Hey guys, Im a 14 year old non mormon guy in Utah with a LDS family. I came up with a theory of mine on how and why the church exists. It starts off with a poor farm boy, Joseph Smith. Joseph's a teen and his teenage mind wants to fool people, and he wants attention. He comes up with the first vision, and starts BSing people. No one really believes him. He starts writing the book of mormon, to help fool people. Four years later, he's done and claims he sees an angel that leads him to gold plates and a ton of other ancient artifacts. He gets Oliver Cowdry in on the plan with him, along with 3 others (the three witnesses). He claims he got the imaginary golden plates, and then copied them onto paper. He starts gathering followers, and decides to move them west. (People are easier to manipulate, and obey more in an unfamiliar area). Joseph also knows he will be caught for his scamming on the east coast where he grew up. On the way, he finds Brigham Young to succeed him just in case he were to die. He comes up with the tithing rule to get rich off of his members money. As we all know Joseph dies and Brigham Young leads them to Utah and from then on they grow. All the prophets of the past, and the ones today all know about this plan to get rich. All they have to do is show up for a live conference and act spiritual twice a year. If you look at all the rules and expectations of mormonism nowadays, they're designed to keep the religion going and growing. At age 8, children are brainwashed, and make supposed "covenants" to god and feel tied to them; even though they had no real control of what was going on. As a teen, they're further kept innocent, and don't experience real non mormon knowledge; by preventing things like: for the strength of youth, temple brainwashing, and the fear of the internet/outside knowledge. Most prophets discourage internet access, as which it leads to knowledge against the church. They also encourage self growth and education to make sure their future ATM machines are providing a steady cash flow. The main reason they keep teenagers innocent, is to make them feel clean and worthy of a mission. The LDS mission is the ultimate brainwashing experience, and it is hard to un-brainwash yourself after it has happened. Because most mormons have never had sex their whole life, they're desperate for it to happen and get married early. They end up creating big mormon families and are steady ATM cash flow machines. The big mormon family also pressures doubting mormon teens to go on their mission which rids them of their doubts. The cycle just keeps going and going.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and let me know what you think!