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• Wednesday, December 5, 2007 07:14 PM

  Mormon beliefs and the presidency

  Critics of the Church of the Latter Day Saints can easily point to passages in the Book of Mormon that seem bizarre and unfathomable to non-believers. But the same can be done with the Book of Revelation or Old Testament accounts of a "wrathful" God. Religious beliefs by their very nature are not subject to the same dispassionate analysis as healthcare plans.

  The difference here is that the Book of Mormon was written only 180 years ago by some guy from Utah. There's historical records, personal accounts and knowledge of this time, all in English and not distorted and altered by almost 2000 years of history. To know all the church's beliefs and the story of its founding and then still believe in all of it is just dumb. I wouldn't want a Mormon president because actually buying into all of that shows a dangerous lack of logic, reasoning and critical thinking, all of which are qualities that I'd like a president to have.

  So this man believes that a guy in Utah in 1830 was told by an angel that there were golden plates buried near his house that contained the word of God, and the central article of his faith is a book that was dictated by the guy while looking into a hat. Coincidentally, only 11 people claim to actually have seen these plates, because apparently artifacts placed on earth by God that would basically provide hard proof for the claims you're making really aren't a big enough deal to let the general public in on it.

  You really want a man who believes all this to run the country?

  —bwaage Read bwaage's other letters
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