Point #1:
From the website about how cultic Mormonism 'programs' people:
"Self-esteem and personal power: LDS females
It is no secret that many Mormon women are depressed. One of the main reasons why is because they have been disempowered by Mormon patriarchy for generations. Mormon patriarchy is rooted in early 19th-century American patriarchy, which evolved from transplanted British and European patriarchy. For centuries, men controlled the main institutions in society (e.g., government, the military, churches, businesses) and allowed women only certain privileges. During the past century, things have changed significantly for females, particularly in Western countries. In the past 100 years, women have empowered themselves as never before in history. They have become political leaders, military commanders, professors, senior managers, surgeons, astronauts, professional athletes, etc. Females have proven themselves to be just as capable as men at effectively using power and authority, and in some cases, better. The Mormon patriarchal order is rooted in an archaic belief system and needs to radically change; LDS females do not have to support the patriarchal status quo in the Mormon Church if they don't want to.
Another major reason why many LDS women are depressed is that they have been psychologically conditioned by Mormonism to base much of their self-esteem and identity on being a daughter of a male deity ('Heavenly Father') and a 'wife and mother in Zion'. As mentioned, Heavenly Father is a psychological construct, the product of human thought. To base part (or all) of one's self-esteem on something that is only a belief is not wise. It is also not prudent to base one's self-esteem on one's marital status, which many women, in and outside of the LDS Church, do. Why? Well, what happens if your spouse is killed? With your husband gone, is your self-esteem going to collapse? What would happen to your self-esteem if you discover that your spouse has been having an affair? Will it crumble? Furthermore, if you base your self-esteem on being a mother, what happens to it if you're no longer a mother because your child is hit by a car and killed? These aren't pleasant things to think about, but the truth is that they are realities for some women, including some LDS women, and heart-breaking situations happen to people. Life is full of risk.
Many women in the Mormon Church link their self-esteem to aspects of the lives of their priesthood-holder husband and their children: the prominence of their husband's calling (e.g., bishop, stake president), his academic and professional successes and how much money he makes, the fact that their sons served missions and their children are married in the temple, etc. Why do so many LDS women do this? Because it brings them approval from Mormon authority figures (the most prominent one being God, as Mormons conceive 'Him' to be in their minds) and the LDS community. It reinforces their status in the Mormon 'tribe' as a faithful 'wife and mother in Zion'. But what happens to the self-esteem of LDS women when their priesthood-holder husband becomes 'inactive', their sons don't go on missions and their daughters won't marry in the temple? It decreases/suffers.
The deepest and strongest foundation of self-esteem is ourselves. It is the only foundation that will withstand the losses, vicissitudes, and storms of life. Most people, including Mormons, do not understand this profound psychological truth because they do not understand how they have been psychologically conditioned or what healthy self-esteem is based upon (the six practices mentioned above)."
(ref.
http://members.shaw.ca/blair_watson/).
Point #2: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints
According to LDS 'prophets' of the past generation, two things are necessary for Mormonism to be true:
1. Joseph Smith experienced the First Vision, as per his written account published in the Pearl of Great Price ("JOSEPH SMITH—HISTORY EXTRACTS FROM THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH SMITH, THE PROPHET" - ref.
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1).
2. The Book of Mormon is a true/actual record of ancient civilizations (fair-skinned Nephites, dark-skinned Lamanites, etc.) that lived in the Americas from ~2,200 BC to 421 AD.
In Gen. Conference in Oct./02, Pres. Gordon Hinckley told Latter-day Saints:
"We declare without equivocation that God the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, appeared in person to the boy Joseph Smith.
When I was interviewed by Mike Wallace on the 60 Minutes program, he asked me if I actually believed that. I replied, “Yes, sir. That’s the miracle of it.”
That is the way I feel about it. Our whole strength rests on the validity of that vision. It either occurred or it did not occur. If it did not, then this work is a fraud."
(use the Search function at www.lds.org to find Hinckley's talk, "The Marvelous Foundation of Our Faith")
A HUGE problem for the LDS Church is that Joseph Smith (JS) related and wrote down conflicting versions of his so-called 'First Vision' experience, thus discrediting himself (ref.
http://www.irr.org/mit/first-vision/fvision-accounts.html). He kept getting his age, the place, what happened, and other major elements of the 'First Vision' wrong. A person who keeps changing a fantastic story that he/she alleges is 'true' isn't believed - except by naive, duped followers.
In Gen. Conf. in Oct./86, Pers. Ezra Benson told Latter-day Saints (see "The Keystone of Our Religion" in the Nov./86 issue of the Ensign at www.lds.org):
"There are three great reasons why Latter-day Saints should make the study of the Book of Mormon a lifetime pursuit.
The first is that the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. This was the Prophet Joseph Smith’s statement. He testified that “the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion." A keystone is the central stone in an arch. It holds all the other stones in place, and if removed, the arch crumbles."
The second ENORMOUS problem for the LDS Church is that science has proven irrefutably that it is a work of fiction. Archaeological, genetic and linguistic research have all shown that - contrary to the 'true' BoM and 'true' LDS Church teachings for generations - the ancestors of American Indians came from northeast Asia, not ancient Israel, as the BoM states. The research has also shown that Native Americans' ancestors arrived in the New World many thousands of years before the BoM characters, Laman, Lemuel and their followers were supposedly cursed by 'the Lord' with dark skin (see 2 Nephi 5). The Wikipedia article about indigenous peoples of the Americas says that the northeast Asian ancestors of American Indians arrived in the Western Hemisphere as far back as 40,000 years ago (ref.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_americas#Migration_into_the_continents).
Genetic research alone has thoroughly discredited the BoM (see "DNA vs. The Book of Mormon" at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svfxSscxh8o).
JS was clear in his 1842 Wentworth Letter that a) prior to the arrival of the Jaredites about 2,200 BC, the Americas were uninhabited, and b) as described in the BoM, the ancestors of American Indians were the small group led by Lehi who left Jerusalem about 600 BC. (use the Search function at www.lds.org to search for the Wentworth Letter).
The BoM mentions NONE of the animals, plants, peoples, means of barter/trade, spiritual traditions, calendars, cultures, or anything else that existed in the Americas between ~2,200 BC and 421 AD.
The "most correct of any book on earth" DOES mention animals (e.g., domesticated cattle, sheep and goats, 'asses'/donkeys, elephants), grains (wheat, barley), peoples (fair-skinned Jaredites and Nephites), means of trade (gold and silver currency), time reckoning (7-day week w/ a Sabbath), religion (Judaism-based), and other things (e.g., written language in 'Reformed Egyptian', silk, metal weapons, armour) that were NOT in the Americas during the BoM timeline. In most cases, those things came to the Americas in the late 15th-century and after with the arrival of Europeans.
We know from the title page of the first (1830) edition of the BoM that JS had himself identified as its author:
http://www.inephi.com/1.htmWe know from the Book of Abraham in the PoGP and the ancient Egyptian papyri that JS obtained in 1835, which disappeared, then resurfaced in 1966 in a U.S. museum that what he claimed was a 'true' 'translation' of the papyri was nothing more than JS' imagination at work (see "The Lost Book of Abraham" at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcyzkd_m6KE).
Tom Donofrio's investigation of two American history books, one published in 1789 and the other in 1805, which were available to JS, revealed that he 'borrowed' phrases from the books and put them into the BoM (see Book of Mormon Tories at
http://www.postmormon.org/exp_e/index.php/magazine/pmm_article_full_text/211).
The evidence is clear: Joseph Smith lied about his 'First Vision' experience, and he lied about the gold plates, being visited by an angle, and the origin of the Book of Mormon. He repeatedly lied even before the Mormon Church was officially established. For nearly eight generations, the LDS Church has systematically deceived members and potential converts about JS, the BoM, early church history and many other key aspects of Mormonism. It continues to do so to this day, as official church materials (many are online at www.lds.org) and Gen. Conference talks by Mormon 'prophets' and other GA's show.
Historical data, including that on the LDS Church's FamilySearch.org website, show that JS made other men's wives his wives as well as single women and teenage girls as young as 14 (young enough to be his daughters). According to the LDS Church's summary for D&C 132, JS knew the "doctrines and principles" of polygamy as early as 1831, including the principle that no Mormon man was to take a plural wife without his first wife's consent and only virgins "vowed to no other man" could become plural wives (see D&C 132:61).
So, why did JS repeatedly disobey the 'revelation' from 'the Lord' and make 11 married/vowed women his plural wives? (ref.
http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/). According to D&C 132:61, marrying a non-virgin who was already vowed was an act of adultery. Including his extra-marital affair with teenage servant girl Fanny Alger (she worked in the Smith home), JS committed adultery 12 times! We know from historical documentation that he got the wife of Windsor Lyon (Sylvia) pregnant (see the last para. at
http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/08-SylviaSessionsLyon.htm).
Why was JS never excommunicated from the church for adultery? Why did the Mormon Church conceal from members and potential converts that JS was an adulterer and pedophile?
In the spring of 1844, just weeks before his death at Carthage Jail, "in a public sermon, Smith vehemently denied he had more than one wife" (ref.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith#Death). He fibbed as a young man about having a 'spiritual' power to find buried treasure, and became a consummate liar by adulthood - and lied to the end of his life.
The evidence proving that Mormonism is a fraud is irrefutable. The BoM 'arch' of the LDS religion has collapsed. However, instead of repenting for its many sins, the Mormon Church continues to mislead people, and indoctrinate them - starting in childhood - to hand over at least 10% of their allowance and money gifts, and wages and salary (as working teens and adults). For generations, the LDS Church has defrauded tens of billions of dollars from ignorant (of the truth), unsuspecting people.
For all these reasons and more, ethical, reasoned people do not participate in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.