A Complaint about Mormons…from a chiropractor advocate (and some other stuff)

So, social media is…interesting. It regularly highlights irrationality and a lack of understanding below a surface level. You should see that coming from the title of this post.

So–the complaint: You can’t trust Mormons because their religion is based on words spoken to a guy by a magic plate.

On the surface–a fair complaint…rationally, it sounds silly that a belief-system could be built around a magic plate.

ON THE OTHER HAND, it should be remembered that the 10 Commandments were issued to a guy from a burning bush that turned the recipient’s hair all white. Is the word of a burning bush more ‘legit’ than that of a golden plate?

And we can’t forget the other great monotheistic religion. With Islam, it is said that an archangel (Gabriel) came to visit Mohammad while he was in the Cave of Hira through a series of visions that caused seizures. A cave…angel visits…seizures…and thus, the word of God.

But scorn was only tossed at the Mormon version of truth–not the others. Are the others so different? Of course not. And they are matters of faith–and I’m not going to stand in the way of someone’s belief system—faith is an individual choice.

What amused me with it was that the person casting scorn did so–and then mentioned having a chiropractor appointment for the afternoon.

Why is that amusing? I mean, lots of people go to chiros. How many realize how it was created?

The guy who created chiropracy was Daniel Palmer–the first chiro college is named for him in my hometown–Davenport. The Palmer family got really rich off of chiropractic stuff. Before starting chiropractic medicine, Palmer was a beekeeper and store owner. He got involved in ‘magnetic medicine’ then osteopathy, and then…started his own. BUT JIM–HOW DID HE COME UP WITH THIS NEW, AWESOME WAY OF MEDICINE???

Easy–through conversations with a dead doctor named Atkinson. Atkinson came to Palmer at the annual Mississippi Valley Spiritualists Retreat and that in addition to the ‘science’ Atkinson taught him in these dreams, Atkinson also told him that chiropractic beliefs were “a religious duty” (that’s a direct quote from Palmer–1911).

So…a guy willing to go to a chiro appointment, a believer in that–a field created based on conversations with a dead doctor who came to a guy in dreams at a spiritualist event…is complaining about a religion built around messages transmitted through a plate.

This illustrates a great deal about current society and thinking, methinks. What exactly it illustrates–I’m not sure. But I KNOW it illustrates it.