Not a bad idea -- to revisit that which in history we trust 100% with our lives & eternal lives...For those who might want to do that, #1: Here's a related thread posted yesterday: See Today in History - June 27
In a nutshell, why might someone want to revisit their spiritual heritage as "history?"
As one ex-Mormon put it on another recent thread Why we've left and how we find support: The 2009 Exmormon Conference, "Fittingly, this year's theme is 'No Price Too High.' It's worth losing everything if it means gaining truth. A life lived in a lie is not a life worth living."
So, frankly, in response to your And Muslims should have an honest discussion about Mohammed and child molestation? I don’t think that’s realistic or even constructive, actually -- truth vs. living a lie is always taking realism to heart -- and constructive!
As this ex-Mormon above (Jonathan Montgomery), also commented: We reached a point where we realized that it was more likely that our faith was wrong than that everything about Mormonism (angels, gold plates, lost civilizations, the "inspired" Book of Abraham translation...) was true. Simply put, faith can only go so far. If enough information about the world contradicts our beliefs, the only way for faith to survive is for it to transition into something more akin to denial.
I love these posts of yours on the history of the Mormons.
And to think that one of my gr.gr.gr.gr.etc. Grampas was there. When Young took over he had already hightailed it to the south, Texas I think, with his first wife and his three new young wives.
Heh.