Exodus 3:14 Moses talks to God, asks him about his existence or purpose or some such thing, and God replies, ... get ready for it ... (drum roll) ... I AM THAT I AM.

As a young adult that was one of the most anti-climatic kakamaime things I have ever heard. I was expecting some sort of semi-profound something or other. Heck, that is the sort of reply I'd give to my 6th grade buddies when we were horsing around.

stuff like that.

I am that I am.

Because I said so.

The purpose of life (i.e. your life) is to be obedient to me.

I am the same yesterday, today and forever and if it looks like I'm constantly changing things and breaking promises it's because you are evil and don't understand that my ways are not your ways.

I move in mysterious ways.

By the way, are you going to bring the meat that I ordered you to bring? I'm ready for some barbecued mutton and if you don't bring the meat, you and all your posterity will be cursed unto eternal damnation such that you will wish that you had never been born. And don't forget the beer and chips...and...oh...I the Lord, your God do also command that you bring that chip dip that you brought last time. It was pretty good.

Is it me because I still wonder why in reality nothing of any consequence has actually been said.

I mean there's God speaking to us and he says what?

Other than saying be good what else is there?

somehow never seems to be any greater than the ordinary human level of wisdom, knowledge and ability to reveal truth that is possessed by the person who is claiming to be speaking for God.

Kind of like the way that Joseph Smith got some health advice from God known as the "Word of Wisdom," but for some reason God forgot to tell Joseph Smith about germs and did not think to tell the people that they should boil all of their drinking water in order to kill the water-borne pathogens that were one of the primary causes of fatalities among them (i.e. in the form of dysentery and cholera).

Funny how God could teach the Brother of Jared how to make submarines and could teach Nephi how to build a ship capable of transoceanic travel from resources found in some remote area of the desert, but God no longer seems able to reveal anything practical and useful (that can be examined and scrutinized) like that in modern times.

Isn't it amazing how all the technologies mentioned in the BoM were well-established in Joseph Smith's time? And that there isn't anything in the book that wasn't in wide use or had been successfully demonstrated at the time it was "translated"? Submarines, intercontinental travel by boat, refinement of steel and other alloys. I'm surprised he didn't give the Nephites guns and then say the technology died with them.

The passage that begins at 1 Nephi 1:1 and ends at Moroni 10:34 is very disappointing. A couple of other disappointing passages are Genesis 1:1- Revelation 22:21, D&C 1:1 - 138:60, and Moses 1:1 through the Articles of Faith in the PoGP.

the scriptures seem to be okay. I think you've done a good job of zeroing in on the parts that are problematical.

I liked the leather smell of the cover on my deluxe edition of the all-in-one 'quad'.

it is so disappointing (so much like the rest of the MORmON experience) that I don't even want to talk about ....

The ten commandments.

Out of all the important things they could have included, almost half of them were about a petty narcissistic god.
,
Realizing that list was really about creating religious fear, exclusivity and control hit hard.

I especially like how Moses had to go to the top of a mountain where there were no other people around so everyone was supposed to take his word. (God wrote these! Yeah, that's the ticket!)

When you are in a grove, mountaintop, or (insert sacred isolated spot here), all worked up in your religious delusion, you get to make up anything you want. Then you simply claim God showed up only to you. People think you are a prophet! People bought it then and people will still buy it now.

If there is one take away, Mormonism and JS - although a comic book version of it - used the same tactics that have worked for centuries.

I could list MANY scriptures that are deeply disturbing, but for today, the 10 commandments is my pick.

All that Korihor stuff. I was hoping for some really good arguments that eviscerated the atheist. No arguments. just bullying and because I say so. Ad hominem attacks and then a death that just seemed like it came out of a poorly written B-movie. Or like you were reading a post under /r/thathappened .

And everybody clapped and gave the horse high-fives!

Yeah, the whole Korihor story is a pretty stupid chapter. He says there is no evidence for god (explicitly--not that there is no god, just that he has seen no evidence for one and would believe if there is some), and Alma's retort is, literally, "Prove that there is no god, and prove that there will be no Christ."

The two HUGE problems with this, and Mormons' dogged belief in it today as some piece of inspiring scripture:
1. Jesus F-ing Christ, how stupid do you have to be to think Alma's argument makes any sense at all or is somehow a win for the church?
2. If god's prophet was so happy to strike someone dumb then, why is the current prophet completely impotent to similarly silence the church's critics and prove his religious claims?

*edit* posted reply to wrong comment



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2018 02:20PM by Anziano Young.

The one in the BOM that says "they taketh the truth to be hard" or some such drivel. This one cut me to the bone because it was quoted to me by my own child upon learning I had resigned from TSCC. He thinks to this day I left because I couldn't hold the priesthood. hahahaha.

That scripture goes both ways, in my opinion. I think the believing members can't take the truth.

1 Nephi 16:1-3

"1. And now it came to pass that after I, Jack Nicholson, had made an end of speaking to Tom Cruise, behold he said unto me: Thou hast declared unto me hard things, more than I am able to bear...for verily I cannot handle the truth."

{{I may not have quoted the passage 100% the way that it appears in the Book of Mormon.}}

The whole BoM turns out disappointing!

The claimed visit of Christ ends up being a re-hash of the N. Testament version.

No 10 commandments, little or nothing (?) about Honesty or Kindness

IF ONLY I had a dollar for every time that I was bludgeoned in MORmON seminary with this shoddy POS attempt at scripture, intended to goad MORmONS into blindly following whatever MORmON leaders say, then I would be wealthy.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/3.7?lang=eng

Matthew 4:20 - Natural [unnatural/ complicated man is an] Man Is A Friend [Enemy, according to JSS/ LDSinc] of God. (Matthew means friend of God)

M@t

ALL OF THEM!!!

Yup. The word of God isn't the word of God.

"For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven."


...wha??? We will be UNISEX??? NO SEX??? Joe...SAY IT AIN'T SO!!!!!!

DO ANGELS GET GENDER REASSIGNMENT OR WHAT????????

Call 1-800-DOC-BENNETT for more info.......

But the LSD Church has a solution to your worries. If you go to the temple and get sealed to someone with the appropriate genitalia and dutifully pay your tithing, you will be resurrected with genitalia that will be yours forever.

That revelation revealed in a revelatory manner by the great revelator Joseph Smith, Jr. had a big impact on Brigham Young and several other men. It was a miraculous answer to a question that had exceedingly troubled their minds. An "eternal priesthood" was the promise that they had been seeking.

Anything with "came to pass" in it.

..."my stones came to be passed, thus saith the sawbones."

lol It just perfectly fits Mormonism.

"came to pass" GAs
"came to pass" the sacrament
"came to pass" the buck
"came to pass" on alcohol
"came to pass" the gossip on
"came to pass" judgement

Anything referencing Mormon, Moroni, Joseph's Myth, the MoB [mook or boron], the D&C [I'm not going to say what that stands for], the Pearls Before Swine, LDS anything, etc.

It's all hogwash [speaking of swine].

One that I particularly hate is 3 Nephi 11:29--"he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil."

Unfortunately, it's also one of the most useful to throw back in Mormons' faces when they start getting argumentative or overly defensive of their quacky religion.

"Once was I stoned"
2 Corinthians 11:25

Though shall not, etc., etc.

Kill Kill Kill

Book of Mormon

That's all I remember

Death and Darkness

M@t

“Exodus 3:14 Moses talks to God, asks him about his existence or purpose or some such thing, and God replies, ... get ready for it ... (drum roll) ... I AM THAT I AM.”

It’s much better in the movie, but only the one with Charlton Heston. Maybe it’s the deep God voice. I can only do it if my vocal cords are really swollen.

I found the killing of Laban kind of disturbing. I don’t think “God told me to do it” ever worked in a court of law.

Better to be an "edgy atheist" (yes, we're so hip, thank you) than a sycophant so far removed from reality you can't view your own scripture with a critical eye, let alone notice someone else having an opinion on it without jumping in to give us your unsolicited feedback.

When do I get to be edgy ?

Your edgy days are over, Dave.
You'll have to settle for "used to be edgy."

:)

"In the beginning..."

It's all downhill from there, and that's an awful start.

“And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost” (Moro. 10:4).

I prayed and prayed. I felt nothing. I fasted and prayed. I felt nothing. I felt so disappointed. Why was everyone else getting it and not me?

So I still stood by seven years old in F&T and bore my testimony. I kept at it. But BKP or whoever said it was wrong. A testimony is not to be "found in the bearing of it." I knew I still felt nothing.

Before my mission I fastED and prayed and prayed prayed prayed until I worded myself up into a few goosebumps and settled for that. The indoctrination from birth is stronger than most people would ever believe.

Don't ask God. Ask yourself. Works much better. I should have done that earlier.

1 In the beginning Man created God;
and in the image of Man
created him.

2 And Man gave unto God a multitude of
names,that he might be Lord of all
the earth when it was suited to Man.

3 And on the seven millionth
day Man rested and did lean
heavily on his God and saw that
it was good.

4 And Man formed Aqualung of
the dust of the ground, and a
host of others likened unto his kind.

5 And these lesser men were cast into the
void; And some were burned, and some were
put apart from their kind.

6 And Man became the God that he had
created and with his miracles did
rule over all the earth.

7 But as all these things
came to pass, the Spirit that did
cause man to create his God
lived on within all men: even
within Aqualung.

8 And man saw it not.

9 But for Christ's sake he'd
better start looking.

D&C 132:54 And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and cleave unto my servant Joseph, and to none else. But if she will not abide this commandment she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the Lord thy God, and will destroy her if she abide not in my law.

My most disappointing bible story was watching Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt. That was shocking to me when I watched that from the 1962 flick of Sodom and Gomorrah as a kid.

That seemed so wrong just because she looked behind her, lol.

If someone had told you to not look behind you, wouldn't that just make you more curious to want to know what was there?

That, just for defying her husband. Back then children were stoned to death for not obeying. People may have been falsely accused of adultery to meet the same end. Law and order back then was so different from our laws of civility - which are based on Judeo-Christian laws (from modernity.)

'Men [boys] are that they may have joy'

That's why I was always being punished.

M@t