Mormon theory of Bigfoot traces monster to Garden of Eden

[Christa]

snip

I want to share a new theory for Bigfoot sightings that has been circulating in Mormon circles and was written about in the fall issue of the Journal of Mormon History:

Sasquatch is really Cain, the disgraced and immortal son of Adam and Eve.

snip

Bowman takes no position on whether the First Couple's murderous second son has actually been condemned to wander the earth looking like a cross between Cousin Itt and Shaquille O'Neal, but recounts the history of the legend using incidents recorded in church documents.

The origin is apparently an 1835 encounter between Mormon missionary David Patten and a tall, naked figure who was covered in dark hair. Unlike most hairy humanoids, this one talked, kind of like Kelsey Grammar's "Beast" in the last X-Men movie.

Here's a snippet of Patten's account, lifted from Bowman's research: "He said he was a very miserable creature, that he had earnestly sought death during his sojourn upon the earth, but that he could not die, and his mission was to destroy the souls of men. I rebuked him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."

A 1919 manuscript cited by Bowman recounts how another Mormon missionary, E. Wesley Smith, was attacked by a huge, hairy creature the night before the dedication of a mission. He fought the beast off in the name of Christ, and was told by his brother that the monster must've been Cain, who was condemned by God to live as an eternal vagabond as punishment for killing his brother, Abel.

The question of how a great, fuzzy man-beast got to an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean was not addressed. In the 1980s, these stories combined with a spate of high-profile bigfoot sightings to make the idea a popular topic of conversation on Mormon college campuses.

snip

http://blog.syracuse.com/strangecny/2008/02/morman_theory_of_bigfoot_trace.html

[grannie4peace]

1. that is strange , interesting, though

[notadmblnd]

2. I think someone has been eating too many of those funny cactus buttons.

[TlalocW]

3. And Nessie is really Adam's "other wife," Lillith

But after centuries as a dinosaur like creature trapped in a Scottish lake, she's mellowed out and doesn't try to destroy men's souls any more but instead works towards making people cheat on their taxes.

I'm sure if I tried hard enough, I could get this belief introduced into Mormonism.

TlalocW

[xchrom]

4. and i rebuke Mormons -- in the name of Teh Gay. nt

[Poll_Blind]

5. Are they sure it wasn't just an unusually-homely Mormon woman? From Mark Twain:

From his book "Roughing It":

  Our stay in Salt Lake City amounted to only two days, and therefore we had no time to make the customary inquisition into the workings of polygamy and get up the usual statistics and deductions preparatory to calling the attention of the nation at large once more to the matter.

  I had the will to do it. With the gushing self-sufficiency of youth I was feverish to plunge in headlong and achieve a great reform here—until I saw the Mormon women.

  Then I was touched. My heart was wiser than my head. It warmed toward these poor, ungainly and pathetically "homely" creatures, and as I turned to hide the generous moisture in my eyes, I said, "No--the man that marries one of them has done an act of Christian charity which entitles him to the kindly applause of mankind, not their harsh censure--and the man that marries sixty of them has done a deed of open-handed generosity so sublime that the nations should stand uncovered in his presence and worship in silence."

  God, Clemens could be such a bastard. :rofl: But what a magnificent bastard!

  I denounce and renounce myself myself and Mr. Clemens.

PB

[beam me up scottie]

6. *snort*

This thread isn't as funny as the Indigo Child one in GD, but it has its moments...















edited to smite rogue apostrophe

[cosmik debris]

7. Bob Weir had a different take

Salt Lake City, where it's so easy keeping straight
Salt Lake City, just really makes Des Moines look second rate
Ain't making no big deal about it
But I hear the Mormon girls are really great

http://www3.clearlight.com/~acsa/introjs.htm?/~acsa/songfile/SALTLAKE.HTM

[leftyladyfrommo]

10. They always used to say that if a virgin ever walked into Temple Square

the Angel Moroni would blow his horn.

I lived in Salt lake for a long time. These so-called church historians were always writing some completely wierd idea after another. You just have to discount them. They are still out there trying to find the golden plates. They also think that the writings of the Aztecs and Mayans are all about the time Christ visited South America (when he died and went to hell for 3 days and then returned) the Mormons believe that he went to South American for those 3 days and talked to the Indians there.

There is so much wierd stuff in that religion.

[Occam Bandage]

8. That is gorgeous. nt

[Goblinmonger]

9. So Bigfoot = Grendel?

I buy that. Both myths. The Beowulf story is more attention grabbing due to theme and plot, though.