The Book of Mormon

I apologize in advance for those I will undoubtedly offend with this post.

I recently got a copy of the soundtrack for "The Book of Mormon - The Musical," the new Tony award winning musical on Broadway.  It's the perfect combination of my love of musical theater and atheism.  If you haven't listened to it yet, you must.  It's funny.

My favorite song is "I Believe" which chronicles some actual Mormon beliefs.  The lyrics are as follows (I cut out a few boring verses for the sake of length):

"A warlord who shoots people in the face.
What's so scary about that?
I must trust that my Lord is mightier
And always has my back.
Now I must be completely devout
I can't have even one shred of doubt...

I Believe; that the Lord, God, created the universe
I Believe; that He sent His only Son to die for my sins
And I Believe; that ancient Jews built boats and sailed to America
I am a Mormon
And a Mormon just believes

You cannot just believe part way,
You have to believe in it all.
The problem is doubting the Lord's will
Instead of standing tall

I Believe; that God has a plan for all of us
I Believe; that plan involves me getting my own planet
And I Believe; that the current President of The Church, Thomas Modson, speaks directly to God
I am A Mormon
And dang it! a Mormon just believes!

You ask the Lord in faith
He will always answer you
Just believe in Him
And have no fear!

I Believe; that Satan has a hold of you
I Believe; that the Lord, God, has sent me here
And I Believe; that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people!
You can be a Mormon
A Mormon who just believes!

The Scriptures say that if you ask anything
God Himself will know
But you must ask Him without any doubt
And let your spirit grow...

I Believe; that God lives on a planet called Kolob
I Believe; that Jesus has his own planet as well
And I Believe; that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri
You can be a Mormon: you'll feel it
And you'll know it's all true: you just... feel it
You'll be a Mormon
By gosh!
A Mormon just...
Believes!"

It's funny because of the crazy beliefs it points out, but when I read it, I also laugh at the "you must ask Him without any doubt" part.  It amazes me that if there is a god who supposedly created us as enormously curious beings, that he would just expect us to take things on faith alone, and blindly believe other people who claim they've spoken to god or have some sort of "inside knowledge" that no one else seems to have.

But is all of this really any more implausible than believing that a virgin gave birth, or that a snake talked someone into eating an apple, or that a man somehow fit two of every animal on Earth into one boat?  Is it any crazier than believing that a wafer and wine is the actual flesh and blood of Jesus? Many of us like to make fun of other people's crazy beliefs, but I think we do ourselves a disservice when we fail to critically look at our own as well.

And if you really want a laugh, Google the lyrics to "All American Prophet."