Bill Maher talks about Mormonism's Beliefs on HBO's "Real Time"

here's the link

Basically, Mr. Maher laid it out for any rational person who has never heard of Mormonism. He first started speaking about how difficult it would be to get the presidential nomination, saying that you have to state publically that you are a person of faith, and you will depend on your faith to guide you in your life. In his opinion, (and mine as well) this is a problem, because it means you are willing to 'suspend critical thinking' in order to maintain your beliefs.

Hmm, don't we already have a president like that? Do you see Mr. Bush using critical thinking in any of his decision-making?

Then, Mr. Maher went on to state a couple of the teachings of the Mormons that people should make a note of and remember, the first one was that Mormons used to teach that the only way a black man would get to heaven is to be sealed to a white as a slave.

The next point he made was that Mormons believe in things that can (and have been) proven false. Joseph Smith started the church less than two centuries ago, and it's not difficult to prove that most of his teachings, if not all, are false. Case in point: The Mormons believe that the Native Americans are decendants of the lost tribes of Israel. DNA tests have proven that this is a false belief, no question about it. And the Mormon reaction is to try to discredit the research and call it "inconclusive", simply because it doesn't uphold their viewpoint YET. So, they will continue to hold out on the DNA question until it can be 100% conclusive, which will always be statistically impossible, and THEY KNOW THIS!

Even if I took myself and my children to the clinic and had DNA testing done, the tests would only show that I was 99.99% likely to be their mother, and that is the slim margin the LDS church is hanging on to in order to maintain the belief that the Native Americans are what Joseph Smith said they were, and the Book of Mormon was written by them, and for them, to bring them to "further light and knowledge", and to "restore the fullness of the gospel". The Book of Mormon cannot stand without the Native Americans being decended from Jews. And, to further complicate things, NO Native South American indiginous peoples have been connected to DNA similarities of the Jewish peoples. They have Asian markers, they are similar in features and bone structures to the Asian peoples.

But you can't convince Mormons that their whole foundation for their church is NOT TRUE!

Joseph Smith did not receive a golden book to translate, and he did not have any contact with a personage named Moroni, who was supposedly a Native American Lamanite that led him to the plates, nor did he have any basis for his claim that the Native American peoples were decended from the authors of that golden book, and lastly, there has been NO EVIDENCE whatsoever that any of the wars that were supposedly fought, weapons used, animals mentioned, or vast populations described EVER EXISTED. Here in the U.S. or in Central America, or in South America, or anywhere at all in this hemisphere. He LIED, plain and simple.

Why, why, why is it so damn difficult to believe that he made it up? All of the evidence available, all of the historical record, all of the various accounts of his life and teachings point to the conclusion that he could NOT have been a prophet, or even very knowledgeable about Egyptian writings, the use of steel or even basic Jewish customs, like keeping Kosher, or observing holy days, which are not mentioned anywhere in the Book of Mormon.

If it is a book about Jews, you would expect lots of description about their lives, and instead it's full of epic wars where thousands die about every 30 years, and more contention and strife is listed within its pages than in the Bible. Yet, we cannot find any swords, shields, armor, breastplates, curlemoms, curemoms, or any other fanciful things left behind to tell the story. The simplest explanation is that he made it all up. And he didn't even come up with an original concept at that.