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Dec. 30, 2005 I find the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints fascinating. It's relatively large, with some 12 million adherents (the fourth largest religion in the USA according to WikiPedia) and rather new compared to most faiths. It also helps point out the fundamental flaws in much of evangelical fundamentalist Christian thinking. There are those evangelicals that think that only they are heaven-bound, that everyone else is going inside an active volcano for eternity. They think that their faith is the True faith. Of course, the Mormons think that their religion is also the True faith. That's flaw number one. By definition, there is no way to test faith, so if we pick someone honest and sincere from either faith and ask each what the proper religion is, we get a conflict. This means that at least one is wrong. The one that's wrong could be the evangelical faith – we cannot rule it out using just this logic. They could also both be wrong. Mormons think that the rest of Christendom missed the boat, similar to what some non-Mormon Christians think about Jews; poor bastards! – if only they would realize that the savior was already here! Those darn non-Mormon Christians, if only they'd realize they are missing an entire book of the Word of God, the Book Of Mormon! One way to resolve this is to wait for death and see who ends up where, if anywhere. But there is another way. We could look at the non-biased, “outside”, evidence and apply logic and reason to the claims of each faith. For example, when one gets right down to it, the founding of the Mormon faith is rather, well, respectfully, silly. Nevertheless, there are those that fervently believe it, those that use arguments such as, “if you have faith, it makes sense”, or, “God can do anything, so, why not?”. [1: Here is a link to an NPR story about that faith, near the end, you can hear such a quote from a faithful-Mormon] This brings us to flaw number two. The same arguments can be used to back up any faith, and, applying logic and reason to most any religion reveals troubling issues. I find it very ironic how eager many non-Mormon Christians are to attack Mormons, since by applying the same skepticism to their own faith they end up with many of the same red flags. Some of the more enlightened Christian sects have clever, philosophical, ways around this dilemma. Catholics, for example, say that the Bible is never wrong, merely its interpretation. This gives them a wide berth to accept evolution and a sun-centered solar system (though it did take them quite a while), for example, without deviation from much of their dogma. The American fundamentalist evangelical Christian sects, however, which claim a very literal Bible and a very young Earth, have no such philosophical “out”. When they claim that science is wrong for accepting a 4.5 billion year old Earth, they basically invalidate themselves. It's just a complicated way of saying something like, “my entire belief system rests on the non-existence of rocks!” There is of course another angle to this – tradition and society. There are many agnostics and more atheists than I find comfortable that participate in the structure of religion – they send their kids to get religious education, they attend mass, etc., because they think religion provides a sort of glue that holds societies together – a mechanism for enforcing norms and rules below the level of the legal system. [Perhaps more devious and troubling, we have a growing crop of smart conservatives that know better, but support religion because it keeps the “ignorant masses” in line and on their site politically] I can't deny that this is true to a certain extent, but what this is really saying is that if any number of people believe in the same thing, they will form a more cohesive and perhaps, harmonious, unit. There are three issues here, however, as I see them. One, what about those that don't want to participate in this fellowship? What rights and responsibilities do they have? Two, how does one get everyone to believe the same way? Even if we ignore the chaps from issue one, with certain evangelical sects pegging most of humanity as Hell-bound, is this feasible? The process to achieve this is riddled with evil and, historically, blood. Three, are the short-term benefits of such conformity healthy for the human race in the long run? After all, I'm sure that many Muslim women are perfectly happy in their societies, even though we in the West more or less consider them repressed. I'm also sure that members of suicide cults that actually believe that taking their own life will yield better results, enjoy belonging to the group (at least up until the moment of truth). What about the Amish? They certainly seem like a group of content people. They send out their young adults to spend a year in the real world, and most choose to return to the Amish way of life instead. I wonder though, what will the Amish do to prevent the next big comet impact? Is the comfort they feel in their little communities ultimately healthy? Is it selfish? The best way to get a diverse set of beliefs is by allowing freedom of religion, something we enjoy here in the USA. The best way to ensure that one belief system doesn't try to dominate the others for its own “higher purpose” is secularism, something currently under attack. Secularism should allow evangelicals to believe that the world is indeed only 6,000 years old, but not prevent or interfere with the rights of my children to get a non-biased, scientific, view in a public setting. The Amish also benefit. When our scientists and engineers detect and then prevent the next catastrophic mass extinction event from space, they will save life on Earth so that the Amish can continue to churn butter and scorn the evils of technology. [1] A Mormon, speaking with an NPR correspondent in a Mormon Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah (here is the link - this segment is at the very end): Mormon: It [the Museum and its pieces] gives you a greater sense of his [Joseph Smith's, the founder of the Mormon faith] reality, and you're looking at something that was actually real. Reporter: How can you be so sure? Mormon: To someone who isn't [a Mormon] it's hard to explain, but when you receive a witness of the Spirit, you can't deny its reality. And I received that witness. Reporter: [speaking now to audience]: Davies [the name of the Mormon] is moved to tears as he speaks. ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. I now have a blog that I will start to increasingly maintain and update. Here is the link: fredsuberview.blogspot.com/ This is my second foray into the UK writing discordia. This time around, I want to be a tad more raw - maybe a bit edgier (does that sound "art-see"?) Maybe I'll address even more issues that most Americans consider taboo... About my personal background and life: I was born, I got some education, worked, ate, and had some kids. It seems I like to write � something that was unknown to me until relatively recently...How's that for detail? ;) Hate mail is welcome unless you are from the Army Of God. Please! It's not that I mind seeing pictures of aborted fetuses in my inbox, but once you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all... Email: dahlek65@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. 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