Right Even When Wrong

If you ever want to know what's like arguing with a Mormon, just read the following story:

"A friend's world history teacher told his class that Confucius once remarked "It is wasteful to try to kill a fly with a cannon or a bullet." Someone mentioned that Confucius lived thousands of years before gunpowder was invented, in response to which the teacher argued he was right for some time. The next day he told the class "Even though he wasn't right, they shouldn't have questioned him because he has authority and experience."

He is not teaching at our school next year."

Source: http://goo.gl/XWvoeo

What do you think of the Teacher in this story? I hope you thought he was absolutely ridiculous for trying to push incorrect information on his students just for the sake of his pride. If you did, then you should be able to understand why I have to compare this Teacher to the LDS Church.

Every time I or someone else criticizes the Church or the Prophets or the Apostles (or even Bishops) the answer we get from "faithful Mormons" is that we have no right to question or challenge "God's Chosen Mouthpieces" because those men always have the ultimate authority beneath God. I've often seen these "faithful Mormons" reply to criticism with the adage: "They're right, even when they're wrong". The Prophets and Apostles themselves will often use those kinds of teachings in their own defense, which I consider to be nothing more than a Pharisaical defense of their Pride.

If the Teacher from my little story was wrong to pressure his students into unquestioningly submitting to his authority regardless of any wrong he was teaching or doing then it stands to reason that anyone else with authority is also wrong to pressure the people under their authority the same way. In other words: it's wrong to be a tyrant, no matter what kind of authority you have.


PS: Ok little side-note, just so no one thinks I'm an idiot, Confucius did not live "thousands of years before gunpowder was invented" like the student in the story suggested. Confucius died in the year 511 AD and gunpowder is thought to have been first invented in China around 900 AD with the first written recipe's dating back to around 1,100 AD. So Confucius actually died around 400-600 years before the advent of gunpowder (not thousands of years). However the student was still right that Confucius was unable to have provided the quote used by the Teacher since he did in fact die before gunpowder was ever invented.