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Time for another personal comment: I have been inside a Mormon Temple. No, I am not an ex-Mormon, or a Jack Mormon, but this Gentile was inside the Dallas, Texas, temple. No big mystery. It seems that until it is dedicated, consecrated or whatevericated, a temple is just a building. They actually held an open house with guided tours. We (my family and I) saw the baptismal 'tub' (sorry to sound flippant, but I don't know how else to describe it); the Mormons believe baptism must be by immersion/submersion. There were various rooms used for whatever. Sorry I can't go into more detail, but this was about 1984, quite a few years ago. The last stop on the tour was the Celestial Room, supposedly as near to Heaven as you can get on Earth. To me it resembled a French Provincial drawing room.

I want to do some more research, then I will throw out my thoughts on Mormon rituals, and hopefully generate some further discussion.

Many people that believe in a omnipotent being, superpower, or all great creator, are peculiar. The Morman idea is quite conflicting. You have to wonder if these top guys, back then, were moonshining on the side. Possibly drunk while coming up with these silly rules and ideas. They broke every other law, I'm sure they would have had no qualms with producing alcohol and making a rule that a Morman cannot drink. Why is it that the top dogs, people believe in, break all the rules they make? Look at the God of Christians. The bible clearly states their God as the biggest divine law breaker.

I didn't know one thing about Mormonism, well, the polygamy news was widespread. I had no desire to know anything about Mormonism, but the book was interesting. Now I have one more group of people in my head that I wonder, "What the hell is wrong with these people?"

This is a very, very, long chapter! I find it particularly interesting that the are so many incidents of LSD defrauding and lying to each other, particularly about money.

Part of it I am sure is the pressure to succeed financially. But robbing from each other?! The underwear thing is unusual in my eyes. But I guess no one is asking me!

The revised solar system is obviously just one more form of bunk. But hey: who says everything has to be consistent?

The polish of the earlier chapters has disappeared and the book is just meandering around now, tossing out junk left and right. A brief discussion about the Book of Abraham, which was utterly incomprehensible until I followed the Kindle link to the essay at Kevin Mathie's site. A long pointless digression into plot outlines of Battlestar Gallactica episodes and the teen trilogy Twilight. The shocking news that some Mormons are crooks and other Mormons or sometimes the same Mormons are celebrities.

Mahree wrote

Now I have one more group of people in my head that I wonder, "What the hell is wrong with these people?"

Ain't that the truth.

KayR wrote:The polish of the earlier chapters has disappeared and the book is just meandering around now, tossing out junk left and right.

yep. And I didn't think there was much polish in the earlier chapters! But it's possible there wasn't a better way to organize this. The name of the chapter is more weirdness.

But I don't think the battlestar galactica/twilight stuff is too weird. It seems to fit in well with the themes of the shows. certainly, there have been lots of books/tv based on theological themes.

I've tried to find another book that critically examines the history and beliefs of the Mormon Church. There are plenty of histories and biographies, but I haven't stumbled across anything that deconstructs the church as this Complete Heretic's Guide does. I was hoping to find a more polished treatment. Has anyone read one they could recommend?

KayR, Fitzgerald has a large bibliography and he recommends books and web sites throughout - also check "Further Resources" section, pages 311 - 314. Frankly, after reading this book I don't want to dive much deeper...

Pages 157 - 158 describe four sacred symbols on the magic underwear, then this:

Initially the four marks were cut into the garments during the temple initiation - so deep they would leave scars. This was abandoned after too many protests from Mormon women; now they come with the marks already stitched in.

Whaaaaat? Fitzgerald doesn't elaborate, but why would they cut the symbols into the underwear while it was being worn such that it caused bleeding and scarring? Didn't they have scissors? I s'pose the initiates put up with it as a Spiritual Tattoo?

Fitzgerald mentions a web site where you can check out authentic magic underwear (the real stuff is available only to initiates). It looks better than I expected - I could see the hunky Chris O'Connor sporting this! However checking the location of the symbols, it looks like the previous ceremony would involve cutting with a knife right into the nipple area - rather sadistic! :mat07:

http://mormonssecret.com