Infidel Guy v. Mormonia

This past week's Infidel Guy show is all about the Mormon religion. This week he hosts Richard Packham, a very nice, well-spoken old Atheist who left the Mormon church in his mid-20s. It's the standard stuff---most of the stuff which caused me to first begin to question the church as a young teen (magic spectacles, angels, golden plates, polygamy, black skin as a "curse...").

But the interesting point made by both Reggie (the Infidel Guy) and Packham is the power and influence of the internet on slowing the spread of magical, mystical beliefs. When I was growing up in Utah, the church would brag on and on about how big it was getting. I remember when it hit 10 million and everybody was patting themselves on the back. Apparently, though, the spread of Mormonia has slowed some in the past decade.

Could this be because of the internet, perhaps? Nowadays, when a couple of white shirt/black tie 19-year-olds show up on your door step and talk about a guy who found buried treasure in a hill in New York in the 1830s, you can get right online after they leave and find out just how silly a claim like that really is. Or look at DNA evidence proving that the North American Indians have been here for tens of thousands of years---not the couple thousand as claimed in the Book of Mormon.

Man, the internet would have been a wonderful resource for me as a confused young teenager. I took the old-fashioned route out of the church---it just never "felt" right to me. But it's good to know that there are more tools out there for those seeking escape from the destructive power of religion---be it whatever cult or sect.