Thursday, December 13, 2007

weird mormonism

two reactions to this video:

first, if you want to find out about a religion the worst way to go about it is to use sources that are opposed to that religion. most adherents to a religion remain adherents because they like something about the religion. places that have a beef against a religion are simply not going to give any information about why a religion is appealing. the appealing qualities are the aspects of the faith that most believers experience in the religion they believe in. this positive side of the belief system will be either under-represented or completely absent from resources that are critical of the religion. thus, the critics do not present the religion as most adherents experience it.

that's why it's ridiculous to learn about judaism by visiting anti-semitic sites, or islam by visiting anti-muslim sites, or mormonism by visiting anti-mormon sites. the video is pretty clearly produced by a group opposed to mormonism, which means it's probably a bad way to learn about the mormon religion. even if everything they say were actual mormon doctrine, it probably bears little resemblance to what mormons themselves think about when they think about their own religion.

second, as a non-believer, the cosmology described in the video doesn't strike me as any more bizarre than the cosmology of any other religion. the strange thing about religion is just about every faith includes belief in all these weird things. and yet, from the perspective of the believer, those things don't seem weird at all.