26 Reasons why I don't believe in Mormonism (for a start)

A) Adam-God: Brigham Young taught that Adam was God, the Eternal Father. Read the Journal of Discourses. Read all the history and journals around the topic. The prophet was wrong on the simplest, most central doctrine!

B) Bring'um Young: Brigham Young has the nickname "bring 'em young" because many of his wives were young while he was an old man. Do you really want to defend him?

C) Conditional Love: An apostle, in a recent Ensign, stated that God’s love is conditional on our works. This means that God loves you less than your parents - most parents love their children unconditionally. Either God is inferior to us, or the apostle and Ensign are wrong.

D) DNA: DNA studies have proven conclusively that there is no significant trace of Israelite blood in any Native Americans. This contradicts what has been taught by church leaders since 1830. And the book of Mormon title page still says the Lamanites, descended from Israelites Mulek, Zoram and Lehi, are the "principle ancestors" of the native Americans.

E) Egyptian: The original papyrus from the Book of Abraham have been found, and they are not the Book of Abraham. We cannot claim they just “inspired” the BofA because Joseph created an Egyptian Grammar, translating precise words from the papyrus into English. He even pointed at the "signature of Abraham." Joseph was completely wrong in every way.

F) Fanny Alger: Joseph Smith pressurised this sixteen year old girl into "marrying" him (Joseph was already married), and they probably had sex. (Read "In Sacred Loneliness" for details – it was written by a faithful LDS historian). Alger was only the best known of the many women and girls that Joseph pressured in this way.

G) Great And Abominable Church: Everyone who disagrees with the prophet is part of the "Great And Abominable Church" - which means that good people like Mother Theresa were misguided followers of Satan and would have been better if they had been LDS. In reality, these other churches offer a genuine alternative to the Mormon church: with friendship, moral guidance, support, worship, and everything else. But the church stops its members from making better choices, by teaching that all other churches have less truth and are a step downwards..

H) Hoffman: In the 1980s, forger Mark Hoffman persuaded the church to buy (or get their friends to buy) fake historical documents. The documents said the church was restored through a magical salamander lizard. The man who dealt with Hoffman was none other than Gordon B. Hinckley. The idea that the church was inspired by a salamander did not strike the church leaders as unusual, and FARMS wrote articles defending the idea. But Gordon B. Hinckley's gift of discernment was less powerful than that of the famous anti-Mormon Jerald Tanner. Tanner was not fooled, but Hinckley was.

I) Irrationality: The church teaches that feelings equal truth. Yet other churches have people with equally strong feelings. Some feelings are stronger - look at those who become monks, or those who kill themselves for their beliefs. Does that mean that they are more likely to have "the only true church"?

J) Jesus: Read the gospels in the New Testament. Compare Jesus' teachings with the teachings of the Pharisees. Which group is the modern church most like - Jesus' followers or the Pharisees? Mormonism is an established church, with strict dietary laws, food storage, concern for appearances - white shirts and ear-rings - and emphasis on tithing and ordinances. They have no more major revelations, and are always looking backwards to revelations in the past. If someone appears from outside the hierarchy, and prophesies, they are denounced.

K) Kinderhook: The Kinderhook plates were forgeries of metal plates with ancient writing on them. Joseph Smith believed they were genuine, and gave a summary of their contents. Apologists now admit that the plates were forgeries, and say that the translation part was made up and the fact that it appeared in History of the Church was just some big misunderstanding. But at the time they were treated as another proof that Joseph Smith had the gift of translation.

L) Loneliness: Obedience to the church greatly reduces the number of people you can date, especially outside of America. It also creates unrealistic expectations for a potential partner - they have to be "eternal companion" instead of just a friend. As a result, the church is full of lonely single people. And lonely married people who made hurried decisions and now feel trapped for life. Of course they all say that the church makes them happier, yet Utah uses more Prozac than anywhere else on earth.

M) Mountain Meadows Massacre: The greatest peacetime massacre in America before 9/11 was caused by Mormons. If it was not directly ordered by the leaders, it was certainly a result of the siege mentality they encouraged. But the church refuses to apologize.

N) Negroes: Throughout its history, the church has always been on the wrong side (or at best, neutral) on every major social issue. Racial discrimination until 1978 was only the most obvious example. We could add slavery, Naziism before World War II, separation of church and state, polygamy, civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, etc., etc. The church is always on the wrong side, and always forced to change after everyone else has. In contrast, other churches, such as the Quakers, manage to take a moral stand and are generally on the right side from the beginning.

O) Occam's Razor: Occam's razor is a principle used in theology, science, and everyday life, to compare different explanations. It says the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Applying it to the church, all the issues on this page can be easily explained if the church is man-made. The other explanation requires us to add angels and gods and supernatural elements that are not needed..

P) Polyandry: Most people know that early Mormons practiced polygamy. What they don't usually know is that Joseph Smith also practiced polyandry - where one woman has more than one husband. Joseph would see a woman he liked, and if she was married he would just use his position to pressure the husband, explaining that God had given his wife to Joseph. Or he would just send the husband away on a foreign mission, and approach the wife in his absence. Read "In Sacred Loneliness" for details.

Q) Quetzalcoatl: When I was young, Quetzalcoatl was the best example of archeological evidence for the Book of Mormon: here was actual evidence of Christ in America! But you don't hear much about Quetzalcoatl in the church any more. People looked closely and found that the evidence doesn't add up. All the Book of Mormon evidence is like that - it does not stand up to objective scrutiny.

R) Rumors: Testimonies are always strengthened by faith promoting rumors - stories and experiences that are never examined closely. When you examine them closely, they fall apart like a house of cards. Every crazy idea that was ever invented was based on hearsay and rumors, and if you try to examine them you are accused of spoiling the fun, or being "too intellectual." The church relies on the same techniques as crazy fringe ideas everyehere.

S) Shopping Mall: Millions of people in the world are starving, billions live in poverty and oppression. And the church asks even its poorest members to sacrifice in order to pay money to the church. And how does the church spend its money? It keeps the number secret, but from the little that is revealed, much less than one percent of tithing goes to help the poor. (This does not include the recently added "humanitarian fund" that members can give to AFTER they have contributed tithing and other offerings. Church priorities are clear.) Most of the church's money goes on grand buildings, and in 2005, the church decided to spend a billion dollars on buying and renovating shopping malls in Salt Lake City.

T) Tapirs: This is just one of many examples where the Book of Mormon is contradicted by scientific discoveries. The Book of Mormon says there are horses in ancient America. But after all these years, all the evidence indicates that there were no horses. The best the apologists can come up with is maybe the books meant tapirs. Tapirs are about the size of a pig, and when I imagine someone riding a tapir, or tapirs pulling chariots, I have to laugh.)

U) Unctuousness: Unctuous means slippery. It comes from the word for anointing oil, but came to mean anything oily or insincere, yet appearing earnest. If you ever try to find out what the church teaches, you will find it is unctuous. When I was young, I was taught that the prophet is always right, Lamanites filled America and Polynesia, blacks would not have the priesthood until the Millennium, mine was the generation when Jesus would return, and a thousand other things. Now I find that these things were just opinions and were not revelation at all. Like mythical Janus, the church has two faces. When a prophet speaks it is scripture, but years later when he is proven wrong, it was "just his opinion."

V) Virgins: Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants was designed to justify Joseph Smith's extra-marital affairs with Fanny Alger and other women, and threaten his wife Emma if she complained. His affairs began in 1832 or before, but the "revelation" did not come until 1843 when his affairs became public. The section says priesthood leaders can have as many virgins as they want, and their wives must agree or be destroyed.

W) Washings: When I was young, the change from baptism by immersion to baptism by sprinkling was a proof of the apostasy of the early church. Now the LDS church has done the same thing: in the temple. Washings were once whole-body affairs, then this was changed to simply touching parts of the body, and now this has been changed to just sprinkling. There are many other changes, but this is most recent and seems to be the most symbolic.

X) eXclusion: Non-member parents are not allowed to see their childrens' weddings (only active memers are allowed in temples). And on a more general level, the church keeps its people too busy to get involved in many non-LDS activities, while "worldly" is a synonym for evil. So members are excluded from the good things of the world.

Y) Y? Why should we believe in the church? To see the absurdity of it, imagine a church based on pink unicorns. You cannot prove that pink unicorns do not exist. If the pink unicorn church was friendly, or you felt a strong emotion while praying, you might even want to join. You could read books on unicorns and gather faith-promoting stories. But if you stand back and look, it all seems crazy. You end up asking "why did I ever believe this?"

Z) Zelph: Faced with the DNA problem (see above), FARMS has adopted the "limited geography" theory, where all the Book of Mormon lands were hidden in a small part of Central America. Yet Joseph Smith made clear that the Nephites cover the whole of North America. He even gave the name of two great Nephite leaders from the region, Zelph and Onandagus. The prophets have always been clear that Nephites occupied the Great Lakes region, but even the apologists accept that this was impossible. What are we to conclude?

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tolworthy/atozelph/