Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ecsvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!unc!mcnc!ecsvax!dgary
From: dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.flame,net.misc,net.religion,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: MHCS results
Message-ID: <484@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11-Jan-85 13:51:40 EST
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.484
Posted: Fri Jan 11 13:51:40 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 08:32:38 EST
References: <1784@uvacs.UUCP>, <2765@ncsu.UUCP>
Organization: Duke U Comp Ctr
Lines: 36
Xref: watmath net.politics:6774 net.flame:7610 net.misc:7251 net.religion:5262 net.philosophy:1351

<>
RE Whether Mormons are Christians...

I have a friend who refers to the Latter-Day Saints church as "the
Scientology of the 19th Century" which is an interesting point of view.
There is some evidence that Joseph Smith got the book of Mormon from a
novelist of the era, or that he wrote it in imitation of that novelist's
style.  (Said novelist, an obscure writer whose name escapes me, wrote
and published what we would today call a "fantasy" novel with several
superficial similarities to the Book of Mormon and many stylistic
similarities, such as using imitation King James English and starting
every other paragraph with "And it came to pass..."

If memory serves, the Pearl of Great Price has often been publised with
a frontispiece of Egyptian writing identified by Smith as "reformed
Egyptian" (the language of the Book of Mormon).  This turns out to be a
fragment of the Book of the Dead (or a related work), and not what Smith
claimed.  (Although he may not have identified it through the Urim and
Thumim, so perhaps the mistake was understandable.  But if he was truly
a prophet...)

The Mormon religion has some curious doctrines.  Again, if I am not
mistaken, it is possible for a good person to aspire to godhood.  Even
the God to whom we pray was once a mortal man, they contend.  Women,
unfortunately, cannot become gods or goddesses themselves, but must
connect up to a successful male priest and ultimately, I presume, become
"goddettes."

Well, sorry to ramble on and no offense intended to LDS readers.  I
respect the LDS church, even though I disagree with many of its
doctrines.
-- 
D Gary Grady
Duke U Comp Center, Durham, NC  27706
(919) 684-3695
USENET:  {seismo,decvax,ihnp4,akgua,etc.}!mcnc!ecsvax!dgary