The silliest of all the silly religions

The Mormon Super Bowl will be played today out in Utah. Those who have a rooting interest call it "The Holy War." Brigham Young University will be playing the University of Utah in a fairly important college football game that will play a small role in determining how the national championship and Bowl Championship Series will play out.

But to me, the fascinating part of this is the mind blowing strangeness of the religion that millions of Americans, many of whom choose to live in the state of Utah, profess belief in. The excellent and mind blowing non-fiction book "Under the Banner of Heaven", by the outstanding Jon Krakauer, tells the tale of some Morman fundamentalists who committed murder a few years back. But in amidst the story of the killings are descriptions of Mormon beliefs about God, Joseph Smith, native Americans ancestry, marraige, Brigham Young, and the special place that Utah holds. I won't try to convert any true believers, but to me, if you think that aliens landed here centuries ago and planted special books in mines in the US, then you're kind of strange.