The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Plausible Religion

My opponent has completely changed his resolution from "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Plausible Religion" to "The Church of JC of LDS is as plausible as every other religion" His criteria (that he established last round) for religion is: 1. Having a leader 2. Having followers 3. Having cannon and doctrine By this definition my opponent has proved that the mormons are as plausible as any cult created by anyone. If my opponent is willing to say that Mormonism is equally plausible as Scientology or any other cult, I am willing to concede this debate having won. My opponent states that he is not attempting to prove that the Mormon religion is true (plausible) as his resolution says. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Red Herring "We are not debating rather Mormonism is true, we are debating rather Mormonism is a plausible religion. To take the reader’s attention and mine away from the debate at hand is a red herring. You are taking attention away, because it doesn’t matter if Joseph Smith was insane. It matters that he was the leader of a group of people with a set of beliefs. " 1. Plausible means true. 2. Are you saying that one can be both mentally insane and a leader? I don't think so. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Under my opponents definition of a "plausible religion" the following groups and organizations are religions: Lord of the Rings 1. The author is the leader 2. There are many fans of the books (followers) 3. The books are the canon 4. The resilience against evil and the trustworthiness of the fellowship is the doctrine Satanism 1. The leader is Satan 2. They have satanic followers 3. They have books of satan 4. Being evil is their doctrine. Scientology 1. Their leader is Hubbard 2. They have idiots and fools as followers 3. They have documents about an evil alien as the cannon 4. They have the need to run electric current through their bodies using metal cans as the doctrine. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "That is not what I intended, but since CON inferred wrong I will elaborate on my point. The point of listing that different religions have these “weird” things is to prove LDS isn’t the only religion with “weird” beliefs." Your vague resolution and further vague clarification of it is not a problem. The con should never have to "infer" what you mean. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eyewitness Testimony "If somebody writes a book about your character who wants to kill you; said book holds no water because said person has deeper motivations. Those books were written by people who knew Joseph Smith. They were not necessarily Mormons." They were Mormons who clearly wrote with bias. Eyewitness testimony from those who follow an insane person aren't going to be pointing out that he's insane. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Again my opponent is still trying to use biased sources that hold no real water. I'll rest on my sources as well as on this quotation: "Standard language reference works contain no reference to "reformed Egyptian". No non-Mormon scholars acknowledge the existence of either a "reformed Egyptian" language or a "reformed Egyptian" orthography as it has been described in Mormon belief. For instance, in 1966, John A. Wilson, professor of Egyptology at the University of Chicago, wrote, "From time to time there are allegations that picture writing has been found in America… In no case has a professional Egyptologist been able to recognize these characters as Egyptian hieroglyphs. From our standpoint there is no such language as 'reformed Egyptian'. Klaus Baer, another Egyptologist at the University of Chicago, called the characters of the "Caractors" document nothing but "doodlings". An early twentieth century scholar said that the "Caractors" document looked more like "deformed English." Anthropologist Michael D. Coe of Yale University, an expert in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican studies, has written, "Of all the peoples of the pre-Columbian New World, only the ancient Maya had a complete script." 7. "Your right Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery did try to claim revelation from God to cover the whole church. That doesn’t negate the fact that JOSEPH SMITH and MEMBERS believed he was the sole prophet. " You are clearly missing the quoted text from above: ""Even so, Smith and Cowdery had to flee Colesville to escape a gathering mob. Probably referring to this period of flight, Smith told years later of hearing the voices of Peter, James, and John who he said gave Smith and Cowdery an apostolic authority. When Oliver Cowdery and other church members attempted to exercise independent authority—as when Book of Mormon witness Hiram Page used his seer stone to locate the American New Jerusalem prophesied by the Book of Mormon—Smith responded by establishing himself as the sole prophet." 9. " The term derives from the Authorized King James Version, referring to the spiritual gifts given the disciples of Jesus on the day of Pentecost, in which they were "endowed with power from on high," Subsequent to these early confirmations, Mormons exhibited what they viewed as spiritual gifts such as having visions, prophecy, gift of healing, gift of knowledge, gift of tongues. Sources: Gospel of Luke 24:49 (Authorized King James Version) ("And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endowed with power from on high."). (Joseph Smith History, 1839 draft). 12 & 13 My opponent does not post refute either of these points and instead chooses to show why exterminating non-mormons is necessary. Regardless of the reasons he ordered the extermination. My opponent has proven that Joseph Smith was not a pacifist but instead chose to not turn the other cheek but instead lash out in equal measure against your enemies even ordering extermination. His additional source on the dananites was contrived by Smith himself to affirm his innocence for which federal prosecutors found him clearly guilty. Ending Con says he "negated all 15 points" which is quite frankly laughable as most points were not even addressed and were blatantly ignored by my opponent. He has negated none of the 15 points or their validity. Even by Pros newly formed resolution and criteria, Joseph Smith was not a leader. He was clearly insane. One cannot be both insane and a leader. Pro also ignored the fact that Joseph Smith was clearly a pedophile as well as a polygamist. I believe the evidence stacks against my opponent. Mormonism is not a religion. It's a cult. I think the leaders pedophilia, terrorism, theft, bank fraud, being a federal refugee, statutory rape, as well as making the comment: " Joseph Smith declared that whoever married him would go to heaven. In April 1841, Smith secretly wed Louisa Beaman as a plural wife, and during the next two and a half years he may have married thirty additional women, ten of whom were already married to other men,and about a third of them teenagers, including two fourteen-year-old girls." Clearly marks him as a cult. Define Cult: a religion or sect that is generally considered to be unorthodox, extremist, or false. Source: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu... Clearly Mormonism is false as it's leader was insane thus the doctrine it is founded upon is FALSE.