Under the Banner of Heaven Post 3 out of 5

Let me just start this post of by explaining how the "Book of Mormon" was written. Joseph Smith looked into a hat filled with golden plates and a peeping stone. When he looked into a hat he saw a phrase of words and had his scribe write it down. He did this over and over again until the "Book of Mormon" was completely written. However crazy Smith might have been, he was convincing enough to get people to follow him. Krakauer in the chapters that I have most recently read explains how the Mormon religion was created and the meaning of why it is called Latter Day Saints. The reason that the religion is called Latter Day Saints is because according to Smith and the Book of Mormon, God had chose them to be the sons and daughters and that they would be needed in the time of the millenium. Smith called these sons and daughters of the mormon religion, Latter Day Saints. He explains of how when Smith was a young boy in Palmyra, when he was excited by black magic, he went to this girls house who had peeping stones, and went out to find peeping stones of his own. It also explains of this big party they have at the most sacred place in the religion. The Hill Cumorah. The gathering, supposed to be a tool of conversion, really has in attendance of people about 90 percent of them are already practicing mormons. At this gathering they do an entire recreation of the creation of the religion. There was one thing that did catch my attention about this gathering. Krakauer explains what goes on there and in doing so he says the smell of marijuana smoke. This has me curious because I would have just assumed that the use of drugs of any sort, being tobacco, alcohol, or others, would be illegal in the religion and grounds for being thrown out of the religion. Again, as I have stated in the first two posts, this book is very interesting and I do reccomend it, The investigative journalism of Krakauer gets so deep its almost creepy how much he does. It adds for a great and exciting read.