Yesterday there was an article in the Deseret News entitled, "The Book of Mormon claims No. 1 spot on list of life-changing books." It was great news for the Salt Lake City newspaper, a paper owned an operated by the LDS Church.
Here are some excepts:
The Book of Mormon climbed to the top of a list of life-changing books from BestBookRead.com Wednesday, April 17, thanks to user votes and social media interaction.Before the post on April 11, the Book of Mormon ranked #25, with 235 votes; five days later it ranked #1, with more than 4000 votes. As the author of the #1 generating post said, "This is an example of what Latter-day Saints can do when we stand for what we believe and we share it with others. If you haven’t voted for it yet, just visit BestBookRead.com."
...
On Wednesday, the Book of Mormon claimed the No. 1 spot on the list with help from a blog post by LDS Media Talk.The post, published April 11, prompted readers with the question "How has the Book of Mormon changed your life?" Readers were encouraged to vote for their life changing-book at BestBookRead.com.
After the post, the Book of Mormon went from No. 25 on the list to No. 1, with more than 4,000 votes.
"This is an example of what Latter-day Saints can do when we stand for what we believe and we share it with others," reads the post from LDS Media Talk.
The joy at LDS headquarters in SLC was short-lived, however. The Book of Mormon has fallen to #4, following #3 "How to Kill Yourself." The new #1 is "Mein Kampf" by Adolf Hitler.
(The Bible, by the way, is #36, just barely beating "Porn Star 1" by one vote.)
9 comments:
I had to vote for "How to Kill Yourself."
I had to do Mein Kampf special banned edition.
This sounds like something similar to a "Google bomb" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb ). For example, Google "Santorum".
But... I was hoping it was going to be the Skeptic's Annotated Bible, or at least Drunk with Blood. Well, a guy can hope!
Steve Weeks
Just goes to show how stupid marketing and biased websites can make stupid people believe anything. My advice is to go by facts of most read book or most printed books. It's The Bible. So if you think a low budget website can distort facts then good luck. Keep trying to convince the world that God does not exist:-)
"Keep trying to convince the world that God does not exist:-)"
Luckily, it's the other way around. Which of the thousands of gods that have been invented by humans do you have in mind? We're all born atheists; we get our religion from our families and local culture because it's inculcated into us.
Got evidence? ;-)
Steve Weeks
Got evidence? Nice quote. Makes me think of a child and a piece of paper. If you take a ball and cover it with a piece of paper then the child will forget there is a ball. As the child matures - it eventually pulls the paper away to see if the ball is there. Old enough and it knows its there. Jews saw Moses part the Red Sea and not long later - they make the golden calf after Moses leaves them for 40 days. You said you were a former believer and now you don't believe. Get some gold and make a calf:-) talk everyone around you to join you making the calf. So - as far as proof. Tell me where the bible is flawed. I'm listening.
It *is* a nice quote. Actually, it's a request or, if you prefer, a challenge. So... do you have anything other than "I have this book"?
So... you know about "object permanence"; I'm impressed. Other than that, you, Sir, are the master of the Non Sequitur. What object permanence has to do with Moses and the golden calf escapes me.
I like the story of the golden calf, and think it's wonderful that when the jews left Egypt in haste they brought with them all the equipment necessary for smelting gold and casting it into a shape. They probably had the necessary polishing equipment, too. (FWIW, I know quite a lot about gold casting, having done a fair amount of it.)
How about the fact that there is no archeological evidence that the "exodus" ever took place? (See http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Evidence_for_the_Exodus ).
As for flaws in the bible, you might be interested in Bart Ehrman's book "Misquoting Jesus- the story behind who changed the bible and why". Cheers,
Steve Weeks
BTW, you may be confusing me with Steve Wells, who is much more knowledgeable on these matters than I am. I doubt any objective assessment would place either of us in the "stupid people" category. I was never a believer, if that helps you understand me.
Steve - I am sorry I thought you were someone else. Life is very difficult. The idea of whether God exists or does not exist is very extreme. I have a masters degree in engineering from Virginia Tech. My daughter has a 3.91 GPA in engineering and both of us believe in God. Steve recently askede to "prove" God and I have been thinking about that ever sense. I respect all atheists for their rights and want to offer the best answer possible. Anyways - good talking to you and see you soon.
Lifestyles, I don't blame you for being proud of your accomplishments and those of your daughter. However, they don't support your argument for the existence of any god. I wouldn't expect saying that I have a doctoral degree in a health science (dentistry), or that my daughter is a PhD candidate in a biological science, or that my son is graduating with a 3.96 (though not in engineering, I'll give you that!) to support *my* argument against the existence of any god. Both my children are skeptics, BTW.
Here's what would probably serve as sufficient (for me) evidence for the existence of the Christian god: an amputee having a missing limb regenerated by prayer alone. I know what you're going to say: god can't be tested and if this happened we wouldn't have free will... or something like that. Well, people claim that other types of prayer are answered, so why not those of amputees? If god is capable of re-growing a limb (he does it for salamanders!), he'd have to be a real dick to not do it just to preserve the illusion of free will.
Incidentally, I think it's interesting that you and your daughter are engineers. You might Google "Salem Hypothesis".
Cheers,
Steve
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