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Title: Richard Dawkins: Romney a ‘massively gullible fool’ for practicing Mormonism
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URL Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/ ... fool-for-practicing-mormonism/
Published: Sep 11, 2012
Author: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/10/ri
Post Date: 2012-09-11 19:16:57 by tom007
Keywords: None
Views: 265
Comments: 6
Richard Dawkins: Romney a ‘massively gullible fool’ for practicing Mormonism By David Edwards Monday, September 10, 2012 14:04 EDT Print Richard Dawkins interviewing with British newspaper The Guardian. Topics: mitt romney ♦ richard dawkins Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins on Sunday asked how anyone could vote for a “massively gullible fool” like Mitt Romney who could not see that Mormonism’s founder was a “fraud.” “Romney’s prophet Joseph Smith a fraud,” Dawkins said in an hours-long Twitter rant, quoting from the Book of Mormon and adding, “Romney falls for it.” “No matter how much you agree with Romney’s economic policy, can you really vote for such a massively gullible fool?” the atheist asked. “He is a Mormon BISHOP!” “Bible & Koran genuinely old, written in the language of their time. Book of Mormon written by 19thC charlatan. Romney too stupid to see it,” he continued, snarking, “And it came to pass that the lot was cast for Mitt and Mitt did verily reign in the land and there was rejoicing in the corridors of Mammon.” According to The Daily Beast’s Andrew Sullivan, Mormons differ from most Christians in that they see no conflict in serving God and mammon — or material wealth that many mainstream believers view as diminishing religion. “Could you really vote for a man who thinks the Garden of Eden was in Missouri?” he asked again three hours after the tirade began. In a comment on his website, Dawkins responded to the criticism that he had singled out Romney’s Mormonism when President Barack Obama was also a religious man. “There seems a good chance that Obama is an atheist,” he wrote. “The fact that he professes Christianity means nothing. He’s an elected American politician and if you fail to profess some kind of religion you are not an elected American politician. … Romney, on the other hand, seems almost certainly a true believer. He was a zealous Mormon bishop.” “Christianity, even fundamentalist Christianity, is substantially less ridiculous than Mormonism (and Obama, if he is Christian at all, is certainly not fundamentalist),” he explained. ” The idea that Jesus visited America is preposterous, and the idea the Adam and Eve did too is even worse (it is at least arguable that Jesus existed). The traditional Mormon belief in the inferiority of black people (only lately renounced for reasons of political expediency) is as scientifically inaccurate as it is obnoxious.The great ‘prophet’ Brigham Young even prescribed the death penalty for inter-racial marriage.” Dawkins concluded: “No, in the best of all possible worlds we don’t want a Christian President, but in the world of political expediency we are probably going to have to live with a President who at least pretends to be Christian. We most emphatically do NOT want a Mormon President, and there seems very little hope that Mitt Romney is only pretending to be Mormon.” (h/t: The Telegraph)
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#1. To: All (#0)
Not my post. Romney may indeed be a fool, but he is also Mormon royalty. He believes that his destiny is to become the first Mormon president, and he will do or say anything to achieve that end. Brigham Young's great great grand-daughter, Sue Emmett, who left the Mormon Church, has insights into Romney. Her decision was based primarily on the treatment of women within the Church. She has formed an Ex-mormon organization to help others with the transition out of the religion. She is now 71 years old and rarely gives interviews. She is not a Mormon-basher by any means. But she has a unique perspective, both on Mormonism in general and Mitt Romney in particular. “Mitt is a product not only of his wealth, but of an organization that gives men power when they are 12 years old,” she says.As for what pundits say is Romney's difficulty connecting with people, Emmett blames it largely on what she calls “the entitled Mormon male syndrome, where the leadership professes compassion and concern but leaves the manifestations of that to the drones.” Romney was a bishop, “a position where everyone defers to you. What a bishop says goes. People come to them to receive blessings.” He then became a stake president, she says, which means he presided over several congregations, and at that point bishops deferred to him.“Mitt has had people defer to him and not challenge him his entire life,” says Emmett. “In the Mormon church if you challenge your priesthood leaders it’s a very bad thing to do, especially for women. As the world can now see, Mitt has a very hard time with being questioned and criticized; he’s had so little of this in his life." Emmett says she doesn’t think Romney has the ability to separate what leaders of the church want from what the country needs. “Mitt has been groomed to become president from a very young age,” says Emmett. She thinks Romney’s biggest fault is that he has a “serious problem telling the truth. There is flip-flopping, which he has done more than any politician in modern history, and then there is out and out lying,” she says. “This kind of thing has sadly been a part of the church from the very beginning. Some modern apostles actually taught that it is not always the best thing to tell the truth if it interferes with preaching gospel.” At a presentation on Lying for the Lord at the 2008 Exmormon Foundation conference, Ken Clark addressed the issue. Clark, who worked as a teacher for the LDS Church Education System (CES) for 27 years and also served as a bishop before leaving the church in 2003, tells The Daily Beast, “Lying has become an institutionalized method of administrative control with the church."Mitt has been told from an early age that he has an entitlement to leadership, he has been fawned over and deferred to his whole life, and he does not like to be questioned. He is an abject liar. He believes in a hierarchy with men superior to women. He puts his personal religious views above what is best for the country. Not good qualities in a president. 66 • Reply • Share › Avatar theoracle • a day ago • parent I thought she was describing the Catholic Church for a second. But wait, the Mormons have had similar problems over homosexuality (like all fundamentalists do) and also the Mormons have had their share of child sexual molestations (usually of underage young girls, but who knows). Mormonism is a cult. So we have Mitt Romney who is hell-bent on being the first Mormon cult leader of America and Paul Ryan, who belongs to the Ayn Rand cult. 22 • Reply • Share › Great stuff - thanks. (You cannot make this up) “The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
Dawkins is, of course, a very vocal spokesman for atheism. He can, and will, find fault with EVERY religion. A lot of Mormons (possibly the vast majority of them) are nice, honest and helpful people; model citizens. They find enormous comfort in a religion that makes Jesus an American, and that very pointedly promotes sobriety and family togetherness. I can think of plenty of reasons to vote against Romney without mentioning his religion.
Why? Both claim things that are not literally plausible on a scientific level. Why is one worse than the other? Why is a recent religious claim less good than an older religious claim? Is Dawkins saying that supernatural stuff can happen in Israel but not America?
Cause it has been around longer. Not a very convincing argument. We are still influenced by very ancient Mesopotamian religious notions and symbols. Blood of the Lamb for one. There seems to me to be one religious myth and it has morphed in to the various sects that we see today. I do very much include the Vedic mysteries as being essential to understanding human religion.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" 
#2. To: tom007 (#1)
#3. To: tom007 (#0)
#4. To: tom007 (#0)
Christianity, even fundamentalist Christianity, is substantially less ridiculous than Mormonism
#5. To: strepsiptera (#4)
Christianity, even fundamentalist Christianity, is substantially less ridiculous than Mormonism
"Satan / Cheney in "08"
#6. To: All (#5)
"Satan / Cheney in "08"
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