Since I moved to Salt Lake City, I decided to study the religion a little. One on one, Mormons are fine people, but the things they claim to believe are ridiculous. Such as, at the highest reaches of the Mormon afterlife, every man has his own planet and rules as a God on it! Most of them don't think about them, or just accept whatever apology the church makes for them.
I've read a couple of biographies of Joseph Smith, and I really believe he's one of America's premiere con men. He's one of those types of con men who eventually began believing in his own con, and that only HELPED the sales and the conversions. He wrote the Book of Mormon, borrowing liberally from other religious texts and beliefs of the time.
I mean, picture a con where YOU'RE the "prophet and revealator" getting people to follow you, getting them to tithe 10% of their income to you voluntarily, eventually even having God tell you to take multiple wives when the daughters of the faithful started looking good! How great for YOU! As both a religious and political leader, he was like an Egyptian pharaoh.
His life story would make a great movie! |
