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 OrgoneConclusion
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 Mormon Miracle of the Gulls
#8075373 - 02/26/08 11:36 PM (5 months, 21 days ago) |
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From Wikipedia. Here the Mormons attribute a natural 'disaster' and a natural 'solution' to some deity's intervention. Of course, do NOT ask the faithful who put the crickets there in the first place.
Traditional story
After Brigham Young led the first band of Latter-day Saints into what is now Salt Lake City, Utah, the pioneers had the good fortune of a relatively mild winter. Although late frosts in April and May decimated some of the crops, the Mormons seemed to be well on their way to self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, swarms of insects appeared in late May.
These insects, now called "Mormon crickets" because of this incident, are not true crickets, but instead belong to the katydid family. Having ornamental wings, they are unable to fly, but instead travel in huge devouring hordes. Mormon crickets eat all plant material in their path, but they also cannibalize any insects that die on the way. They're known to cyclically swarm in some areas of the Mountain West, especially in Utah and Nevada, but these bugs understandably terrified the pioneers. Stomping on the pests did not dissuade them from entering farms. Indeed, other crickets would advance to eat the remains of their brothers. Mormons, prolific journal writers, often cast this disaster in Biblical terms like the 8th plague of locusts.
According to some pioneers' accounts, legions of seagulls appeared by June 9, 1848. Many letters and diaries recount that these birds, native to the Great Salt Lake, ate mass quantities of crickets, drank some water, regurgitated, and continued eating more crickets. Ornithologists don't regard this as particularly unusual because the seagulls around the Great Salt Lake often eat insects in the adjacent valleys, but some pioneers saw the gulls' arrival as a miracle, and the story was recounted from the pulpit by church leaders such as Orson Pratt and George A. Smith. (Pratt 1880, p. 275; Smith 1869, p. 83) The traditional story is that the seagulls annihilated the insects, ensuring the survival of some 4,000 Mormons who had traveled to Utah. For this reason, Seagull Monument was erected and the California gull is the state bird of Utah.
Critical analysis
The traditional story is not without controversy. Some historians believe that the gulls were neither as widespread nor as effective against the insects as is often supposed. (Hartley 1992, p. 137)
Many pioneer journals recount the frosts, the swarms of insects, but no seagulls. From these differing accounts it seems that seagull intervention might have occurred in relatively isolated places.[citation needed] Nonetheless, by fall several Mormons credited the seagulls and divine intervention for having any crops left at all. This story was quickly incorporated into Mormon lore.
Also, other more mundane events may have helped save the crops. Some pioneer diaries recount success had by forming lines and thrashing through infested fields together.[citation needed] This forced all of the crickets into adjacent areas. Some of these accounts also describe seagulls at the edge of the field pecking away at the exodus of bugs. With or without seagulls, this technique may have saved much of the Mormons' first harvest in Utah. Historical evidence furthermore suggests that the gulls arrived after much damage had already been wreaked by frost and drought and that the "miracle" was
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I am not an actor, I merely play one on TV.
Edited by OrgoneConclusion (02/27/08 12:16 AM)
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 MushmanTheManic
AverageFrustrated Chump
Registered: 04/21/05
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lol@Mormonism
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OrgoneConclusion
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Loc: Not gardening
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Is(m) there an -ism that is not laughable?
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I am not an actor, I merely play one on TV.
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MushmanTheManic
AverageFrustrated Chump
Registered: 04/21/05
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I don't know. I can laugh at just about anything.
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the universe
Harbinger ofEldritch Despair
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Mormons are ridiculous.
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"If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the 'Fuck you' signs in the world."- J. D. Salinger
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WhiskeyClone
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Quote:
OrgoneConclusion said:
Is(m) there an -ism that is not laughable?
Ha.. Good question.
How about:
atheism
agnosticism
objectivism
rationalism
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-oOo-
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. -- `Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' -- Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
~ R.W. Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
-oOo-
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Entropymancer
Saint of Circumstance
Registered: 07/16/05
Posts: 3,192
Loc: PNW
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 Re: Mormon Miracle of the Gulls [Re: WhiskeyClone]
#8076366 - 02/27/08 08:53 AM (5 months, 21 days ago) |
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Good answer
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Bufotenin
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backfromthedead
Activated
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I like their belief in becoming the higher power.
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Entropymancer
Saint of Circumstance
Registered: 07/16/05
Posts: 3,192
Loc: PNW
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I try to avoid Mormon-bashing.
Sure, they're crazy, they try to induct dead relatives into their church, and they keep thorough records on absolutely fucking everyone they can. But on the flipside, they're all very nice people, and their beliefs bring them a lot more genuine happiness than most forms of Christianity. Unlike most other Christians, they don't condemn all aboriginal people to hell for not having heard of Jesus.
But they're still kind of a bunch of nutjobs.
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Bufotenin
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OrgoneConclusion
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Re: Mormon Miracle of the Gulls [Re: WhiskeyClone]
#8076608 - 02/27/08 10:23 AM (5 months, 21 days ago) |
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*Bzzzzzt!*
Prism was the correct answer. Had you guessed correctly, you would have won a new Audi R8!
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I am not an actor, I merely play one on TV.
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OrgoneConclusion
Thinker
Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 6,617
Loc: Not gardening
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Quote:
But they're still kind of a bunch of nutjobs.
How would you have phrased that if you were into Mormon-bashing?
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I am not an actor, I merely play one on TV.
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Entropymancer
Saint of Circumstance
Registered: 07/16/05
Posts: 3,192
Loc: PNW
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I'd have put it in much less civil tones, and thrown in a lot of ad hominem criticism of their spiritual leaders.
Honestly, I've got respect for Mormons. But I still think they're nutjobs; I'd just never say so to their face.
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Bufotenin
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gluke bastid
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Re: Mormon Miracle of the Gulls [Re: WhiskeyClone]
#8076770 - 02/27/08 11:04 AM (5 months, 21 days ago) |
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Quote:
WhiskeyClone said:
How about:
atheism
agnosticism
objectivism
rationalism
I dunno. While these have their uses I find them laughable when used in certain ways.
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Society in every form is a blessing,
but government at its best is but a necessary evil
- Thomas Paine
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