We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13129374 and marked it off-topic.

Mormon and long time lurker here. Just wanted to give clarity to this because it can be confusing. Mormons don't believe they are forcibly baptizing these people by proxy. They believe that everyone should have the opportunity to accept baptism and salvation through Jesus Christ, even if they did not receive the opportunity in the mortal stage of life: "Individuals can then choose to accept or reject what has been done in their behalf."

https://www.lds.org/topics/baptisms-for-the-dead?lang=eng

Thank you for clarifying. It seems like there is an unfair share of negative perceptions compared to other religions just because it's only ~200 years old.

Although I'm not a member, I lived in a 90% Mormon city for a few years and was made to feel very welcome and accepted.

Hi, sorry if this comes off as offensive, but is there a general consensus in mormonism about a gradual evolution of life on earth?

Sorry for the delayed response. As paulddraper there is no official doctrine on evolution, but Mormons do not believe in "Creatio ex nihilo" or that the creation of the earth was literally a seven day period. The "days" of the creation story are meant to mean periods of time, and we do not fully understand how God created the earth or that evolution was not necessarily a part of it. Mormons do not accept a lot of the "standard" Christian teachings on creation that actually stem from the Greek/Roman philosophical influence in early Christianity and not from scripture. Our official doctrine encourages us to seek to learn and understand the will and processes of God through science in addition to spiritual experiences.

"Latter-day Saints should strive to use both science and religion to extend knowledge and to build faith." "Is there any conflict between science and religion? There is no conflict in the mind of God, but often there is conflict in the minds of men." http://en.fairmormon.org/Mormonism_and_science/Are_they_comp...

More Sources: http://en.fairmormon.org/Mormonism_and_science/Evolution/Off... http://en.fairmormon.org/Mormon_view_of_the_creation

I'll take the negative votes as a no :-)

Did you just criticize a religion for not making sense?

> The weirdest thing about Mitt Romney is that crazy religion. Mormons believe Joseph Smith received gold plates from an angel on a hill, when everybody knows Moses got stone tablets from a burning bush on a mountain.

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/cw4el2/the-colbert-report-yahw...

Mormons consider baptism a gate - proxy baptism opens the gate, the post-mortal individual can choose to enter the path via the gate, or not.

This necessitates a lot of other background beliefs - immortal soul, individual will, and significant ordinances, to name a few.

In the particular case of Socrates, one might speculate that he had the privilege of affirming or denying his faith before Christ himself: http://biblehub.com/1_peter/3-19.htm