I live in Utah, am basically agnostic, but with a strong Roman Catholic upbringing. So here's my personal opinion from the perspective of living in the heart of the LDS culture.
Mormons, on average, are great folks. As with all people there are good and bad, yet by and large they tend to be good neighbors with strong moral values, good parents who raise respectful, decent kids, and are in many ways similar to people I grew up with in the East back in another time and place, the fifties and sixties. That doesn't mean I'd trust a used car salesman, Mormon or not, though. LOL
You asked, and here's my answers.
Are they Christians? No ... the Mormon take on Christ is different from traditional Christian beliefs.
Book of Mormon. Gibberish written by a teenager. You have to stretch credulity to believe nonsense filled with unproven, made up history based more on the Masonic lodges of the era it was written then anything close to reality.
As an agnostic, if the salvation you speak of is possible, no, I don't.
All that being said, there's nothing wrong with Mormonism, if that's what you wish to believe. It's not my place to try to convince you otherwise. To me, Mormonism is a simply weaponized Masonic beliefs with a religious twist of fantasy. Now I have concerns about Catholicism, too, which is why I consider myself agnostic. Conclusion ... Mormons are generally good folks who have every right to their beliefs. I'm just not interested, too many problems with their doctrines for me.
I understand your perspective. I had similar issues growing up due to being raised JW.
As a counter point to a your observations:
A. I think a similar arguement could be made of the Christian Church in comparison to Jewish law. Jesus claimed to come as fulfillment of Jewish law and prophecies, yet fundamentally changed a lot of the day to day rules and practices that Jews had followed to that point.
B. In a similar vein: I'm sure the gospel and preachings of Paul would seem pretty far fetched and rambling to people of his contemporary as well. He was a fairly fanatical follower with a story that was, in many ways, just as crazy and unbelievable as Mr. Smith. In addition, the early Christian Church had a major schizm and split due to the ideals that Paul preached, as opposed to the teachings of Peter, who supposedly knew Jesus personally.
C. There's plenty I could go into this based on the apparently contradictory statements from the new testament, old testament, and book of Mormon regarding the subject. But that boils down to person observations, as you said, since the matter csn deviate wildly depending if you ask even folks of similar church denominations.
True enough and good points. But I'll leave it there. I'm just not that deeply versed in religious dogma to go past my personal thoughts on the original questions. Good questions though, hopefully you'll get some more feedback.
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