Reply #13: Close. It was actually started by Joseph Smith, based on Masonic... [View All]

[Fridays Child]

...rituals. He was quite the whack job, with his golden plates, the angel Moroni, and so on. Among the Mormons' stranger beliefs is that, if they do everything just right, men and their first wives (men can still be married to multiple women in the spiritual realm) will ascend through three levels of heaven to become Mr. and Mrs. God of their own planet. Adam and Eve are Mr. and Mrs. God of this planet. By the way, if confronted directly about this nonsense, they will not admit that it's true. Nor will they readily admit that they wear special underwear, called temple garments. They say that they remain tight-lipped on these and other topics in order to shield their beliefs from the ridicule of evil non-believers. But, in reality, they know that if the truly insane aspects of their beliefs were generally known, they'd never get converts.

There's lots more, like temple recommends, baptism of the dead, and secret handshakes (really!). The only thing that stops most people from realizing that Mormonism is a cult is its size and the money and power it wields.