Worshipping Gods

I do a fair bit of wikipedia-hyperlink-navigation at work, on occasions when I don't have too much work at hand. So, today I was reading up on the Latter Day Saint movement, the one started by Joseph Smith Jr.

Reading it, I was reminded of the South Park episode (Season 7 Episode 12), where they explain 'All About Mormons'. And it made me think of something that I hadn't when I saw the episode a couple of years back.

According to Wikipedia, 'The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the churches of the Latter-Day Saint movement. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi. According to Smith, the book was originally written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as "Reformed Egyptian" on golden plates that he discovered in 1823 and then translated. The plates, Smith said, had been buried in a hill near his home in Manchester, New York, where he found them by the guidance of an angel named Moroni'.


In the South Park episode, there's this part:

Blacksmith: There goes that kooky Joseph Smith
Customer: You know, he claims he spoke with God and Jesus.
Woman: Well, how do you know he didn't?

Well, how do we know he did and wasn't just high on some quality weed when he came across some weird chap in the forest who might have introduced himself as,"I...am...a...moron. Moron...I".

And the thought that I was talking of was this - how do we know a frustrated chap in his forties living in Mecca in 610 CE actually received a revelation from God, and did not just think up the entire thing as a final shot at doing something worthwhile and achieving fame.

Or, for that matter, how do we know if, several years before this, a shepherd from Egypt actually did receive two stone tablets authored by God (if only there was a Booker then!) on the top of Mount Sinai, and did not just come up with the theory to control the unruly crowd he had decided to lead but had given up on pretty soon.

The three stories are fairly similar, and appear equally fantastic. As much as Area 52 or a stone idol drinking milk. It's just that the first one I spoke about was the most recent, less than 200 years old, and so appears more unbelievable than the other two.

And, well, I picked the 2nd and 3rd examples because they are similar to the first. In general, all religion, not the kind where one paints his face red and shouts Go ManU! at his TV, but the one where you start believing that there is some cool dude sitting up there or flowing all around you, taking the fall for all your dumb acts (you know stupid stuff we keep doing time and time again - wars, disturbing nature's balance, marriage, etc), is based on such humongous leaps of faith.

Why make fun of Mormons then? At least the Mormon men have more (legal) fun than those from any other religion. Hey, I just realized that there is another similarity between the first example and the second one. The former does not have a limit as far as I know, while the latter has a limit of 4.