod wrote:They would

deludedgod wrote:

They would also rather like to forget it since their racist policies caused the Carter Administration to threaten to revoke their tax-exempt status. Hence, they had a "revelation" that blacks should be allowed into the Mormon clergy in the 1970s.

It's a shame too. As much as I'm for civil liberties, if the Mormon church hadn't folded to Carter and lost tax-exempt status, millions of Mormons paying 10% tithe would have had quite the positive impact on the national debt.

 

I remember when I was 14 or 15 or so we went to the Portland temple to do baptisms for the dead. Everybody in the temple wears white because white allegedly represents purity and is the color of god, yes, even after the Mormons started accepting blacks. There was a black couple working at the Baptismal font. Every kid in my ward, myself included, eyed these "cursed black blemishes" in the temple weird. What the fuck would ever compel blacks to join Mormonism? It happens, unfortunately for them and society.

 

Greydon, if you're reading this, I like the anti-Mormon lyrics in your new songs.

Efrem Schultz wrote:
You can lead a man to reason, but you can't force him to think.


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12. Special Jesus Underoos

12. Special Jesus Underoos


Slimm
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Wow

The mormon religion is one of the most funniest of them all, especially after watching that south park episode. They really didn't have to put much comedy into that episode because the things the mormons believe is funny all by itself. I didn't know that they refused to let black americans join their clergy, but I kinda see that as a good thing...

Slimm,

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"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called Insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called Religion." - Robert M. Pirsig,


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Slimm wrote:The mormon

Slimm wrote:

The mormon religion is one of the most funniest of them all, especially after watching that south park episode. They really didn't have to put much comedy into that episode because the things the mormons believe is funny all by itself. I didn't know that they refused to let black americans join their clergy, but I kinda see that as a good thing...

Slimm,

Mormonism is no funnier than any other church. They're less self-righteous than most of the other cults that poison the world.

 

The funny thing about the South Park episode is that it was 100% true.

 

And Mormons now accept blacks, but didn't until the 1970s.

Efrem Schultz wrote:
You can lead a man to reason, but you can't force him to think.