Mormonism is a Rationally Untenable Belief

It is frustrating, but also necessary, to write about a conception that is foolishly taken seriously by approximately 15 million people, and remains unquestioned or unchallenged by millions more. From the obscure and gloom beginnings, in which a peculiar following emerged, and oozed its nonsense world wide, Mormonism has gained the status of a prominent national religion. Analyzing the origins and principles of Mormonism illuminates why the religion, in its entirety, is untenable on rational grounds. Succinctly, Mormons believe in absolute obsequiousness to god, regular prayer, studying the bible and the book of Mormon which promises to teach one to be happy, keeping the Sabbath holy, following the prophet without question, obeying the ten commandments, live a life of chastity, establish a Mormon Utopian society, and god possesses the most paramount wisdom. This information comes from the commandments section on mormon.org. What their beliefs break down to is credulously accept information without question or apposed thought as long as it comes from a "divine" source; absolute exuberance if one reads the vacuous words in a scattered book written by a charlatan influenced by a craving for fame; refraining from sexual intercourse because it is a filthy and shameful derogatory act if done before marriage or without the purpose of reproducing; a dehumanizing outlook on homosexuals; pejorative perspectives on non-Mormons; the reward of eternal being if one fulfills gods code; and lastly, blindly taking the epistemological, phenomenological, cosmological, ethical, emotional and supposedly logical utterances of the Mormons as empirical fact, and, or, of philosophical soundness. When one begins to weigh the claims and the beginnings of Mormonism along side the refusal to be falsifiable, quantifiably provable, tangibly testable, or even rationally sensible, we begin to see the veil of benevolence stripped away from Mormonism very face. Joseph Smith was the founder of Mormonism, born in 1805. Joseph Smith was part of numerous shady and criminal activities during his life. In his early twenties he faced reoccurring charges for disorderly conduct. He had a trial in 1826 - in which he was charged for scheming and financial fraudulence. A few years later in Missouri he was charged for threatening public officials and treason (years later he was charged with treason against Chicago Illinois), in which he fled his trial. Joseph Smith was linked to a malevolent plot to assassinate a major political figure. In 1844 he was charged with encouraging a mass riot, in addition to an abundance of sexual offenses, most of which were unreported during his lifetime (http://en.wikipedia.org...). These overwhelming sinister tendencies, which is the complete antithesis of what one would even consider a decent human being, is the man who provided the platform for Mormonism, the religion which encompasses approximately 15 million people. The emergence of actions comes down to tendencies, and with Joseph Smith providing quintessential displays of the same mendacious and awful tendencies throughout his life, it's perfectly sensible to formulate the view that he was simply fabricating his self proclaimed seraphness, and not only is this perspective sensible, it's correct. However, Mormon based websites refuse to sincerely acknowledge any of Mr.Smith's criminal activity. Often referring to the tremendous crimes Joseph Smith committed as wrongly accused, such as on mormon.org; or they compare Joseph Smiths' life to a Christ-like life. This absolute absurdity is nothing more than a religious rationalization.The making of quick justifications instead of genuine excogitation is manifestly detrimental to society.Irrational beliefs held with validity by not only the believers, but people who withhold questioning or who are oblivious to what's going on, allow society to be shaped by such irrationality. The first significant instance of Mr.Smiths religious onset was when he claimed that he was visited in the woods by an angel named Moroni. Moroni bestowed Joseph Smith will scriptures written on gleaming ancient golden plates. This angel instructed Joseph Smith, as he vehemently affirmed, to not show anyone, however have the writings published for the world to see (http://www.pbs.org...). Joseph Smith leeched on with parasitic intent to a wealthy friend, Martin Harris, whom Mr.Smith manipulated into transcribing his "divinely" inspired words as god was speaking to him, and eventually Mr.Smith cajoled Martin Harris into selling his entire farmland in order to fiance and publish the Mormon scriptures. During the peculiar period of composing these alleged holy scriptures, Martin Harris's wife stole over 100 pages of the scripture and dared Joseph Smith to reproduce the words verbatim. Joseph Smith could not. Thus he declared, in a burst of sly desperation, that the angel had therefore given him a new vision, a new scripture, and that Satan had exsanguinated the omniscience out of the omniscient narrative. Also, that the angel has taken back the golden plates. Writing out a new scripture with the voice of god in his head, this time expounding sacred slurs from a hat and through a carpet, the book of Mormon was completed (http://www.biblebelievers.com... and http://www.exmormon.org...). As outlandish as this may seem,as well as a reminder that millions of people believe this, these are the crucial and bizarre events that took place. In contemporary times, and for the deeper thinking periods in history, any claim, any whisper, any extravagant vocalization --invariably -- calls for evidence, therefore why is religion, in this context, Mormonism, an exception? The stupefaction that such an institution based in absolutely no evidence, with an incredibility dishonest origin, an extemporaneous construction, and biased principles, poses the question of why it should hold any sort of seriousness at all in the 21st century. Believing that the united states constitution was divinely inspired (http://eom.byu.edu...), quotes like "Whatever God commands is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events transpire" (Joseph Smith, The Teachings of Joseph Smith) , as well as utterly alarming preaching's such as: "One thing that makes this life so hard sometimes is that we"re out of God"s physical presence. Not only that, but we can"t remember our pre-earth life which means we have to operate by faith rather than sight" (Mormon.org).I am asking you to weigh variables and consider the most plausible stream of events, while discarding of what is impossible. Examining all the events has shown us, Mormonism is a rationally untenable belief. Response to Round 1 To say "there is no real proof that any universal truth exists" is an issue perhaps can have a separate discussion on, however, Mormons in fact devotedly believe the word of god is absolute universal truth, and with no evidence to back this claim up, as well as Joseph Smiths convoluted claim to be working on gods behalf, this idea ought to be disposed of. Conversely, I did not say Mormonism had to be in accordance with universal truth, but in accordance with rational thought, which is indicative of objective analysis. No one should blindly accept principles without a logically sufficient reason to believe so. The distinction is weighing variables and the best reasons for believing in something, while having proof in order to subscribe to an idea, as opposed to accepting religious dogma because someone says so. It is irrational to believe in something without evidence, and even more so if one continues to uphold the idea when they are clearly aware of the background and marginalizing principles in which Mormonism is engulfed. Apophenia is natural for the human mind, however it is simply irrational. Therefore basing an belief, and this goes for Joesph Smiths beginnings, in irrationality allows it to remain irrational. Religion is the only source of finding fulfillment community in life. Their are betters ways to do so, without the gratuitous biases, such city events for example. However, weighing the variable of good and bad reasons to believe, we see from the discussion why Mormonism is untenable of rational ground.