But somehow when it comes to the Bible, the creationist story in there are taken as fact? What stops the other cultures from claiming that their myths are historical fact?

It just seems to me that Christians had a better publicity and marketing campaign to ’spread the word’ back in the day. Kinda like Coca Cola.

And just FYI - I was brought up in a very strict (and still very strict) Roman Catholic environment. Eventually, I just couldn’t ignore the huge inconsistencies and contradictions in the Bible. But don’t tell my mother…

It’s the Penn & Teller Syndrome. I’ve railed against it myself in favor of a kindler, gentler approach. For example, I’d wager a month’s salary that I have turned more people away from Sylvia Browne then P&T have with all their media exposure and TV shows.

Currently, I’m trying to convince my parents that the NAFTA Superhighway does not exist, will not exist, and not to send money to the “anti-highway” group that keeps sending them requests in the mail.

The problem is that there is a huge difference between a culture with a long tradition of arranged marriages and the concept of “selling women”. You are lumping together very dissimilar things and being quite bigoted in this case, my gringo. I almost expeced a Homer Simpson comment like, “They’re funny because they dress differently!”

And to be blunt: The USA has about a 50% divorce rate. Who the f*** are we to deride anyone on that front?

Here is one woman’s view:

http://www.courses.psu.edu/hd_fs/hd_fs315_rxj9/proposal.htm

>>> I will say this out loud and squarely: any institution —
>>> government, religion, or otherwise — that treats women
>>> as anything less than men should be derided and
>>> humiliated publicly,

Well, Islam is a huge offender on that front, so have at it:

http://www.islam-watch.org/IW/WomenInIslam.htm

I expect a blog entry on this within a week.

The target of the ridicule has to be better focused than on simply “religious fundamentalism”. That’s a relatively small contributor to the overall problem. For example– how much worse is it to treat women like property than to treat them like sex symbols whose sole value to society comes between the ages of 16 and 25? But which culture could I possibly be talking about there?

But I must confess I don’t have enough information about mormons to say for sure what should be done.