I'll take Smith... not only was he as vile a man as Young, he intentinally deceived tens upon tens of millions of people by creating a fraudulent religion to profit from.
We have different views and that's interesting; I like the discussion. From what I see, Smith is at least not as racist and blood-thirst (i.e., "blood atonement") as Young; and though both are dirty sexists and polygamists, Young goes way further by not only robbing other people's wives but also allowing many others to do so, even castrating the boyfriends of the women they want. Smith sets apart at least one or two black men priesthood, it's Young who forbids blacks from the privilege at all.
Sure, Smith is more likely to be a liar and a con man by creating all the stories, but one might be able to argue that he did that in the beginning in the hope of getting out of financial problems. Then he realizes it can get bigger, and step by step he's corrupted and crap gets out of hand. Not good, but not as evil as Young in my opinion.
I'll take Smith... not only was he as vile a man as Young, he intentinally deceived tens upon tens of millions of people by creating a fraudulent religion to profit from.
We have different views and that's interesting; I like the discussion. From what I see, Smith is at least not as racist and blood-thirst (i.e., "blood atonement") as Young; and though both are dirty sexists and polygamists, Young goes way further by not only robbing other people's wives but also allowing many others to do so, even castrating the boyfriends of the women they want. Smith sets apart at least one or two black men priesthood, it's Young who forbids blacks from the privilege at all.
Sure, Smith is more likely to be a liar and a con man by creating all the stories, but one might be able to argue that he did that in the beginning in the hope of getting out of financial problems. Then he realizes it can get bigger, and step by step he's corrupted and crap gets out of hand. Not good, but not as evil as Young in my opinion.
Good points, but I still think Smith takes the cake because he's the one who started it all... guy was a complete douchebag from head to toe, racism aside.