I am an atheist myself and I have been that for my entire life. The country I live in is predominantly atheist and people here doesn't really care about religion one way or the other. The reason I hang out at this forum is because of my intrest in religion, especially the mormon church.

I just wonder what you exmormons were taught about atheists from your parents/church. Were you taught atheists are evil baby eaters, devil worshippers or were atheists just not mentioned?

It's going to be different for every person, since it just depends on the opinions of whoever happened to be your parents, primary teachers, Bishop, etc.

For me personally, they weren't mentioned much at church very much (to be honest, now I think about it, non-mormon beliefs were rarely mentioned at all).

Outside of church, however, atheists were looked at very highly (and most people were atheist or muslim), but it was difficult for me as mormon, since some of the other atheist kids at school would think I was stupid because I was a mormon (which wasn't true, I did all the science subjects and got straight As). They'd ask all these basic questions. The most common was definitely "Why do bad things happen to good people?". It might seem like a clever question if you're an atheist, but it's really such a basic thing that is covered in depth in ANY religion, so it's kind of annoying being constantly asked that question as if those people think I've never thought of that. It's the first thing most people think about when they convert to a religion.

Life is definitely a lot easier now that I'm non-religious! No more snide remarks from atheists, no more people thinking I'm stupid (even though my intelligence hasn't changed).

To add, Boyd K Packer did once give a talk saying that intellectuals are one of the three greatest enemies to the church. Intellectuals and atheists obviously aren't the same thing, but there's a bit of crossover between the two groups.

I also think on some level missionaries prefer people who aren't in a religion (whether that's atheist, non-religious, agnostic), since they see them as easier to convert. It's very difficult to convert someone who's strong in another religion already.

Nothing. I was simply just raised without religion. It never came up. My parents didn't talk about God either way, whether He existed, or not.

When I tried religion on for size, my mother said, "Where did you get that? You weren't raised with that."

God is a representation onto the cosmos of the individual's sense of self. God only exists for those people that need a great deal of psychological validation. They need for there to be a maintainer of that Ego who is self-existent, objective and independent of his "creation", namely the human psyche.

Look at the attributes of God. He is male, he is jealous, and he is outright vindictive. That's the type of God people want. It reflects their personal insecurities, which must be compensated for by the creation of an enforcer whose main interest is in validating the "beleiver" and the believer's sense of self. Gods (or Goddesses) who are tolerant and generous simply cannot compete with the powerful warlord type of deity that most people champion.

I hope this helps. The psychological impetus for religion simply is not discussed much, mainly because the believers are so adept at dissuading others from even starting such a discussion. Again, the reasonis the fragility of their Egos (in the old Greek sense)

There was dinner conversation at my parents' house a few weeks ago about my cousin coming out as an atheist.

Basically they weren't sure how he could have fallen that far. "He used to be so humble." They went over all the sins he could have committed since returning from his mission and how he was being a bad influence on his siblings since he became an atheist.

So to answer your question, I was never taught much about atheists. Just that they are to be pitied and we should abstain from dealing with or discussing them.

I was never really taught anything about atheists...just that everyone outside of the church was living in darkness (baptists, catholics, atheists, etc...). We needed to spread the "truth"...the only think that could bring anyone true hapiness.

None of my friends growing up were very religious at all, but I only had one friend that said he was atheist. He wore all black, black eye-liner, etc... Most people were kind of scared of him, but he was one of the nicest guys in school.

Chump Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was never really taught anything about
> atheists...just that everyone outside of the
> church was living in darkness (baptists,
> catholics, atheists, etc...). We needed to spread
> the "truth"...the only think that could bring
> anyone true hapiness.
>


Same here. Never taught anything specifically about atheists, but those non Mormons didn't have have the truth and the light of the one and only true church on earth and we should all be helping them find it. Those that have left the church are lost sheep, or choosing the ways of the world over God.

Basically the same thing we were taught about all other non-Mormons. They were deluded beings whom we needed to share the "light of the Gospel" with.

Perhaps it didn't help that the most visible atheist when I was growing up was the late Madalyn Murray O'Hair. She was certainly vocal. I think that I sort of had an idea that all atheists were like her. I've since come to appreciate that this is not the case. Just as there are profoundly decent people who are theists, there are also profoundly decent people who are atheists.

From church and my community in general things were uttered that directly said or implied that to be a person who did not believe in a God was to be un-American or even anti-American and to be lower than low.

How could you be a decent, law-abiding citizen if you did not believe in God?

This is the message I was given until I started to question the whole religion thing in college. From then on, until I, in more recent years (the last 10 or so) took the time to really study and contemplate what I believed or didn't believe, was not sure what I thought obout atheists.

Now I believe that there is room for all sorts of beliefs or non-beliefs, and what I am deadly against is anyone who thinks that I MUST believe as he/she does.

The good ole U S of A has gotten that part right, IMHO. We have the right and the privilege to think, reason, and make up our own mind.

This works super for me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2014 02:50PM by presleynfactsrock.

What I was taught about Atheists:

-Led astray by Satan (as opposed to being led astray by God
-Very prideful in thinking they "know" what is right (which is an ironic thing to hear from mormons)
-Put too much stock into the wisdom of the world (as opposed to random feelings)
-Liberals
-Part of why secularism is destroying everything we hold dear
-Very stubborn
-Very argumentative
-Selfish people
-Evil

Funny that all these points go both ways now that I think about it.

I didn't have to be taught much about the atheists. The tone of the voice used when the word came up was enough to make me understand how lost and probably dangerous the "godless" were.

And now they all seem like the nicest people for the most part. If you don't know they are atheists you often can't tell, but of course that IS the way Satan works, now, isn't it.

Atheism was an unthinkable state of separation from things that don't exist, I was taught. We have to be closely associated with the unreal, the Mormons told me. If not, a lost soul might drift toward rationalism. The natural, rational man is a horror--a Korihorror. That's what they said.

Led astray.
Hardened hearts.

If they would just read the BoM and have the missionary lessons, they would of course see the error of their ways. If not, then they will regret it and should be pitied.


Where I live, around lots of S. Baptists, many seem to feel bad when they hear about atheists because atheists aren't "saved." I think they would like to help someone be "saved" because their concept of not being saved scares them.

So, they (I'm not saying ALL Christians- just this particular type of born again) will say, "Just say the words Jesus is my Lord and Savior. Say it!" I guess if you say the magic words and click your heals together, you're saved. Really, Mormon hand shakes are just marginally more lame. Same concept.

Let's see... passing the sentinel angels to get into heaven, showing them the key handshakes, signs, and tokens. Or, just saying "Jesus is my Lord and Savior."

Hmm. I dunno. Maybe I need to find a definitive scale for determining lameness.

For me, lameness starts with God requiring acknowledgement, let alone a magic phrase.

All the rest of God's required rituals in the various religous beliefs are lameness frosting.

As a Mormon I didn't hear much about atheists. It just wasn't an important part of the conversation.

As a Christian, atheists were looked down on as prideful, stiff necked, arrogant, etc.

It wasn't until years after leaving the church that I started to wonder why the Bible puts so much emphasis on "faith like a child" and not seeing things through "worldy" eyes, etc... It is literally a way to control people's minds by making them afraid to open them to critical thinking skills.

I don't think I was ever really taught much in church about atheists either. All of my knowledge on atheists came from the outside world. As luck would have if, during my freshman year of high school I made many good friends and a majority of them were atheists. I loved them to death at the time. I learned a lot about why people became atheists from them.

Whenever we would be getting partial temple recommends for dead dunking and the question of affiliation came up, I would always have to ask if having atheist friends was an issue.

It never was.

In truth, I think I only ever sipped at the kool-aid. My friends definitely were a starting point for my full deconversion and transition into atheism.


Friends are good.

That's good insight.

There's a reason Mormons are taught to hang out with other Mormons. When all your friends are Mormons it's harder to get to know others and accept their views.

All my friends in HS were Mormons from my ward. All my friends in college (YBU) were Mormon.

It took a long time to be comfortable seeking out diverse friends. Sharing ideas contrary to your own might make you think, and Mormons do NOT want that!

I'm nevermo, only had the opportunity to marry in to and divorce from a righteous TBM family.

As a castaway Catholic, I was taught atheists lacked belief and/or purpose.

Boy, were they wrong:)

I grew up in the Mormon Corridor and really, I never heard a peep from any teacher or authority about atheists per se. I heard a lot about "godless communists," though! This was during the Ezra Taft Benson era and there were John Birchers everywhere.

When I started studying atheism a few years ago I was astonished at how many famous people were atheists. Thomas Edison, Einstein, etc. and that Hitler was never an atheist!