There once was a man named Joe;
Many things he didn’t know.
So he made up a story
About angels and glory,
And got folks to give him their dough.
Mormons basically have to believe that a guy who lived in America in the early 1800's was a prophet of the Christian god and not a liar. That’s really the main tenet of the Mormon faith – believing this guy was not a liar; a supreme act of faith. His name was Joe Smith and he claimed he was visited by an angel who told him the location of golden plates buried in the ground with another biblical text written in an old language on them. He claimed he translated these golden plates and wrote the translation in the ‘Book of Mormon.’ He then claimed an angel took these golden plates to heaven when he finished translating them. During the translation, he claimed the golden plates were in his hat along with some magical rocks and he hid behind a curtain and talked aloud whilst holding his face in his hat and a guy who owned a printing press wrote down what he said. A lot of what Joe claimed was new biblical scripture was actually taken from the Old Testament. Here’s a link explaining the connection: http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/bomnames.htm
Now if you think this is weird; wait, it gets worse! What this Joe Smith claimed was written on these golden plates was that Native Americans are descendants of a lost tribe of Hebrews that somehow made it from the Middle East to the Americas over 2000 years ago. He claimed they founded civilizations and fought wars with each other and apparently Jesus even visited the Americas. DNA evidence alone proves that what this guy said about Native Americans being descendants of Hebrews is nonsense. There has NEVER been any evidence found of pre-Colombian Hebrew civilizations in America. Here’s a link to what the Smithsonian Institute has to say about the ‘Book of Mormon;’ http://www.lightplanet.com/response/Smithsonian-letter.htm
It's also a well established fact that before Mormonism came to be, Joe Smith used to trick people into thinking he could find buried treasure by holding a crystal up to his eye then putting his face in a stovepipe hat and receiving ‘spiritual information.’ That's the kind of thing Americans used to believe back then. They believed there was Spanish treasure buried all over the place and scammers like Joe Smith, who learned the trade from his parents, roamed around like carnies looking for gullible people, and in the USA, there was no shortage of gullible people...some would say, there is still no shortage today. This is how Joe made a living before he concocted the stories that he claimed were on the golden plates that no one else ever saw and convinced a publisher to write down his words.
Mormons used to practice polygamy and some of them still do but mainstream Mormons try to distance themselves from the polygamous ones. The Mormons who are the most fervent believers of their phony doctrine and do their utmost to spread Mormonism get special treatment in the temples and are rewarded with special underwear which has Masonic symbols sewn into it. Mormons believe this underwear protects them from bullets, fire, knife wounds etc. They have weird ceremonies in their temples and only favored Mormons are allowed access to the temples during these ceremonies. Mormons are expected to give 10% of their gross income to their church; if the church leaders feel as though their members aren’t giving enough of their income to the church, they are interviewed by the church leaders and have to explain their actions. If Mormons leave the church and don’t attend services anymore, they are hounded by other members of the church for a while, then all contact is broken with them and friends and family are discouraged by the church to contact the member who has left.