/atheism/ - Atheism

>>2922

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HSlbuli7HM

They do believe they will ascend to godhood and get a planet.

And if "spirit children" don't come from "celestial sex" where else would they come from.

and the Indians as Lost corrupted Jew is definitely part of their dogma.

Here's a book that the author was excommunicated from the Church of Later Day Saints for.. (see pic)

Correction: the california gull actually lives in salt lake, so its kind of plausible feathered angels helped the first settlers. http://pioneer.utah.gov/research/utah_symbols/bird.html

>>12640

Local birds attracted by a swarm of crickets to eat.. Do we really need God to explain this?

It's the food chain.

Last week two Mormons that looked 16 and 14 dropped of the book of Mormon with a brochure, and promised to come back next week to answe any questions. When they came back I told them I had looked over the brochure and a bit of the book of Mormon, wasn't interested and didn't want to waste their time. As I was about to step back inside my place, the older one asked, Might I ask why?" I told him, "I don't like the idea I and my family will go to the outer darkness."

They said "That's deep doctrine. There's an explanation but its very complicated."

They then quickly gave me a confusing reply, part of which was that only those who fought God thousands of years ago will be sent there except they're gone and no longer have physical bodies. And also those who came before God in his glory and still rejected him.

I decided I could check on that later and decided to humor them by asking them where people go when they die then. Hell? So they scrambled to get a brochure and hand me an lds.org card, so they could explain to me about how you either go to celestrial kingdom - (and become God according to deep doctrine), or go to heaven. But unlike other Christians when you die, you go to a kind of spiritual world that's like limbo where you have the opportunity to recognize God and still go to heaven.

I told them that was indeed an improvement and compared it favorably to mainstream Buddhism with its infinite chances at redemption. The older one said he knew nothing about Buddhism and asked me to explain it to him in case he talked to Buddhists. So ironically, I ended up lectured the missionaries a little on the histories of other religions. It felt like I was preaching to the missionaries lol. It's never a good idea to send teenagers who know little except Mormonism, to proselytize to a older Atheist.

Anyway, they told me if I read the book of Mormon and prayed I would have a spiritual feeling and proof as God came into my life. I told them I had tried that with Christianity and it didn't work, but unlike most people I asked for big things not small things ,so I would have undeniable proof of a miracle.

I ended up countering their lines with a bunch of familiar Atheistic arguments. I told them it didn't make sense that God would let his word be corrupted, and allow a great apostasy for 1800 years and then renew everything with Joesph Smith. Not when he could have just spoke with a booming voice from the heavens, to avoid drama, people going to hell, and not understanding his word for that whole time.

The younger one looked at me with fiercely serious eyes and recited a long speech I couldn't follow. The older one was more relaxed though. He smiled and said "That kind of defeats the point of Christianity and having faith." You just had to be convinced God had a plan. I could see in his face that he was struggling with the depth of my arguments.

Anyway, when I ultimately told them I had left Christianity because I thought it was as fake as the other religions, they seemed to immediately lose interest in a conversation that had been going for 15 minutes. We shook hands and they left. I don't think they will send any more missionaries or brochures.

But I do have a cool Book of Mormon to show for it, which I have put on a bookshelf next to my Coran. I'm on a quest to build a collection of religious texts now. Gotta catch them all.

I did told them I'd probably flip through it again for the sake of diligence, but frankly the book of Mormon has been a disappointment. The bible is way more readable and approachable, with comparatively interesting stories, and flowing with imagery directly from Genesis in less convoluted language. They badly need to make a non King James version of the Book of Mormon.

>>12775

The Book of Mormon is the least interesting text is, in my opinion, the worst text in the most interesting and unique religion upon the face of the earth, and the most wonderful thing if it wasn't such a fraud.

The thing about Mormonism is that, if you stick to the road the church delineates, you'll end up with an odd protestantism as an outsider. Join, you'll start to see the differences. Study its history more attendant, you can find some pretty interesting stuff. The Journal of Discourses is pretty interesting, its basically the addresses the chruch leaders would give to people when Utah was a Theocratic Kingdom right under the noses of old uncle sam. Sometimes its pretty monotone stuff, but other times, especially anything by Brigham young, its pretty cool. Anything from the 1870's on is fun to read because it shows how the culture of duplicity, doublethink, logical fallicies and us vs them mentality in Mormonism has changed and morphed throughout its existence. The leaders could say "You guys know polygamy is bad right?" and somehow have the whole community understand this was purely a show for the authorities, and in reality it was a highly praised doctrine.

Joseph Smith is a treasure trove of keks. And I mean the actual Smith, not the version the church tries to pass off as true like in the pamphlets and Prophet of the Restoration. You gotta go History of the Church and King Follet discourse for this stuff. Although, fair warning, to me it makes me feel like somewhat of a schmuck when I think about how much power a borderline illiterate peasant egomaniac was capable of garnering, and how much people came to respect him, just based on his ability to say the right shit at the right time and build a solid house of lies that has outlived him so.

Missionary work is a whole different animal. They might question their faith at some point, but there exists an incredible support system to ensure that missionaries don't have much time to think about this stuff while on the field, and that they can project the appearance of giving a heck while, honestly, you're kind of just a mark in the grand scheme of things. The mission is also as much about making young Mormons believe in the church as it is about converting others. Spend two years of your life doing nothing BUT Mormonism; and only the clean cut church approved parts (while anything spooky comes from nasty outsiders that just don't get it), well, it has an effect on most.