Are Mormons weirdo's?

[jazz_fanatic]

I read the title of this thread and giggled like Peter Griffin.

My professor was on the Colbert show! That was the only time I watched it. Just thought I'd throw in a random fact that has nothing to do with the topic of this thread.

Good day.

 

[Duck Rodgers]

I don't think anybody will argue that Mormon media isn't strange to an extent. A lot of that definitely feels really awkward no matter what level your familiarity with Mormons are. But they are improving in that regard.

It should be interesting to see what Axelrod and Obama's other campaign flunkies can come up with this time around though. They are going to need the biggest spin job in history to make that guy look good at this point.

 

[colton]

Maybe I need to backup more for those that don't know. Mormons believe a group of Israelites/Jews sailed from somewhere in the middle-east (someone will have to help me on where the first promised land is speculated to be) to Central (or South) America and were the first people to settle the continents. Eventually all of the good guys were wiped out for their unrighteousness, but all of the bad guys that descended from the bad Laman survived and went on to populate two continents (to the tune of several million people) in the span of about 2,000 years. Which means that all Native Americans are just dark jews, genetic evidence notwithstanding.

You are seriously mis-stating things here. Granted you were trying to write a quick summary, but still...

Some corrections:

"were the first people to settle the continents" -- No, Mormons don't believe this. For example, the Book of Mormon teaches that another group settled in the Americas 1500+ years prior to the Israelites ("Nephites" and "Lamanites") you mention. And many Mormons, myself included, believe that there were very likely other groups of people in the Americas as well that the BoM doesn't explicitly mention--including one or more of the current scientific theories such as are listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_of_the_Americas

"Eventually all of the good guys were wiped out for their unrighteousness, but all of the bad guys that descended from the bad Laman survived" -- You are way oversimplifying matters by claiming that the light skinned group was good and the dark skinned group was bad. There are countless examples in the BoM of wicked Nephites and of righteous Lamanites, including long periods of time when the Lamanites as a whole were more righteous than the Nephites. There's even a prominent Lamanite prophet who prophesied the birth of Jesus. So it's not like it's a "Mormons believe light skinned people are good and dark skinned people are bad" type of thing like you are implying.

"went on to populate two continents" -- Again, many Mormons (such as myself) believe that the Nephites and Lamanites were just part of groups of people in the Americas.

"all Native Americans are just dark jews, genetic evidence notwithstanding" -- Thanks for the patronizing attitude, but you are wrong again. "All Native Americans have Israelite ancestry" might be a correct way of saying things, given how the Nephites/Lamanites are likely to have mixed with other groups. Note that saying "All Native have ONLY Israelite ancestry" would not be an accurate depiction of Mormon beliefs (this Mormon, anyway). And DNA evidence is perfectly compatible with the view that the Israelites are AMONG the Native Americans' ancestors, just not the EXCLUSIVE ancestors.

By the way, your implications that Mormons ignore science are just plain stupid, especially given the large numbers of Mormon scientists in the world -- of which I am one. And it's clear that LDS church leadership take science seriously as well. For example, in the not too distant past (1 year? 3 years?) they changed the official Introduction to the BoM to read "After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians" instead of "they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians" as it used to say, I'm sure to better reflect what science has taught us. (See here: https://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/introduction?lang=eng)

 

[The-Joker]

You are seriously mis-stating things here. Granted you were trying to write a quick summary, but still...

Some corrections:

"were the first people to settle the continents" -- No, Mormons don't believe this. For example, the Book of Mormon teaches that another group settled in the Americas 1500+ years prior to the Israelites ("Nephites" and "Lamanites") you mention. And many Mormons, myself included, believe that there were very likely other groups of people in the Americas as well that the BoM doesn't explicitly mention--including one or more of the current scientific theories such as are listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_of_the_Americas

"Eventually all of the good guys were wiped out for their unrighteousness, but all of the bad guys that descended from the bad Laman survived" -- You are way oversimplifying matters by claiming that the light skinned group was good and the dark skinned group was bad. There are countless examples in the BoM of wicked Nephites and of righteous Lamanites, including long periods of time when the Lamanites as a whole were more righteous than the Nephites. There's even a prominent Lamanite prophet who prophesied the birth of Jesus. So it's not like it's a "Mormons believe light skinned people are good and dark skinned people are bad" type of thing like you are implying.

"went on to populate two continents" -- Again, many Mormons (such as myself) believe that the Nephites and Lamanites were just part of groups of people in the Americas.

"all Native Americans are just dark jews, genetic evidence notwithstanding" -- Thanks for the patronizing attitude, but you are wrong again. "All Native Americans have Israelite ancestry" might be a correct way of saying things, given how the Nephites/Lamanites are likely to have mixed with other groups. Note that saying "All Native have ONLY Israelite ancestry" would not be an accurate depiction of Mormon beliefs (this Mormon, anyway). And DNA evidence is perfectly compatible with the view that the Israelites are AMONG the Native Americans' ancestors, just not the EXCLUSIVE ancestors.

By the way, your implications that Mormons ignore science are just plain stupid, especially given the large numbers of Mormon scientists in the world -- of which I am one. And it's clear that LDS church leadership take science seriously as well. For example, in the not too distant past (1 year? 3 years?) they changed the official Introduction to the BoM to read "After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians" instead of "they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians" as it used to say, I'm sure to better reflect what science has taught us. (See here: https://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/introduction?lang=eng)

Boom goes the dynamite

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[CONAN]

Definitely different. In this world very glad for that.

 

[NUMBERICA]

You are seriously mis-stating things here. Granted you were trying to write a quick summary, but still...

Some corrections:

"were the first people to settle the continents" -- No, Mormons don't believe this. For example, the Book of Mormon teaches that another group settled in the Americas 1500+ years prior to the Israelites ("Nephites" and "Lamanites") you mention. And many Mormons, myself included, believe that there were very likely other groups of people in the Americas as well that the BoM doesn't explicitly mention--including one or more of the current scientific theories such as are listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_of_the_Americas

"Eventually all of the good guys were wiped out for their unrighteousness, but all of the bad guys that descended from the bad Laman survived" -- You are way oversimplifying matters by claiming that the light skinned group was good and the dark skinned group was bad. There are countless examples in the BoM of wicked Nephites and of righteous Lamanites, including long periods of time when the Lamanites as a whole were more righteous than the Nephites. There's even a prominent Lamanite prophet who prophesied the birth of Jesus. So it's not like it's a "Mormons believe light skinned people are good and dark skinned people are bad" type of thing like you are implying.

"went on to populate two continents" -- Again, many Mormons (such as myself) believe that the Nephites and Lamanites were just part of groups of people in the Americas.

"all Native Americans are just dark jews, genetic evidence notwithstanding" -- Thanks for the patronizing attitude, but you are wrong again. "All Native Americans have Israelite ancestry" might be a correct way of saying things, given how the Nephites/Lamanites are likely to have mixed with other groups. Note that saying "All Native have ONLY Israelite ancestry" would not be an accurate depiction of Mormon beliefs (this Mormon, anyway). And DNA evidence is perfectly compatible with the view that the Israelites are AMONG the Native Americans' ancestors, just not the EXCLUSIVE ancestors.

By the way, your implications that Mormons ignore science are just plain stupid, especially given the large numbers of Mormon scientists in the world -- of which I am one. And it's clear that LDS church leadership take science seriously as well. For example, in the not too distant past (1 year? 3 years?) they changed the official Introduction to the BoM to read "After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians" instead of "they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians" as it used to say, I'm sure to better reflect what science has taught us. (See here: https://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/introduction?lang=eng)

I read your response as two parts "this is what I believe" (which doesn't apply to what the general LDS population believe or - in my case - were taught) and one part revisionist 'history'*. Obviously I touched a nerve there, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten a neg rep. But to each their own.

The strongest point of your post is in bold.

* Pardon the tone that can be gathered, but it seems fair to say that you would deem some things history that I would not. And the "revisionist" part is what you just said in your last paragraph.

 

[colton]

I read your response as two parts "this is what I believe" (which doesn't apply to what the general LDS population believe or - in my case - were taught) and one part revisionist 'history'*. Obviously I touched a nerve there, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten a neg rep. But to each their own.

I gave you the neg rep because (a) your statement had serious errors and you were passing it off as "this is what LDS believe" and (b) you had a snarky comment about genetic evidence.

I won't argue what you may have been taught, but did you ever think that perhaps the people that taught you may have been misinformed themselves? The assumption that the Nephites and Lamanites were the principal ancestors of the native Americans was just that: an assumption. The Book of Mormon itself certainly doesn't make that claim.

* Pardon the tone that can be gathered, but it seems fair to say that you would deem some things history that I would not. And the "revisionist" part is what you just said in your last paragraph.

Maybe this is just how your post comes across and not what you intended, but it certainly seems like you are contradicting yourself. In your earlier post you were implying that the LDS church is anti-science. In this post you are implying that the LDS church is pro-science, but "revisionist". Which is it? You can't have it both ways. Either the LDS church is ignoring genetic evidence as you implied in your first post or else they are undergoing revisionist history in order to stay in tune with science as you are implying here. Or perhaps there's a third alternative, as I would argue, which is that the church is not revising history but rather identifying previous incorrect assumptions.

 

[Deleted member 365]

Some members hate science... Mostly because, they don't understand it, feel it's an attack on religion itself, or just hate Al Gore and associate global warming to science, which is somehow tied to Al Gore, and so the endless circle of hate continues.

But I think the leadership of their church is actually the most science friendly, educated, and "liberal" leadership in perhaps any other major organized religion. You have nuclear engineers, supreme court judges, and heart surgeons, just to name a few...

 

[Gameface]

In my vast experience Mormons are not weirdos. At least, not any more so than any other group.

 

[The-Joker]

Some members hate science... Mostly because, they don't understand it, feel it's an attack on religion itself, or just hate Al Gore and associate global warming to science, which is somehow tied to Al Gore, and so the endless circle of hate continues.

But I think the leadership of their church is actually the most science friendly, educated, and "liberal" leadership in perhaps any other major organized religion. You have nuclear engineers, supreme court judges, and heart surgeons, just to name a few...

I believe this for the most part. Which is why I didn't understand why the Prop 8 thing was blown so completely out of control

 

[Marty McFly]

Mormonism aren't any weirder than any other religion. The reason it seems like they are is Mormons actually stick to their guns and practice their beliefs (well, most of them). I grew up catholic and 90% of the catholic community would go to church on Sunday morning (which lasts an hour) (wearing shorts and a t shirt) and essentially forget they were catholic for the other 167 hours of the week. If you met a catholic person who actually followed the bible and the commandments they'd probably seem just about as weird as your average LDS person.

That said, lol @ religion

 

[TroutBum]

I do enjoy it when Colton comes into a thread and lays down the mother F'ing law.


Brains > Skinny Jeans