Paul Toscano

Mormonism in Crisis Paul Toscano

In this small book, Paul Toscano sets forth both his criticism and defense of Mormonism and concludes: "Is it possible that God prefers angry disappointed atheists and agnostics over self-assured, self-satisfied, smug, pain-in-the-ass true-believers? Is he provoking us to see that he prefers protests to theme parks? and righteous indignation to supplicating servility? And though a morally indignant, self-indulgent, self-righteous, arrogant atheist is no prize bag, is it possible that God prefers such a person to a mindless, armed religious fundamentalist? Is it possible God does not favor a true believer's certainties, but rather a disbeliever's blood-boiling rage at injustice and inconsolable disappointment in God's abandonment and apparent indifference to pain and suffering? Does our disbelief in false images of God constitute the chief evidence that the divine game is afoot? Was this truth the point of Ezekiel's castigation of bad shepherds? "My conclusions is this: If God were a deity who wants followers whose faith depends upon success, followers who hide their true feelings to curry God's favor, followers who prefer comfort to truth, who believe that divine judgments and punishments will be hammered down upon enemies like Vulcan at his anvil, followers who can be bribed by a relentless series of visible interventions calculated to block the consequences of free will and the laws of nature-I submit that such a god would be a very bad shepherd; and his kingdom would be the ultimate fascist state."