The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-14

Editor Tribune:-If I were an inhabi-
tant of another planet-Mars, for eX-
ample, and were to visit the earth TO
make inquiries as to the religions of its
various peoples. and were then asked
to estimate their value by their physi~
cal and intellectual effects upon their
ndherents-without any refernce to the
moral and SPIRITUAL should reply that
of all the prominent religions of the
world today the "Mormon presents
the fewest proofs of its claims to DO Of
divine origin. The Buddhist, with his
idea Of the future life as an eternal
sleep" "Nirvana'' the Chinaman, or
follower Of Confucius with his worship
of the spirits of his dead ancestors with
out any conception OF personal God; !;
the Mohammedan, with his beief in
Allah and an inexorable fate he terms
HKismet the orthodox Christian,
with his doctrine of a triune God and
q future state of happiness or woe de-
pendent upon the moral and spiritual
conditions of his life when on earth;
none of these-not even the Confucian-
ist and Mohammedan, and certainly not
the orthodox Christian-exhibit any
marked deterioration as tho effect of
their different religions upon their ply
sical and mental nature.
Not so, however, with the reli-
gious sect called the Mormons
In the first place, while this
phase of religion is one of
the newest and latest that can be clas-
si6ed under the four great ethnic re-
ligions enumerated, vet in a period of
more than threc-quarters of a century,
and that one of the most active intel
lectually in the history of mankind,
with a wider diffusion OF knowledge
than ever before, there have been but
two Mormons of such marked mental
characteristics as to make a deep i'm
preston on their age. / refer TO the
religious genius-for genius he was,
however l.balanced-thc founder of
4" Mormonism. Joseph Smith, and the
constructive statesman and born leader
of men, Brigham Young. Apart from
these two historic personagcs-neither
of whom were students-howeyer well
educated some Mormon men and women
may be, there has never been a ''Mor-
mon - scholar Of recognized worldwide
authority in any branch of learning
that / am aware Of.
If Mormonism' lays any claim to
being an intellectual form of religion
and one that fosters intellectually, il
should surely have given the world ere
this some proof other than its few re-
ligious books. with their crude aud un-
philosophic statements and materialistic
conceptions of God and man. Note that
] say nothing about the morality or
immorality Of their teachings; that is
not the subject of this inquiry.
The history of religion and philoso-
ply abound in examples of Buddhist,
Chinese, Mohammedan and Christian
scholarship, whereas the term "Mormon
scholarship would have no meaning
because there is as yet no one to whom
it can be applied.
! use the term 'Escholaro in its mod
ern and technical sense. as implying
original research and thought, and not
as often colloquially applied TO some To-
cal cultured individual
AS to the physical effects of the
Mormon religion upon its adherents
they are still more strongly marked.
Of all modern forms of relIgion-in
fact, OF sill religions not pagan-the
"Mormon religion and theology are
the most materialistic in their practice
and teaching. Its theology is based upon
q purely materialisiic conception of the
universe-that God, the Father, is be-
ing like man, of body, parts and pas
sions -; that he procreates children. or