Mormonism; what is it? (not by me)

Mormonism
Mormonism is a steadily growing religion that claims absolute truth (as most religions do.) They are considered a Christian denomination because they believe in Christ and use the Christian Bible as one of their main texts of authority. However, they also use three other books called the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. These three books are often contrary to the Christian Bible. Mormons excuse this with their belief that when these three books collide with scriptural doctrine, then the scripture has simply been mistranslated. "The Bible is considered usable, but suspect due to its many errors and missing parts" (Articles of Faith No. 8, Ensign, January 1989, pp. 25, 27)
Polytheism is part of the Mormon belief (as opposed to the Biblical Christian belief that there is one God, also known as monotheism.) Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism in the 1840s, declared, "I will preach on the plurality of Gods. I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 370.) They also believe that our God was at one time a human before the became God. Through much work, self-effort, and with help from his father-god, he was granted god on earth. Mormons believe that if they are good men who do good works and live “holy lives,” they can also become gods as well, and that they will populate their world with their many wives (polygamy.) Joseph Smith explained, "I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see. He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did" (LDS History of the Church, Vol. 6, p. 305). "The Father has promised us that through our faithfulness we shall be blessed with the fullness of his kingdom. In other words we will have the privilege of becoming like him. To become like him we must have all the powers of godhood; thus a man and his wife when glorified will have spirit children who eventually will go on an earth like this one we are on and pass through the same kind of experiences, being subject to mortal conditions, and if faithful, then they also will receive the fullness of exaltation and partake of the same blessings. There is no end to this development; it will go on forever. We will become gods and have jurisdiction over the world, and the world will be peopled by our own offspring. We will have an endless eternity for this" (Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 2, p. 48).
Mormons also believe that the fall of man, as depicted in Genesis chapter 3, was a good thing, beneficial to man. It was a fall 'upward' in that man was then able to procreate and enjoy The Book of Mormon states “And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy. Polygamy is a popular practice within the Mormon religion. They believe that it important to populate the world this way. They also believe that Jesus himself was a polygamist during his time on earth and that His wives included Mary and Martha (the sisters of Lazarus) and Mary Magdalene. Mormon leaders have consistently taught that God the Father ("Adam-god") had sexual relations on earth with Mary (his own spirit daughter) in order to have their son-god, Jesus.