<p>sydney…when the 3rd post in this regards evolution…being a scientist myself it is pretty hard to resist debating it.</p>
<p>and secondly, although ignoring what you have to say is never good, just because some people are athiests or buddhists or whatever, does not mean that they do not know your religion very well. For example, there was a professor of theology that I met that was a die-hard athiest…and he probably knows A LOT more than most Christians, Jews, Muslims concerning thier own religion. So in essence, just because someone is not of your own religion, that does not mean that they do not know a great deal about it, although as I said previously, there is no reason for people to ignore your opinion.</p>
<p>and im bored and procrastinating and love debating so im just hooking onto this thread.</p>
<p>Haha! What a fun question!!! I have so many! Actually, most of these misconceptions don’t make me angry, they just make me laugh. So, here goes:</p>
<p>1) People who think that Mormons practice polygamy–uhhh. . .that was banned over a hundred years ago. The polygamists around today are not a part of our church.
2) People who don’t think our Church believes in Christ–I’ve already talked about this one
3) People who think we’re not allowed to dance–I don’t know where anyone got this idea. We dance ALL the time!!! It’s one of our favorite things to do. I think these people have us confused with some groups of Baptists or something.
4) People who say our Church worships Joseph Smith–Not true.<br>
5) People who act as though they know what the Book of Mormon is and what it is about and what it means when they have never even opened the book before in their lives.
6) People who have gotten ALL of their info on Mormonism from Anti-Mormon sites–Sheesh people! If you’re going to read biased arguments, you can at least read biased arguments from both sides!
7) People who do weird/cruel things to the missionaries when they knock on their doors–this one is actually my favorite. I find some of the things people do and say to the missionaries quite hilarious! It seems every returned missionary has some strange story to tell. They amuse me. I even know stories where actual members of the church prank new missionaries in the area by pretending to be some wild lunatic with a shot gun who hates the missionaries. This one guy does it for EVERY new missionary who comes to his town. The older missionaries get a great laugh out of it every time. The new missionaries get totally freaked out!!!</p>
<p>Anyway, those are my pet peeves/amusements. Strange how I either think these things are hilarious or get offended. I think it depends on who is doing them. :)</p>
<p>^^ I agree totally, misconceptions can be fun </p>
<p>Bob, I agree that some people might not belong to a religion, and still know a lot about it, but I’m not talking about those types of people. I’m talking about the ones that deny things that are known to generally all followers of a religion.</p>
<p>Example of what I mean:</p>
<p>Me: I’m not oppressed.
Person: Yes you are.
Me: No I’m not, nowhere in the Quran and Sunnah is there anything saying that women are inferior to men.
Person: Yeah, well, there was this lady that went on Oprah and she lived in the middle east and she was oppressed.
Me: I saw that. What happened to her is forbidden in Islam.
Other Muslim: She’s right. It is forbidden. [provides proof from Quran and Sunnah]
Person: You’re wrong.
Random Non Muslim: Actually, they’re right, Islam does forbid that. [provides more proof]
Me: See? He’s not Muslim, and he agrees with me.
Person: No, too bad, if you believe that, there’s something wrong with you and you’re not following your religion right.
Me: Fine, fine, you’re right, I’m wrong. [goes off to tell friends about how this weird guy thought he knew more about islam than two muslims and a non muslim.]</p>
<p>Exactly how does it benefit you or anyone else to question someone’s intimate and sacrad relationship to God, especially since you seem to lack one yourself. Religion to people–unlike evolution, relativity, quantum physics etc–revolves around love, unity and understanding; you know, transcendent and sacred things. Even if you question the religion itself, you cannot question the value and import it holds with the people who believe. In other words, their sincerity of belief is, well, sincere. </p>
<p>Your lack of understanding when it comes to all things transcendent is only magnified when you equate human beings to a pestilence. As I understand it, plagues ravish and terrify humanity. Yet the only thing terrifying here is your use of the word “■■■■■■” to describe a Muslim woman. Face it, your all over the place, and your intolerance and thoughtlessness is simply unacceptable and oppressive.</p>
<p>It’s beyond pathetic that you use a mental illness as a crap excuse for an insult. Try harder next time, without putting down people who can’t help the way they are.</p>
<p>Someone want to explain to me the whole terrorist muslim connection?</p>
<p>I saw somewhere earlier in the thread some quotes from the Quran endorsing violence against non-believers?</p>
<p>So according to Islam, what happens to non-believers?</p>
<p>How come I don’t hear more Muslims speak out against terrorism?</p>
<p>Why do so many muslim leaders support or don’t speak out against suicide bombers and terrorists?</p>
<p>Honest to god, I want to understand these things. You can tell right now where I stand, but it’s because no Muslim has stepped forward to reach out and teach people Islam. All we see is Islam and terror on TV.</p>
<p>Well, pranking the missionaries is a rather fun thing to do, actually. Most of the actual pranks I’ve heard of have been done by other members of the church who knows that one of the missionaries is new. After the missionary gets scared to death, they usually invite them inside for some food or something. It’s all in good fun.<br>
It can be bad though when people who aren’t in the church do crazy things to get the missionaries to leave. Sometimes, their reactions are funny, but other times they can be downright offensive. I’ve never been on a mission myself, but most returned missionaries I’ve talked to have had some bad experiences on their mission. Poor little missionaries! Aw. . . :)</p>
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