It didn't take convincing, it was what I had been taught. It wasn't until I was older and actually started thinking about it and taking a critical look at it that it all started to fall apart.

It wasn't really the BOM, it was talking to the missionaries.

When they persuaded me that good feelings meant God was communicating with me and I enjoyed talking to them then that somehow morphed into feeling good about the BOM.

It was a sort of mental sleight of hand.

I wanted it to be true.

"Joseph loves me, this I know, cause' Uncle Jeffs told me so!"

I had new and unique experiences while reading certain passages, which I believed were caused by the Holy Ghost. Oddly enough, I never got any results from Moroni's promise, a verse which never made much sense to me.

Ultimately trusted my parents.

I also think convinced it was True is a bit unfair....

I acted as if it were True. That was the pitch with the sizzle being you will come to know it is True.

I came to know it is a work of fiction of little value as a work of fiction and part of a fraudulent enterprise know today as The Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I was a Mormon because my parents were Mormon. No other reason.

Two months after my father died in a car accident, I was sitting in a 3-hour testimonkey meeting at a multi-stake youth conference held up at UMASS Amherst. Of course I was gonna be felt up by the 'spirit'. In that setting and under those circumstances, I was ripe for that bullshit. This is why the average MORmON funeral is used as a proselyting tool.

So manipulative.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2014 11:20AM by Bite Me.

Honestly, I never thought about the historical accuracy of it. In fact, I never could get all the way through it, way too tedious and boring.

I just accepted that it was true, because my parents and everyone else said it was. My dad was a huge fan of FAIR/FARMS, and was always announcing the latest news/findings that supported the BOM.

1) Confirmation Bias
2) The BOM is written in such a plain monotone way that you can read into it just about anything you want.
3) The constant relentless droning, life long chant of "its true"
4) reading it until you believe it
5) getting emotional confirmation

I never felt much of anything when I read it, but my church leaders, teachers and parents told me it was true. That was good enough for me because I just assumed that they knew more than I did.

I read it, felt peace, was moved by certain parts, prayed about it, got a warm feeling afterwards, and had been previously brainwashed into believing that this was the best way to decipher truth.

One of the best beating I ever got in parochial school was when I objected to some religious idea and the teacher told me to accept it because my faith told me it was true.

The beating came when I retorted, "What would my faith be if it wasn't the one that you shove down my throat."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2014 12:24PM by backphil.

Never did. I was still praying and begging for a stronger testimony (i.e., a real belief) when it hit me that it was phony.

My answer is the same as NormaRae. I never did. I could never even read it all the way through....3/4's is what I managed.

I truly found it the most boring book I had ever attempted to read.

I don't know why, but I hated how it seemed to be trying to copy the bible, even as an older teenager attempting to read it as a seminary assignment. It just sounded phony to me when I was a teen that this book that was supposed to be so much more truthful, you know "the" book and be telling the story of people here in America, would read like it read and not have its own wonderful unique special way. And, be interesting and well written. The BofM was something I put on my shelf, litterally and figuratively.

Also, after I married in the temple and was attempting to attend church like I was told I must do, I did not believe people in F&T Mtg when they said that they loved reading the BoM, had read it 4 times, and they knew "beyond a shadow of a doubt that this book and the church were true.." I automatically gagged and dismissed them as lying.

Who, in their right mind, could even read this book once?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2014 04:53PM by presleynfactsrock.

As a convert, I heard all the glowing things people said about starting their days off by reading from the BoM as a family, and how their days went so much better because of it. . .gak! I tried. Really, I did. But I found it to be so incredibly tedious, I never was able to get more than halfway through.

I got in trouble for saying that Korihor was the best-drawn character in the whole book, because I could just see him in a business suit on Wall St, with a leather briefcase and expensive Italian shoes, being a total tycoon. He just seemed to have the personality for it.

The RS president got upset with me and said, "You aren't supposed to ADMIRE him!" I said, "I don't admire him. I think he is a slithery creep. But he is the most believable character in the book." I got some very strange looks.

My mother said she believed it.
I was 11 years old, so that was enough for me.

I DO remember being very drawn to the paintings as the missionaries flipped over each one and told about the BoM. The artwork made it real to me.

I honestly think if it hadn't been for the paintings, I would have had no understanding of what it was all about.

It was better to accept it as true than to face the consequences.

I never did think it was true which is one of the reasons I left around my 15th birthday.

I wanted it to be true. It was only through the whole mess being true that I would be acceptable to my family. I was never very comfortable with it though. Something about it didn't fit. I tried to make it true in my mind. Prayed about it for years.

The minute I KNEW it wasn't what they claim, I was out of there. Done. Finished. I just wish I would have known sooner.

I never really had a problem with the BofM. I always loved the stories as a kid. It was JS who bothered me. He always seemed so creepy and they kept insisting that I admire him.

When I read No Man Knows My History, I realized what a shyster he was. I knew that the BofM was a novel because there was no way a jerk like JS was a prophet of God.

I didn't.

I was only a young teen, so I eventually told myself that the adults wouldn't lie to me. They were adults, so they must know what they're talking about, even if it does sound crazy.

Later on, I had this weird ritual that I'd repeat every time the doubts would creep back in.

I'd first read Betty Eadie's book. Her experiences jived so much with Mormon teachings that this would convince me that it must be true. Then I would read the Book of Mormon again, having a really good feeling about doing so.

This always seemed to keep the doubts at bay, for a while. I never did get to an absolute testimony. I thought I had one, but I realized later that what I really had was a hope that it was true. I could never say the required, "I know," in order to have a real testimony.

The closest I ever got was, "Wow, I guess it's true. I don't know how, but it must be."

It's interesting the perspective you get when you look back at it all now.

If holy Joe said it, it had to be true

times than anyone in my family or any of my friends, but if I thought I believed it, I was faking it. I NEVER ONCE bore my testimony of the truthfulness of the bofm. Not like I bore my testimony much at all (only in forced circumstances). I felt it was private.

I assumed that there were some points of evidence that did not fit in the Book of Mormon narrative.

But, I assumed that smart folks at FARMS, and other smart members would not believe it without some good evidence being available if you were looking for it. It didn't seem to register that the smartest people in our family (PhD types) left the church in greater numbers.

Anyway, it wasn't until I was well into college and had a good analytical toolkit that I saw that the apologetics was all a bunch of illogical smoke and mirrors.

I also reached a personal level, where I was willing to accept that the LDS Church could not be true.

That realization was probably the most important factor, because I put the truth and facts ahead of the need for the church to be "true."

I didn't. I never believed, ever. I felt sorry for my family because they didn't see the scam like I did.

actually I never did

I didn't have to convince myself. When the warm and fuzzy fell upon me I was suddenly aware that everything was true without a doubt.