Magic underwear and other crazy ideas

Let me be clear up front. I do not believe the god-myth.

I grew up in a Catholic Family and went to mass nearly everyday for my first 12 years. I went to Catholic grade school and was taught by Nuns. In December 1960, we moved to Europe and that ended Catholic schools for me. Throughout the entire period, I didn't "get it". I never understood why everyone else believed that god was watching us or controlling our lives. I did not understand why we ate fish on Friday or any of the other odd Catholic beliefs. Most of those changed during the 60s. As unusual as Catholic dogma may seem, it does have a foundation in rational thought. Still, believing some of those things required a leap of faith that I did not possess.

Years later, in college, I became interested in History. As part of American History we read about the Mormon migration to Utah and the great salt lake. I did not know much about the Mormons but I understood that they did not fit well with communities in the east and moved frequently as a result of local pressure. There were conflicts between Mormon and traditional Christian beliefs. Since I did not really believe any of that stuff, I never looked into it for details.

Then, in the last 10 years or so, I went to Utah on business. It was really clean but hard to buy a drink. I read up on Mormon history and began to see some of the reasons why they were run out of town in the 1800s. In general, Mormons believe in the Book of Mormon which is thought to be plagiarized from the writings of Solomon Spaulding. The book and how it came to exist is a bizarre story. The teachings are even more crazy. I will let you do your own research and come to your own conclusions regarding the details. In short it involves special underwear, the planet Kolob, and dead baptism.

I think people can believe anything they want as long as it doesn't involve me. I live in California and there are all kinds of crazy people with weird ideas hanging around the Santa Monica Pier. They don't bother me and I don't bother them. The same would be true for Mormons except that one of them wants to be President. Yikes.

The question is not one of faith. It is really about judgment. Can a person who believes the teachings in the Book of Mormon be President? I think not. I know I am not a believer in the general sense but a person who believes the Book of Mormon is delusional and out of step with reality. Such a person does not have the judgement needed to lead our country. It is just that simple for me.