![]() In his book, Krakauer uses the Lafferty murders, and the conflicts of early Mormons, to weave together a clever narrative that makes for an entertaining read, but ultimately presents an irrational argument. Some commentators thankfully drew careful distinctions between the very small group of violent terrorists who carried out the attacks and the millions of Muslims for whom faith inspires peace.īut Krakauer, Richard Dawkins and other atheistic types (Krakauer says he’s a nonbeliever, not an atheist) often displayed the limits of their own rationality by painting with too broad of brushstrokes and, ipso facto, equating religion with violence. 11, 2001, violence and religion were still on the minds of many Americans. When Krakauer’s book first arrived in the years following Sept. Meanwhile, the safest city in Idaho, Rexburg, is home to Brigham Young University-Idaho with a population that’s 90% Latter-day Saint. Some of the safest cities in Utah (Bountiful, Farmington, Pleasant Grove, Spanish Fork, etc.) are communities with higher-than-average Latter-day Saint populations (between 70%-90%). Idaho, the state with the second-highest percentage of Latter-day Saints, ranks as the 10th least-violent state. Utah, the state with the highest percentage of Latter-day Saints in the country, ranks as the 13th least-violent state in the nation, according to annual FBI statistics. The irony, of course, is that Krakauer extols “reason” while committing a fundamental logical fallacy - the fallacy of composition - assuming that what’s true of the parts (some religionists are violent) is also true of the whole (all religions/religionists are violent).īut, in fact, when it comes to Latter-day Saints, statistics support the idea that communities with a high percentage of Latter-day Saints tend to have lower-than-average rates of violent crime. The Lafferty murders: What really happened? A timeline of events.Forgive all, bury any inclination to hurt others, President Nelson says Sunday morning.
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