Mormonism denies the doctrines that make Christianity what it is and instead replaces it with their own f***ed up beliefs that are found literally nowhere in the Bible.
Just a few of the many screwed-up things mentioned in the article that supposedly "highly-educated" (lol) people of mormonism believe:
1) God used to be a man on another planet (Mormon doctrine p.321)
2) God resides near a star called "Kolob" lol (Mormon Doctrine p.428)
3) According to "The teachings of prophet Joseph Smith", after you become a good little cultist mormon, you have the potential to become a god lmao (sounds very similar to what darwinian evolution teaches about man eventually "evolving" to god status, eh?).
4) God is married to a spirit wife and has spirit babies (Mormon doctrine p. 516).
5) There is a mother goddess. (this is very similar to the roman catholics practically deifying Jesus's mother, Mary, who in actuality was not divine herself in any way, only Jesus was).
6) That the Holy trinity is actually three seperate gods instead of being One God as the real Bible (the King James) clearly teaches.
Probaly most importantly, they teach a works based salvation and strict adherence to God's law as the roman catholics do instead of putting their complete faith in what Jesus did on the cross. In short, they are about as "Christian" as roman catholics are. In their book "Doctrines of Salvation" it says their is no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith (the founder of Mormonism) as a prophet of God. They teach a false gospel just as roman catholics do.
__________________ Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth bound feathered dinosaur. But it is not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of 'paleobabble' is going to change that.-- Alan Feduccia-a world authority on birds, quoted in "Archaeopteryx:Early Bird Catches a Can of Worms," Science 1994, p.764-765
Last edited by eThneoLgrRnae on Sep 30th, 2019 at 11:38 PM
Real Christians though rightfully recognize that the King James Bible and the King James Bible ALONE is the only truly divine complete Word of God.
__________________ Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth bound feathered dinosaur. But it is not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of 'paleobabble' is going to change that.-- Alan Feduccia-a world authority on birds, quoted in "Archaeopteryx:Early Bird Catches a Can of Worms," Science 1994, p.764-765
Darwinian evolution in no way or form suggest men will evolve into God status, and even if it did, that blalantly no longer concern current knowledge about evolution.
And Catholics don't believe Virgin Mary to be divine either, but at least I can see where this confusion stems from.
[QUOTE=17009518]Originally posted by Bentley Darwinian evolution in no way or form suggest men will evolve into God status, and even if it did, that blalantly no longer concern current knowledge about evolution.
People may not say it openly but many of those who do subscribe to that darwin nonsense think that man will eventually "evolve" to a much higer status than they are presently. Many believe that man will merge with machines in a kind of Terminator-style scenario as the "next step" in "human evolution."
Many catholics put Mary on equal footing with Christ, Himself. That is an undeniable fact. Many of them pray to her a lot more than they do to Christ. They idolize and pray to her as if she can actually hear their prayers (she can't). How could someone who is not divine in any way hear everyone's prayers? They also erroneously call her "The Mother of God." If that were true that she is/was--which it isn't (God has ALWAYS existed, unlike Mary)-- how could she not be divine in their eyes?
Oh, and Mary is not a virgin anymore; she had other children after she had Jesus despite what brainwashed catholics believe.
__________________ Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth bound feathered dinosaur. But it is not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of 'paleobabble' is going to change that.-- Alan Feduccia-a world authority on birds, quoted in "Archaeopteryx:Early Bird Catches a Can of Worms," Science 1994, p.764-765
Last edited by eThneoLgrRnae on Oct 9th, 2019 at 11:43 AM
That's awfully optimistic. I guess I can't speak for everyone, but I don't even expect mankind to survive long enough for that kind of major change to occur. Even if I was to accept something absurd like humans developing God-like traits out of nowhere.
Also, modern human society probably screws with the natural processes somewhat, too. If humans do end up evolving into different species, I'd imagine it would be after some kind of cataclysmic event reduced us to a more primitive state.
Well, there might be some merit to the idea (though it may not even be possible in the "terminator" sense), but that would be something completely different from Darwinian evolution.
__________________
Last edited by NewGuy01 on Oct 9th, 2019 at 01:45 PM
__________________ Chicken Boo, what's the matter with you? You don't act like the other chickens do. You wear a disguise to look like human guys, but you're not a man you're a Chicken Boo.
__________________ Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth bound feathered dinosaur. But it is not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of 'paleobabble' is going to change that.-- Alan Feduccia-a world authority on birds, quoted in "Archaeopteryx:Early Bird Catches a Can of Worms," Science 1994, p.764-765
1-a particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
2-an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers
3-the object of such devotion.
4-a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
__________________ Chicken Boo, what's the matter with you? You don't act like the other chickens do. You wear a disguise to look like human guys, but you're not a man you're a Chicken Boo.
Last edited by Surtur on Oct 9th, 2019 at 01:52 PM
Yes, the only difference between a cult and a religion is number of adherents.
"Argumentum ad Populum" is a fallacy that appeals to the number of people who agree. It has nothing to do with whether or not something is true. Large numbers of people can be decieved. We see it all the time and there are all sorts of psychological reasons for it.
This is the basis of sainthood and not specific to Mary. I agree that people pray to Mary much more than to other saints, but that has never implied she's in equal footing with God. Nobody in their right mind would that Saint Cécile or the late Pope Jean Paul II are divine.
Theotokos is a title of status and it's not specific to catholicism, the Orthodox apply it to Mary and it's a very old belief in christianity. Since Mary gave birth to Jesus she's her mother and Jesus being divine makes her the mother of God. This is an accurate word and it doesn't mean Mary created Jesus in a theological sense.
As far as I know this is not proven by any historical sources, but I agree it's a point of contention that makes not much sense from a religious perspective: we shouldn't care about the status of Mary's virginity anyways.
With that said, I'm sure you can find catholics fervent enough that they may actually believe the things you present, because it's a big religion and that people can be very emotional on their beliefs. I've met catholic priests that also feel unconfortable about how much praise Mary gets inside the catholic cult. Such beliefs do not reflect the "official posture" of the Catholic Church just.
Well, we live in societies that are ruled and weighted partially on a popular vote, so the idea of the size of a community being considered for such definitions is not as arbitrary as you make it sound.
But we don't vote to determine what's true. Voting is more about popular opinion and how to steer policy, but it doesn't determine truth. That's an important distinction. There are more reliable methods for determining truth.
Like I said, there are all sorts of reasons why many people think cult-like things (like Jesus walking on water or rising from the dead or Muhammed flying to heaven on a horse) and none of them are particularly reliable. Self deception, wishful thinking, herd mentality, self-serving bias, confirmation bias, etc. These are prominent aspects of the human psyche.
Society and majorities get to decide a lot on what we consider valid and real actually, they even define which concepts we accept in order to look for truths and the limits we impose to ourselves. But that's more of a philosophical technicality, I get what you are trying to say about religion, but I still think it's somewhat false.
If you look at the history of religious thought within big Religions you will notice that interpretations and rules will be widely adapted to fit the morality of their era. This is actually something that will only happen to religious practices that are big enough, because small cults will always be in the hands of a minority that can keep them in check and rigid. With big religions, they just go wild and the authorities can't get them under control, they shift and they change. Religious truth is determined by cultural beliefs and the prosperity of societies. Many modern institutions, such as the Catholic Church, will claim that the truth of the physical World is none of their business and that they only care about things touching faith (so they act essentially as a morality chart).
Not really. Societies and majorities determine policy and in some cases lawmaking. Why you want to conflate that with truth, I'm not sure. Scientific exploration is the more reliable method for finding truths about reality because it dials down the biases that humans are so susceptible to, which is why scientific understanding and research should largely influence policy and lawmaking.
Take people who believe in creationism, for example. I think the percent has dropped significantly here in the US recently, but at one point I'm sure it was a majority. That didn't make it true. It was always wrong. Science discovered it to be wrong.
So no, majority opinion doesn't necessarily have jack-shit to do with what's true. End of story.
As soon as you use the term "religious truth" I stop caring. I don't care about "religious truth." It means didley-shit.