I just saw the responses asking if you truly believed or not. Of course, there were a wide range of answers.

I am a never-mo who lived among Mormons for many years. One question I always wanted to ask my friends is what did they truly believed? Of course, I never did. So I wants to ask you now.

If you went to an Anerican museum or read a history article about pre-Americas in a non-Mormon magazine, e.g, Time, did you expect to see or read information about the Book of Mormon people? I assume the Book of Mormon stories/people were not taught in public schools? Did you find that strange?

It seems to me that if I read a history article about America, I would not be shocked to find out that Columbus wasn't such a great guy, but I would be totally shock to find out others said he didn't even exist or was never mentioned.

And at least creationists fight to have their beliefs taught. That to me is evidence they truly believe it. Why don't Mormons fight to have their beliefs taught in public schools? I have never heard of it. Not even in Utah.

Just wonder how something Mormon say they believe never makes it outside of Mormon circles and that never seems to shock them.

What were your experiences with this?

Curious2no Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
...
>
> What were your experiences with this?

Truly believed that the Latter Day Saints would set up
a Zion in America which would transform the world.
Believed that from about 1975 to 1985. Then, slowly,
the hope and the dream began to fade.

A latter day pre-millennial Political Kingdom of God
seems more like a nightmare today.

Live and learn.

UD

At one time or another I believed everything I was taught and when I questioned, I assumed that I needed to learn more, or that I didn't understand the symbolism, or that I was trying to understand the infinite while using a finite mind. I excuse myself on the grounds that until I was nine years old, I also believed in Santa Claus.

When I was younger I thought that it probably existed (the evidence), but they hadn't found it yet. I figured that in time the evidence would show up.

Time moved on. Nothing. Not even at the Hill Cummorah where one of the greatest battles in history supposedly took place. That went on my shelf of things to figure out later.

When I was 14 my family went to Mexico and toured the ruins. There were a lot of things that were presented to me as proof of the BoM. At that age I fell for it hook line and sinker. Apparently my parents did too. They are gullible types that would never read anything that wasn't church approved. At that particular time, they had never read or owned a BoM. They were going on information they'd been fed at church.

I'm a bit different than them. I've always been an avid reader. I love to read, and read all sorts of things about the history of the Americas. None of it jived with Mormonism.

I lived in the midwest for a time. The mound builders interested me. I wondered if the answers lay in the history of the mound builders. Turns out it doesn't. Time is ticking. More and more evidence is building that the Bom is BS.

Life goes on. I was raising a family and going to school. I didn't have time to delve into things that interested me. I had my nose to the grind stone. I went along to get along.

Once my children flew the nest I again had more time to read. And read I did. The difference now was I was reading on the internet. Information was available like never before. No more going to libraries and book stores reading reams of book titles and trying to decide which one to dive into. Now I could not only get the info. but I could read other peoples research and opinions. The internet was a game changer.

Good bye mormonism.

I believed everything at age ten and nothing at age twelve.

I think what I truly believed was just a lot of guilt and fear. Now that I think about it, it did not bring me much happiness. Even as a member i didn't really know what I believed. I just knew I didn't like it. I did have hopes for an after life but not really a loving God. never felt that or got that as a member.

I think most Mormons were like me. They didn't really believe it all but said they did out of brainwashing and just "went along with the whole thing" because who do you really ask questions to and get a decent answer. Its really not the way to bank your Salvation on but brainwashing is effective to just do it and not think about it at all ------ we were too busy to think!

If you'd asked me what I truly believed while I was an active Mormon, I would have said that I believed it all.

But somewhere after I reached middle-age, it finally dawned on me that what I had wasn't belief. It was hope. I wanted it to be true.

There were just some times when I had myself a lot more convinced than at other times.

I was BIC...did all the regular $hit expected of me...baptized...cubs...Aaronic P-hood...etc. BUT....never read the B of M...or the Bible...or any other doctrinal horse$hit...and never bothered to learn much of anything about the cult...because I could have cared less about it. And, my Dad never made me do anything church related I didn't want to...no mission...no temple wedding, (thank God for that), not even one date with a Mormon girl....so I guess my answer to the question....NOTHING!

Ron Burr

Thanks for this reply Ron. At least, I understand why some Mormons are not bothered when the outside world, unknowningly, so contradicts the Book of Mormon "facts."

I still don't, however, get why some Mormons don't make a stink about teaching the Book of Mormon "facts" in schools, like creationists do. Not even in Utah. That seems to say to me that there isn't even a significant minority of hardcore members who truly believe the Book of Mormon.

After becoming sceptical as a young teen, and with all the research I've done since, I am still puzzled how professionals, ie: doctors, dentists, lawyer & scientists who are practicing Mormons and temple attendees can reconcile Mormon teachings and doctrines with the science and logic that is fundamental to their professional accreditation. The word "HYPOCRITE" fairly screams at me to describe such persons. On another thread a BYU scientist when quizzed on the conflict between scientific teaching and Mormon doctrine just says "it all works out"....I THINK NOT!!!!!...it's just self delusional garbage...

Ron Burr



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2013 02:39PM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

My father, an atheist engineer who worked with Mormon engineers concluded, "they don't believe what they know." My sister, also a scientist, thinks that about sums it up.

Hey Ron. I am a never-Mo living in Lethbridge. I am not from here though,and when I moved here and found myself (somewhat unexpectedly) surrounded by Mormons and ex-Mormons in both my personal and work life, I took the time to learn a lot about it, including watching all the temple videos on You Tube, reading here, talking to Mormons and exMo's alike, reading books, etc. Not because I wanted to be part of it, but rather because I am an anti-religious atheist and wanted to know what I was dealing with when I had people feeling out whether I believed or not and such. I wanted to understand what they were not saying when they talked about how great the church is and so on. I also wanted to understand why I was surrounded by so many very young Mormons getting married and popping out babies like mad, ha ha. I did not get married until I was 30, and am childfree by choice so I stood out a bit.

Anyway, after all my findings...my husband and I are like you in the sense we regularly wonder how the hell some of the very educated people we know are able to reconcile their education and career with being Mormon. Even worse are those that became converts later in life, like AFTER they were educated!

It just makes no sense. Sometimes it makes me laugh to think of, say, my professional colleagues wearing white robes and green aprons and giving secret handshakes at the temple, other times it just has me in awe as to how they can do it, other times I just feel sad at the level of cognitive dissonance that must be happening there.

It doesn't make any sense and I've tried to wrap my head around it for years. I know many of them too. I have a close relative with a Phd. who confided in me admitting that he had figured out the church was BS by the time he was 12. He knew it didn't make any sense and was an atheist as a teen.

However, he married in the temple and was eventually a bishop. I think it has a lot to do with family, tradition, who you marry and the community. Even the intellectually gifted mormons fall prey to family, community and peer pressure. It still doesn't make sense to me, but there you have it...

I have coffee at Good Earth most mornings...after 8AM usually...I drive a red'06 GMC extended Cab or a black '06 GMC Envoy Denali. Look me up. I'm 6'4" and walk with a cane...hard to miss..

Ron Burr

At one time there was a general consensus kind of like an urban legend within the church that the Smithsonian Institute was using the BofM as a reference guide to early American history and geography. Finally the Smithsonian put out an official statement stating that they do not nor have they ever used the BofM as a reference of any kind.

That's why the church doesn't push to have their beliefs taught in schools. Because they know it can't stand up to scientific scrunity. The church has been blown out of the water by the whole DNA thing, and the Smithsonian flat out denied ever using the BofM, and there are so many other areas where science has proven the beliefs of the church to be so far fetched that it is truly nothing more than fiction.

I completely agree with this rationale for not making a stink about teaching BoM in the schools. Creationists are pushing for an alternative history of creation. This is actually a very remote concept. It's important scientifically, but not practically.

However, when you call for an alternative history of the Americas, you get into some very specific conflicts over actual evidence. Mormons and Mormon leadership can keep the faithful faithful by promoting in them a generalized feeling that it will all sort itself out, or more importantly, by keeping the faithful hazy on just how strong the evidence against Mormonism really is.

Apologists argue vaguely that DNA gets diluted; or that one can't identify particularly who the descendants of Lehi are, and that's somehow important. Pushing for the teaching of the BoM in public schools would bring fully into the open how conclusive the proof against Mormonism really is. So the Mormon approach to teaching the BoM in public schools is to set up Mormon public charter schools and teach Mormon history there.

I believed that at least some of the ancient American archaeological stuff was stuff from the BoM people. When I saw the pyramids and temples in Central America, or stuff in museums, I thought that was possible evidence of the Nephites and Lamanites. You have to remember that most Mormons are highly ignorant in the world of science, ancient American history and archaeology. Just like most Creations are when it comes to evolution and believing the world is only 6,000 years. Most don't investigate the other side. They just believe whatever is spoon fed to them from their religious leaders. It wasn't until I started studying REAL scholars opinions on "BoM archaeology" that I realized how weak it was.

Why they don't push the BoM history to be taught in schools? Probably because they only make up 2% of the American population and the other 98% do not believe in the BoM. They spend billions of hours and send all their boys on missions to try and convince the world that this is true, so I'm sure they realize there's no point in trying to get it taught in schools.