I don't know if I put this in the right spot, or if it is allowed, but I want to know.
I want to know what you think of the LDS, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon -- truthfully. Instead of writing it here how about you PM me -- I want real opinions.
I will not take and publsih those PM's in any sort of thread, but i may take ideas or something you say and redo it in words to better address the issue.
Go ahead, say WHATEVER YOU WANT -- BUT BE SURE TO PM ME!!!
I am not going to PM you, mostly because I want to be very clear that I am not misquoted, both so that I can accurately defend what I say, or apologize for it if necessary. So it should be public, not private.
I've met a number of Mormons, who are mostly very nice people, who do a lot of good work in the community. I can't speak entirely ill of a tradition that produces substantial charitable works and decent, contributing members of the greater community.
That said, I have a number of theological problems with LDS, over and above the usual theological issues I have with Christianity. Chief on the list would be that I don't find Joseph Smith's story credible.
I have read the Book of Mormon, which claims to be an account of ancient Jews of the time of Jesus or thereabouts who made it to America. My primary problem with this is that the way in which the Book of Mormon claims to be using Hebrew words is incorrect at best, gibberish at worst. It looks like the work of a very clever English-speaking person, whose primary knowledge of Hebrew words and roots comes from the King James Bible and a scattering of seventeenth- to nineteenth century Christian commentaries on said KJV.
Secondarily, I find the narratives ring hollow, both in the sense of not sounding to my ear like legitimately translated Hebrew narrative of the period in question, and also in the sense of the content of the narratives seeming improbable and unlikely to me.
The further theology developed out of the Book of Mormon, I disagree with many things, at least insofar as I have been able to comprehend them accurately. Their particular "solution" to the question of the trinity, though I have been told by Mormons is actually quite monotheistic, strikes me actually as essentially a kind of modified henotheism. I think Mormon cosmology is rather ludicrous, and at least in parts quite likely to be disillusioned by the eventual development of interstellar space travel. I also have various objections to theological postulations part of their cosmology such as the eternality of matter and the rejection of creation ex nihilo, although those are probably of lesser import than the more general objections to the whole.
I find the idea of baptism of the dead both theologically troubling and, as practiced, offensive to non-Mormons.
I tend to distrust institutional religious hierarchies where the chief hierarchs claim prophetic powers. I see no reason to exempt the leadership of the Mormon churches from this feeling. Especially given the historical propensity of Mormons to exfiltrate concepts from their church laws or theological doctrines into political governance; whereas I am a firm believer in the separation of religion and state in the US.
In the end, it is my belief that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon as an original, pseudepigraphic work, and did so because he was interested in becoming a leader, had delusions of grandeur and a messiah complex, and because he was interested in having polygamous relationships. I think the theology and cosmology that emerged and descended from what he wrote and taught is flawed at best, quite problematic at worst. But like almost all religious system, its flaws do not preclude good people using it as a framework to make their lives meaningful and to give personal structure to their positive acts; perhaps even to achieve successful and effective personal relationships with God.