Cristiano

Richard Dawkins: Romney a ‘massively gullible fool’ for practicing Mormonism | The Raw Story

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Bard Jameson

/waits for the sound of fundamentalist Christians who agree with Dawkins blowing gaskets trying to support Romney without openly agreeing with Dawkins.

Listen...you can hear the pressure cooker begin to whistle...

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Marie Reynaud

I'm guessing Romney thinks it was in Branson.

Jack Belvedere

I don't pay much attention to it, I think most religions are full of a lot of nonsensical stuff and it's kind of a glass house situation. Only thing that I pay attention to is when they start trying to create policy around religious beliefs.

Morgoth

More troubling than the general unbelievable nature of Mormonism is its ridiculous racism.

That said, I actually have a friend online who is a liberal Mormon, though I am not sure how much of the teachings she believes these days.

Eboni Khan

The comments on this are golden.

Yeah Mormons are racist. They tried to fix that by trotting out that Haitian Mormon Mayor from Utah. Whatevs.

Zaida Gearbox

I did a little reading on Mormonism a few years ago. I don't get it. I think it's silly. But, I know perfectly sane, otherwise rational, well educated people who are Mormons. So, maybe it's okay that I don't get it.

Eboni Khan

Cristiano

We need to make 'endless celestial sex' into a thing.

Eboni Khan

on what was it, Trillions of planets?

Cristiano

It looks like a Scooby Doo episode, except the villains are those pesky black people.

eighthdwarf Checchinato

Is there even such a thing as "liberal Mormons"?
In the '90s, I was in that church for a couple of years until I came to grips again, and I must say that they are the most chauvinistic and authoritative bunch I've ever seen.

They teach that priesthood is above all - which literally means that a 12yo boy, once ordained as deacon, is above all women in the family, even his mother. He holds the priesthood, he is the ruler of the household - as long as his dad doesn't hold a higher position in the priesthood. The holder of the priesthood is the head of the household, period.
And questioning someone who holds the priesthood? That's just as horrible as questioning the prophet and apostles. Which means you're neither allowed to question your bishop or stake president or area president either since they hold an even higher position within the priesthood than the average Mormon man.
Can you imagine Romney ever having been doubted or questioned even once, during his cushioned life within the LDS church, especially with the "white horse prophecy" referring to him?

And "women don't need priesthood, they have the highest gift of all, the gift to create life" - so if a woman doesn't marry and doesn't get children, she is a 2nd class woman. Unless - unless she marries and at least adopts children, the more the better. And ideally this marriage has to happen in the temple, "sealing" her to him for eternity. And a single, childless woman going to the highest heaven? Nope. Only as the wife of a man "sealed" to her for eternity, and as mother of children "sealed" to her likewise.
A woman marrying someone from outside? Makes her just as much a heathen as her husband, even when she's remaining active in church. Especially if she refuses to evangelize her hubby or to talk him into inviting missionaries over. And worse even if she allows her children to stay at home during church activities instead of "teaching" them to become future missionaries.

So yes, I do agree with Dawkins.

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Eboni Khan

I wonder if these bible thumpers know that Mormons believe in more than one God.

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all believe in one God and worship the same God.

Multiple Gods on multiple planets and if you are good enough you get to become a God too? There is nothing Christian about that at all.

Bard Jameson

Atia and I were discussing what little we know of Mormonism in the context of the Romney candidacy the other day. I told her my basic understanding of the theology around each of us becoming gods of our own worlds.

She said - "Aren't we all gods of our own worlds already?"

Polo

I would guess that you're 100% correct, here. It would certainly account for the peevish tone with which Romney greets questions from reporters (other than the softball Fox News type).

He often seems incredulous that they would dare say such things to him.

Isablan Neva

Well, that philosophy does seem to work out pretty well for the average house cat.

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Cindy Claveau

Sillier than thinking an all-powerful Creator of the Universe sent a divine being to earth to remind us that he's taking attendance on Sunday?

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Eris

Don't despair, Mormons, there's always Scientology.

Bard Jameson

And after Scientology...Moonies!

Jahar Aabye

I understand that Richard Dawkins is not American and so I cannot entirely blame him for not understanding one of the finer points of Constitutional law over here, but the Constitution of the United States of America explicitly forbids any religious test as a requirement for holding public office.

The problem with making Romney's religious beliefs a reason why he should not be elected is that one could say the same thing about other religious beliefs as well. There was plenty of innuendo thsr Kennedy, as a Catholic, woukd have greater allegiance to the Vatican than to the Constitution. A century ago, any Jewish candidate would probably have been called a "Christ-Killer", but today in our completely not-at-all anti-semitic society, he would simply he accused of placing Israel's interests above American ones. And we've all seen the shit that people say about Muslim candidates.

So I'm sorry, but I think that these remarks havr used up whatever respect I once had for Richard Dawkins. He's gone from arguing for the separation of church and state, which I agree with, to supporting religious discrimination. The fact that he is so unaware of the similarities between his statements and those used by the Inquisition to justify why other religions were an infestation that needed to be removed is ironic, and indicative of a general lack of critical thinking skills that is appalling for someone who should, in theory, know better.

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eighthdwarf Checchinato

The Mormons do believe in the existence of more than one god - but they worship only one: the one who Jesus supposedly called his Heavenly Father. They do believe in the existence of Satan and his demons as well, but that doesnt mean they worship him.

If you look into the Bible, you'll see that not only one god is mentioned, but many other gods are mentioned through the entire book as well, (the believe in) their "existence" was pretty much a given back then.
That's why even one of the Ten Commandments reads: "you shall have [or, worship, depending on the translation] no other gods besides me" - why would this be one of the basic commandments if no other gods were known to be worshiped? Basically, you were allowed to believe that these other gods existed, but you were forbidden by death to worship them.

"My imaginary friend is awesomer than yours, period! If you don't stop worshiping yours, you'll die!"

eighthdwarf Checchinato

Actually I think they indeed should implement such a test. If you believe in imaginary beings, you're delusional, hence not fit for any given public office.
If the state employed atheists only, and forbade any and all involvement of churches in schools (not only in tax-funded ones) and in all other public departments, this would be a real (because total) separation between church and state.
Of course this awful and unconstitutional line "in god we trust" on the Dollar bills should be replaced with "E Pluribus Unum" again as well.

You say this as if this were a bad thing.

Being a follower of any religion already shows a lack of critical thinking.
And yes I agree with Dawkins that religion - any religion - is an infestation that needs to be removed, a brainwashing that needs to be cured.

Eboni Khan

I disagree because this another religion like Scientology where only the people at the very top really know what the hell is going on. We don't know what is really going on behind closed doors. LDS says one thing because they want mainstream acceptance so bad, but they seem to act differently behind closed doors. They have a very controlled PR process.

Jahar Aabye

Religious belief is not evidence of a delusional disorder unless you hear deities talking back to you. It is true that some delusional or psychotic disorders manifest with religous undertones, but they can just as often involve space aliens or whatever rays people believe that those tinfoil hats are supposed to stop.

Then they would be predicating employment upon forcing someone to renounce their religious beliefs.



Wow. My psychiatrist goes to the same synagogue I do. He's also a Distinguished Fellow of the APA, former researcher at NIH, published who knows how many peer-reviewed articles, graduated from one of the most prestigious medical schools in the world...and that's literally just off the top of my head thinking about the first person whose religious beliefs come to mind. Care to revise your bigoted, ignorant as all fucking hell statement?

What, hard work will set us free? Seriously, maybe you need to re-read your oost and consider exactly how scary and disturbing it sounds.



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bronxelf

Works pretty well for SL, too.

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