r/atheism•
Tithonos

Shouldn't someone sue the Mormon Church for fraud?

Obviously, all religion is fraudulent, but the LDS church actually demands money to maintain membership (a tithing of 10% of one's income). This basically makes Mormonism a pyramid scheme. Converts give money to the church and are also required (men are required, at least) to go find new converts. This money is funneled to the top and pays for the church leaders (1) and the temples, which cost millions of dollars (2), and other buildings. This explains why Utah is such a harbor for pyramid schemes (3).

Furthermore, while science definitely seems to reject religion generally, aspects of Mormon doctrine have been proved untrue by modern scientific methods. For instance, Native Americans are neither genetically or linguistically tied to Semitic peoples (4)(5). These are the primary scientific proofs, but there are still others. These include discrepancies between statements of church leaders and fact, etc.

Shouldn't this be grounds for fraud. The Mormon Church has not only cost millions of people billions of dollars, but it's lead to unnecessary death and suffering. So who thinks this is something that could be reasonably undertaken?

Sources:

  1. Ludlow, Daniel H., Latter-day Prophets Speak: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Church Presidents, 1948/1993, Ch. 32
  2. http://www.fletcherconstruction.co.nz/project.php?project_id=66&archived=yes
  3. http://www.kensonnenberg.com/utah-the-capital-of-multi-level-marketing/
  4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetics_and_the_Book_of_Mormon [see references]
  5. http://en.wikipedia.orgwiki/Linguistics_and_the_Book_of_Mormon [see references]

Posted Dec 2, 2011, 12:06 AM UTC

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