I don't even believe in hell. But I'm very scared about going there. That it will be real when I die. I then also get scared that the whole cult is true, & that ill be judged so severely. & will be going to Outer Darkness, & dying a spiritual death. I'm sitting here crying because I can't make these extreme fears go away.

Dear Tristan,

Do not be afraid!! First of all, the cult is NOT a true, viable entity. It is completely and utterly false. The evidence is overwhelming, there is no question about it. Everything from the theology, to the lies and deceit, to the money-grabbing.....it's not true at all.

Next, if you do believe in God, the Bible is very clear that He is a just, loving God. Anyone who believes in Him (the true God, not the Mormon God) will be saved. It is a free gift, there is nothing we can do to merit it or earn it or improve upon it. Jesus did it all. His grace and love are truly incomparable.

So you are safe, and He holds you in His arms!

Tristan, they don't exist.
Neither.

I know. I'm atheistic-agnostic.

I just get scared because I always do.

Tristan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I know.


Then it is not a 'thought' anxiety/fear.
I don't think of hell/O.D. and THEN become anxious/fearful.

It is a 'mechanical' phenomenon.

The mechanical part of the brain responsible for fear/anxiety misfires, producing fear/anxiety first.
THEN the 'thought' part of the brain comes along to try and explain:
"Oh, it must be I am fearful of hell/O.D."

1. I find a belief in hell to be useful because I figure JS and his ilk are burning there, along with other evil people. .
2. I am confident that there is also a heaven and am confident of being there.
3. I am not sure most Mormons will be in heaven.
4. Considering the utter falsity of moism, I have no worry at all. BTW, would anyone really want to be in a religion that is patently false? Would a God make that the "true faith?"

Just look at hell in the same way you deal with the boogeyman: something you used to be scared of but now you know better.

Letting go of my fear of hell was much harder than letting go of my hope for heaven... And that there is evidence that we were in a creepy cult.

Even if Mormonism is true, you won't be going to outer darkness.
*pat pat*

I used to be scared of going to one of the "lower" kingdoms, but if... IF (like a huge if) mormonism is true, I would prefer a lower kingdom any way. Most of my family will be there. Chris Farley will be there. Most of the people here will be there. It'll be a big party while those ck pricks have babies forever and it'll be like one big church meeting. Boring.
I'll miss my genitals, though. ;)


But really, I understand the fear. I was so SCARED that I would be in the lower kingdoms when I was little because I did some thing like sneak a cookie from my Dad.
Fears are ingrained, but they will lessen over time

But, really, God has more pricks to deal with than us Ex-mormons.

na, you'll still have your genitalia. Afterall, not one hair will be lost after the ressurection. at the worst you will have free, 100% effective birth control for the rest of eternity. When I get to the telestial kingdom, Im just going to have a bunch of puppies and kittens.

sorry, replied to the wrong post.

Ah, uncertainty. I don't know what the future holds, but I am convinced Mormonism is a fraud. So I live the best way I know how, believing that this is all any of us can really do. If gods exist, this will be enough, or the gods aren't worthy of devotion and we are all screwed no matter what.

I think you'll find peace in time.

No worries. There will be plenty of us there with you to keep you company. We'll have to meet up and have a beer or two. I bet hell has magnificent beer...

Tristan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't even believe in hell. But I'm very scared
> about going there."

If you are scared about going to hell, then you are making hell real in your own mind.

just picture the Telestial kingdom as a place of refuge from worry. the primary difference between the telestial and celestial kingdoms in mormonism is simply the amount of responsibilities one undertakes, with being a god, eternal pregnancy eternal hometeaching, etc. In mormonism, the celestial kingdom IS hell. Also, in mormonism, outer darkness is only reserved for prophets who stop hallucinating about their imaginary friend in the sky.

I agree. Why would anyone want to progress to godhood? You'd have to condemn billions of your children to outer darkness from the get go. Then, you'd watch billions more live in poverty and misery, being taught nothing of your true nature throughout their lives. Then, you'd have to judge them and assign most of them to kingdoms where you could never be with them again. The lower kingdoms of mormonism sound more like the traditional Christian view of heaven anyways...just without God.

I didn't leave the church until after I decided that even god himself doesn't have a right to subject me to the abuse that had been dished out by the church. He can kill me, send me to outer darkness, or what ever else he wants to do to me. But he doesn't have the power to make me agree with anything that I refuse to agree to. Once you get to that point, you realize that the mormon church does not represent god and that if god does exist (I have faith but don't 'know' anything for sure), He is a loving god. That's all that matters.

If you think that there is a hereafter, don't worry about the conditions...you'll have to live in a lousy neighborhood, but, just like here, you'll adapt and get used to it.

Besides, maybe some dork deacon will be dead dunked in your name and you'll get to move to a better neighborhood....

Remind yourself that in order for you to go to someplace awful after death, there would have to BE such a place, and there would have to be a judgmental, wrathful male God who's willing to see his own kids burn forever.

I just can't bring myself to believe in a deity that messed-up and dysfunctional.

Hi Tristan. I know you are scared but you can free yourself from fear if you try.

I remember when I was five and I had just finished reading my first astronomy book. I had read the Sun would eventually turn into a red giant and destroy the Earth -- in about four billion years. I was very frightened but the sun came out the next morning and the Earth was still there. It's something that's going to happen but you can't do anything about it. When I was six I fell out of the back of a moving pickup truck and had a serious head injury. I blacked out from loss of blood and woke up in the hospital. If I had died I wouldn't had known what happened.

Evangelicals and Mormons both use fear as a means of control. You can't do anything about death any more that you can change night into day or put the rain back into the sky. I've handled the dead. I've removed internal organs from bodies and moved them after rigor has set in. When you are dead you are dead. There's no one home. It's like going to sleep except you never wake up. There's no coming back. To paraphrase a line from "Gladiator," yes, you are going to die -- but not today.

Live your life well and free yourself from the fear of something you can't control.

If you believe in life after death, what do you think you'll be doing forever? Is there anything you love to do all the time?

Tristan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't even believe in hell. But I'm very scared
> about going there. That it will be real when I
> die. I then also get scared that the whole cult is
> true, & that ill be judged so severely. & will be
> going to Outer Darkness, & dying a spiritual
> death. I'm sitting here crying because I can't
> make these extreme fears go away.

Without having read the replies (yet), I will say this. What do you believe in other than hell? Are you Christian? My suggestion is to do your research in the bible if you're Christian. According to the religion, you are "saved by grace". I think repentance is required often from sins but you can pray the prayer of salvation and then repent for present and future sins and not go to any "hell or outer darkness".

I'm not a Christian. I'm not even religious. I don't believe in any sort of after life.

I just get scared because of anxiety because I've been told my whole life that I'm wrong & I don't know what I'm talking about. It was like this when I was still in the cult. I knew it was all fake & false, & I would be sitting there in Sacrament or in a class, & just feel sick. I couldn't feel anything. & then thy would get on this trips talking about the last judgement. It scared me horribly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2013 01:06PM by Tristan.

See Bill Hicks "It's just a ride": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMUiwTubYu0

Does Mormon doctrine actually make sense? You are supposed to be saved by obeying a set of rules and condemned by disobeying them. Follow orders like good little spiritual Nazis. It sounds like a turd with chocolate icing to me.

Jokes are good - it makes something less scary and more realistic-- seriously do you want to got to heaven or CK with the people who think they are going there? Not me.

Tristan,

If a stranger approached you and said "Unless you give me 10% of your income and follow all my other rules, asparagus is going to sprout from your head," would you believe them? I'm thinking you'd laugh instead.

The hell and "Outer Darkness" myths are invented by groups of people set on controlling other people. The risk of there being such places is no greater than asparagus sprouting from your skull. They propagate those stories because they know it makes people afraid of not obeying.

They want your money, they want your time, they want your children, and they want your submission.

Look around you. There is sunshine, stars, mountains, people to know, people to love. Go live and ignore the asparagus threat.

I can relate to the OP's feelings. Whenever the transient fear of hell or hell-like afterlives creeps up, I remind myself about exactly how *not* scared I am of the punishments doled out by religions that I wasn't indoctrinated into as a child. I have zero fear of Islam hell or Jehovah's Witness hell or Scientologist hell. I have zero fear of the hells described by greek or norse mythology. I also have zero reason to believe that just because I was raised mormon that there is any more likelihood that the mormon hell is real than the likelihood that any other hell is real.

Besides. If the mormon god is real, I think I'd rather be in outer darkness with you folks than in heaven, where I'd be forced to take on polygamous wives and do nothing but raise babies for eternity. I love my kids, I really do, but I can't imagine doing this forever. It is a very good thing that kids grow up, and then you only have to deal with grandkids when you want to spoil them. Eternal parenthood of newborns and toddlers sounds like hell itself, no matter how much sex you get to have.

If there really is a God, he's going to save everyone eventually. So worry about more important things.

Or hell could just be watching the Dallas Cowboys forever.

Tristan,

I am scared too. What happens when I die? We are all scared at times, it's only natural.

As you know, man invented religion in order to smooth the sting of death and uncertainty about "where we go" or what happens when we die. No one who has ever lived on this planet has a clue what happens when we die -- no prophet, priest, pope, no nutcase author who writes about his NDE with angels, butterflies or long lost progenitors.

The sad irony is that instead of being a comfort to us, RELIGION often makes us feel even MORE FRIGHTENED -- with scenarios of devils, fire, hell, outer darkness, ghosts, celestial vs. terrestrial heavens, polygamous unions.


The only thing you can do to comfort yourself is to live your own life with as little regret as possible and to be true to yourself. Listen to your own conscience.


As for mentors in our lives - look at people like Gandhi. Did he demand tithing for his advice, outlook or counsel? Did he try to dominate or enslave others? Did he buy million dollar homes, gilded gold chairs, or air conditioned dog houses off the backs of his followers? Did he "rule" through fear, segregation, or by shaming others?

A mentor can be a grandmother, a mom, or a best friend. Someone who lives their lives simply and honestly.

I can tell you what a mentor is not: He isn't a backward liar with a penchant for necromancy or defrauding his neighbors. He isn't a hotheaded polygamist, child rapist, bigot or murderer.

If there is a heaven, I think you would be counted among the good mentors. And I don't think you have a chance of spotting Brigham or Joseph there ...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2013 11:41AM by Senoritalamanita.

Go see a counselor. You shouldn't be that frightened. You know catholics believe that they can do any sin and buy their way out of if? I am willing to say that God is a less judgmental, less psychotic person than people make him out to be. A person who spoke the sermon on the mount is not the person who thinks petty.You need an exmormon mentor to help you BEFORE you get to the extreme crying phase.