That is true. I have no problem letting them no that, and either does my mom. I think I learned that from her. I think if the damn people weren't so nice one of them would have killed her already.

Don't Mormons also believe that children, before they are born, pick their mothers & fathers in heaven? That leads me to the question....why did Michael Jackson's kids choose him??????? :hmmm:

I've never heard that one, but I don't know.

And I agree with what was said before: strange religion or not, I've known many, many mormons in my time and they've all been amonst the best, most loyal, most friendly people I've ever known. Just because of that, I'm in favor of Mormonism, as religions go (I'm agnostic, myself). It seems to produce good people.

Yes, My best friends are mormons and they are really cool, but the funny thing is... most of them do not know their religion 100%... They deny all the crazy stuff about God having wifes in other planets and so forth,

The major religions of the world Christianity, Hinduism, Budihsm, Islam all started over 1500 years ago, Mormonism started in the 1900's ... Thats why I believe it is a cult.... They are not Christians... they believe they are....

I took a class on religions of the world and it is not considered a religion, and I've read books and watched movies on their beliefs... really crazy... but I respect everyones beliefs.... thats what they probably think about mine... so its cool...

To be perfectly blunt, I find nearly all religions to be pretty odd. Some are odder than others, to be sure, but they're all kinda strange to me.

A byproduct of growing up in a completely areligious household, I guess.

Your religion is New England Patriotism. :thumb:

Don't forget that there is both LDS and RLDS. I don't know all the differences, but many of the seemingly strange beliefs have been strucken from the record in Reformed LDS, I believe.

Considered a religion by you or not, the Mormon church is one of the largest in the world -- it's bigger than the United Methodit Chruch, by far.

I don't know much about their religion, but the mormans I've known over the years have been some of the hardest working, most trustworthy, decent people I've ever met. I'm really impressed at the work ethic and drive to succeed that they seem to instill in their children.

Cue the music:

"And that's how the Book of Mormon was written, dum dum dum dum dum"

(southpark reference, for anyone that doesn't get it)

According to the book of Mormon and Joseph Smith (the founder of the LDS church):

Long ago during the time of Christ, some Hebrews sailed the ocean and settled in America, they were the original Native Americans, all white skinned, and began practicing the Mormon religion, erecting temples that have never been found in our day. Some time afterwards, the native Americans who did not believe in the Mormon faith warred with and killed all the believers. God therefore turned their skin red as punishment.

Fast-forward to the 1800's. A man named Joseph Smith was praying to God asking for guidance on which faith he should join. God and Jesus appeared to tell him that all the Christian faiths were twisted abominations and that he should join none of them. Some time later, an angel named Moroni appeared to tell him to seek out the writings of the true religion that were etched on a collection of solid gold plates, written by the original Native American people who believed in the true faith long ago. When he found it, it was written in a language he described as "Reformed Egyptian". The angel then told him that with the use of some kind of special translation stones, he would be able to translate the golden texts into English.

When he did that, he had them printed out as the Book of Mormon and started his church. However, God apparently told Joseph Smith that he was not allowed to show anyone the original golden tablets, and they have never actually been seen by anyone else with their eyes. A group of loyal family members and friends of Joseph Smith later claimed to "see" the existence of the golden ancient text with their "spiritual eyes" but not with their earthly ones.

Thatll do for a Cliff's notes version of how this cult got started, if I got something wrong, someone please correct me.

The only thing I have in common with mormons is that I go to church for 3 hours on Sunday. But, I only go about 16-17 times a year.

That extraordinary story alone should be enough to discredit that "religion" and prove it for what it is... complete fuking hogwash.

I do not feel like getting into a religous argument, but for a college coure on minority groups (including religions) I was assigned to write on the LDS religon and did a lot of research on it and the past of the church. You got to be careful what videos and books you read on it because some of the stuff you guys are talking about are not true and others you guys are very vague like saying they believe werid stuff and things like that so I do not know what you mean. Besides having another book to the Bible the main two differences is that LDS believe they must keep Gods commandments to be saved and do not believe the Trinity is a single being. LDS believe that GOD Christ and the Holy Ghost are seperate beings.

Oh and one thing I found out is that the word "mormon" to describe a member of the LDS church was actually started by people who were killing of members of the LDS church because they did not like them and saw them as a threat to the status quo. They used the word "mormon" for LDS members as they did the "N-word" for African Americans. The LDS people just did not let it get to them because they have a book by the same name in hopes that it would go away, but instead that is how most of the world knows them as.

Just a little info I came across in my research

Because you were raised to belive in your religion perhaps?

Dave

There are those who might think of Joseph Smith as some kind of a religious prophet, but historically speaking, he definitely was no saint!