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First time my website has ever moved up in pagerank!! Lazy HTML FTW!!

We are in dire need for these positions to be filled.

What company? I may be able to help you with this. I am a fairly decent programmer, but I have been having trouble getting a job. My resume can be found at http://cs.byuh.edu/~andrew/resume.doc. I am willing to relocate.
If you are feeling benevolent I would appreciate any suggestions you have, too, since I think I am a better prosepective-employee than the results of my job search would indicate.

First of all, the Mountain Meadows Massacre was a tragic event, and not one that I am ignorant of. If you're going to bring it up, however, you should at least point out that then-prophet Brigham Young had expressly forbidden the Utah mormons from molesting the pioneers, and that the ringleaders of the attack were punished. There are plenty of conspiracy theories out there saying that secrtely Brigham condoned or even instigated the massacre, but most unbiased and professional historians have sided against these theories.

It's also helpful to realize that these were men who had been kicked out of New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. They had lost homes, lands, crops and possessions - watched their leaders beaten and murdered and endured the kinds of suffering no one should have to for religious belief. They had been forced to bury wives and daughters and sons in the frozen earth while they started the journey across the plains in the dead of winter. This is not to excuse what was done - and some Mormons acted violently before they had suffered this level of persecution - but to be historially honest you shoudn't equate the roque actions of Mormons after years of persecution with the almost universal and generally unprovoked persecution they had faced previously.

I will have to agree with you on some points. In general Mormons are better educated than the national average and most devout members of most religions, but the Church has instituted a largely white-washed version of its own history. While I happen to think you've picked poor examples to show the moral ambiguity of some of Mormonism's past, I'm not going to pretend that it doesn't exist. You might want to become better educated yourself on whether or not Joseph Smith "rewrote the Bible", but the heart of what you're saying is valid.

But when you say that I'm part of a culture that flourishes completely on ignorance you go to far. I'm just as aware of that quote as you are, but you should also realize that it's not the uncontested doctrine of Mormonism - it's the viewpoint of one of our leaders in contrast to a much deeper tradition that embraces not only radical freedom, but a continuing quest for personal revelation even on matters which the leaders have spoken on.

You're an outsider watching an internal argument, picking one quote that fits the stereotype you'd like to have of Mormons, and then imposing that statement on 12 million people. But the fact is you don't know what you are talking about. You can't grab a couple of anti-Mormon quotes from your local web-site and expect to understand the religion any more than I can google "Islam" and suddenly become an expert on the subject.

I'm not reacting negatively to the fact that you have negative things to say about my religion and my people. I'm reacting to the specific things you say. There are a lot of criticisms to be made about Mormon culture especially (believe me, I'm a loud critic of most things culturally Mormon) but your criticsms are superficial and largely erroneous.

-stormin

Here are some statistics:

On Eductation -

Utah ranked fourth for the highest population of persons age 25 and over with a high school degree at minimum, totaling 91 percent. (3)
Utah ranked 11th for the highest population of persons age 25 and over with a bachelor's degree or higher, totaling 27.9 percent. (3)
Utah ranked fifth for the highest percentage of ninth-grade students who graduated within four years, increasing from 77.8 percent in 1999 to 82.3 percent in 2000

As Latter-day Saints become more educated, they are more likely to be active Church participants, a trend opposite what is found in most denominations (online source: http://www.byuh.edu/kealakai/current/pages/educati on.html). because other Mormon quotes are "the glory of God is intelligence" and other quotes that advocate embracing truth whereever it is found

"They took last place overall"

WTF? TFA says that they completed the course while some of the other AUV's didn't -- and they won an award:

"Their robot, L.U.V., ... successfully completed an obstacle course, ... and won one of five awards - $1000 ..."

Please explain "last place". Thanks. :)