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Comment by austenallred | Hacker News Reader

As an obviously-biased Mormon I'm not sure the conclusion follows.

Certainly there are fantastical elements to my religion (as there are to all religions I know of), but we don't do what we do to compensate for that. We do what we do because we believe it.

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Perhaps not to compensate, but to validate. You would never feel compelled to act in a certain way because the sky is blue, or because water is wet. But if you have a political or religious belief, however absurd, you feel a compulsion to act.

I don't see why that's a more logical conclusion than "I believe God wants me to do x therefore I do x"

You're missing a fundamental part so I'll add it in, but even so, it's still incredibly simplified so as to push a certain derogatory view.

"I believe God wants me to do x because y therefore I do x because y and/or z"

The y in that is the supernatural stuff - the story. I wouldn't go to see a movie if it didn't have a good story. I wouldn't go if it was just a list of facts. But that's what the dull modern atheists types want me to do in life.

Funnily, my intent was to show that y was the dull stuff. Maybe another addition would be "I believe God wants me to do x because y, in the context of s, therefore I do x because y and/or z"?

For example, take a thing Mormons are commonly known for—not drinking alcohol. It came about in what we call the 'word of wisdom' [1] [2].

s := The story part would be "In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—"

x := don't drink (and other health related things like eating meat sparingly)

y := to be healthy in both body and mind/spirit

z := I have faith (faith is effectively trust in someone who has shown that they're trustworthy) in God

[1] https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/89?lang=eng

[2] https://www.lds.org/topics/word-of-wisdom?lang=eng&old=true

I read the linked religious texts and the story doesn't seem compelling enough for me to stop drinking the Leffe at my elbow. The fictional story has to to good enough to resonate as a truth. Aesop had the right idea.

Lot's of religions have the "I believe God wants me to do x" component without their followers then actually doing X. Non of the Catholics I know, for example, are particularly catholic or overly christian in their day to day behaviour, while all the Mormons I know try very hard to be, well, Mormon.

I'd guess that one of the differences comes in what we believe; specifically, Mormons believe that God still commands us and communicates with us today through chosen leaders - the Prophet and Twelve Apostles. We hear from them once every six months in what we call General Conference (curiously enough it concluded a couple hours ago). So they can add a level of recency and organization to commandments that might otherwise be more vague and ambiguous - e.g. "God wants each member to not eat one meal a week and donate that money to the poor" is a somewhat of a commandment for Mormons, and extends from God. Announcing that five new temples are to be built came from the Apostles today. For Catholics I don't believe most exact/actionable things are quite as direct.

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