In previous posts about Mormonism I have suggested that it is a religion based not on evidence or reason but on fideistic blind faith. For example, just this morning I posted a response to a radio show listener which said:
[There is] an important distinction between
Christianity and other religions like Mormonism and Islam. Mormons and
Muslims are told to believe their "holy" books because they are holy.
The Koran and Book of Mormon are revered first as the very words of God
handed down to his supposed prophets and only after that are they accepted as true historical documents. There is no outside test for their validity –
it simply must be accepted on blind faith that these books are from
God and that any claims made within them are true. Any questioning of their authority is seen as a lack of faith.
I went on to say
There is only on objective truth regarding the nature of reality so claims regarding that truth should stand up to scrutiny
in any discipline of knowledge. Truth that we discover using the
scientific method should match up with truth discovered through reasoning as
well as truth revealed from prophets, etc. If claims made by any of
them are in conflict, at least one of them must be wrong.
Religions like Mormonism and Islam do not accept this assertion. A perfect example of that comes via Column One in today’s L.A. Times. It seems DNA evidence repudiates Mormon claims that Indians are the lost tribes of Israel and therefore Middle Eastern descendants of Abraham. However, although this rightly shook the faith of some, and others have rightly tried to reconcile the evidence with their sacred teachings, most Mormons simply don’t care.
"This may look like the crushing blow to Mormonism from the outside,"
said Jan Shipps, a professor emeritus of religious studies at Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis, who has studied the church
for 40 years. "But religion ultimately does not rest on scientific
evidence, but on mystical experiences. There are different ways of
looking at truth."
Well, whatever she means by "there are different ways of looking at truth", it clearly has nothing to do with objective truth about reality at all. If your mystical experiences tell you something about reality that is the opposite of what scientific inquiry tells you about the nature of reality, one of them has to be wrong. There is no middle ground. To try to hold on to both is irrational, which is what I have claimed Mormonism is. This is just one more example.