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An unintended effect

When I was in my 20s, I was driving to Colorado for a summer job. I had been across the USA before, camping with family, but this time I was on my own. I was just stopping for the night, and selected a roadside motel so I could get back on the road early the next morning. In perusing my rather plain room, I found, not a Gideon bible in the drawer of the bedside table, but a book entitled,
" the book of Morman". Curious, I flipped it open for a quick read. After just the first couple paragraphs, I was laughing like a hyena, believing it to be a clever parody of Christianity and 'holy' books in general. Really, it was too funny! Later, found that there were actually 'mormans' who truly believed this stuff.....incredible, as it seemed so contrived and patently made up.

The unintended effect of discovering that people will believe ridiculous things with no evidence whatsoever, undoubtedly turned my thoughts to why I believed things. Scrutiny of my own heretofore unexamined, but often questioned (without satisfactory answers from authority figures) beliefs about god, christianity, other religions, Jesus, heaven, hell, predestination, etc was the 'force' that pushed the first dominio. Now, all the dominos have been flattened and been strewn away. I an a happy, curious, openminded rational being, confident that science is humanity's best hope to understand the world and the universe and how homo-sapians came to call this pale blue dot "Home".

Tags: The, domino, falls, first

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Comment by Kris King on October 12, 2011 at 5:48pm: I never really knew much about the mormons (they're not as prevalent in the UK as in the US), but when I discovered this bunch of people who believed that Jesus came to the US I thought at first someone must be taking the piss ... so silly :)

Comment by Tara Benson on October 11, 2011 at 7:50pm: I knew almost nothing about Mormons for my first 39 years. To me they were just another religious sect, albeit one with some quirkier beliefs than most (magic underwear, no coffee). Then came Prop8. Afterward my wife and I decided that in the interest of self-preservation we should learn about them, since they'd made a point of thrusting themselves so deeply into our lives. That is one messed up religion.

Comment by roland707 on October 11, 2011 at 8:59am: What Would Jethro Do? (Bodeen)

@rob- Wow, I didn't know that's what they believe. Maybe I should've read the whole thing. Nah, I'll take your word for it, because I don't think I could manage it.

Comment by Nerdlass on October 11, 2011 at 12:32am: Rob, unfortunately, it's not too far a jump from some christian belief... the whole "christlike" and "godlike" WWJD sort of thing ties into it. There's a lot of supposition that not only will g-man be worshipped for all eternity in heaven, but that his children will help oversee things, now having their new heavenly bodies.

Haughty, isn't it?

Comment by Rob Taylor on October 11, 2011 at 12:01am: Yes, I had a similar experience with Mormon "theology." While the Bible does have some genuine nuggets of wisdom within its pages, my read of the Book of Mormon left me sort of dumbfounded, trying to figure out what the attaction was. I know some Mormons; outisde of their faith beliefs, they seem to be rasonably normal and intelligent people. Perhaps we all have a bit of willful blindness in some area of our lives, but the oddities within the Book of Mormon (and the other official teachings of the faith) just seem beyond the pale. It is one thing to believe in a god, it is quite another to believe that one day you will be one yourself. I see other posters found humor in it, but I thought of it more on the order of disturbing. Guess its just my perspective.

Comment by roland707 on October 10, 2011 at 10:42pm: I also read just a little bit of the book o' mormon. Funny stuff. A friend and I were in a mall in Idaho. A person approached us and asked "Are you mormons?". My friend, with absolutely NO hesitation, blurts out "No, we're Americans!" I involuntarily horse-laughed them, I think because of the speed of my friend's completely unexpected answer. Good times.....