Hello folks. It has been a long time since I last posted here. My daughter Marin has a podcast, and asked me to join her for a chat re. god, religion, what life is like almost 20 years post-mormonism, etc. After listening to it, I decided that it may be useful to this community, and so I am posting. I have provided a link below. I continue to feel very grateful, on a regular basis, for all of the folks here who were such a beautiful part of my life on the way out of Mormonism. Thank you again, and best wishes to all. bob

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/episode-15-bob-mccue-my-dad/id1492721106?i=1000473770795

Do we get to see you in colored tights?

Thankfully, no. My legs are perfect, for radio!

Hah!

Was anticipating at least some commentary on the big EPA fund etc. from an exmo tax lawyer!

Wow, Bob McCue. Long time no been in here. LOL Thanks. It's bedtime now, but I'll give it a listen.

My, you have mellowed in your old age. Your posts used to come in at a 5,000 word minimum. :). Good to hear from you.

That was really a beautiful interview and the love you have for your sweet daughter is evident in the way you speak to her.
I for one really appreciated this Bob, and your brevity.
Stay healthy!

Interesting, and quite enjoyable. Although your path is not the same as mine there are a number of similarities,particularly looking at the synaptical basis for religious belief. Fortunately, my exit did not create the disturbing emotional crises in me as yours did for you. However, we have arrived in a similar position with a much better open relationship with our children, and a little assistance at night to help with sleep (wonderful, organic and home grown and something my children enjoy telling their friends about, their ex Mormon father who grows).

haha, awesome.
Bob and I have kids about the same age and left the church with 4 kids between the ages of 16-6.
Now, 3 of them are pantheists/Buddhists/Agnostic and the oldest one is Jewish. But thankfully none of them are Mormon.
I was so glad our whole family got to see our daughter married last year, in the back yard of a nice house on the river in Austin, which was beautiful. So much better than our wedding in the Temple,which my own parents didn't even get to attend. Looking back it's kind of embarrassing that I put my trust in a bogus pyramid scheme, just because I inherited it.
I'm glad we got out when we did and more importantly that my children are healthy, doing well, intelligent, fun loving, adventurous young adults who are a hell of an improvement upon me and their Mother.

A very nice podcast. I like the discussion of neurology and cognition but was particularly touched by the emotional and intellectual relationship you share with your daughter. You must have been a great father.

Hi Bob! RB from Wilson Siding here.

Hi Bob and Marin:

It was nice to hear from you and listen to this exchange. It has been a long time since our lives crossed for a brief period of time years ago, and I was glad to know that you are both doing well, all things considered. Please say hello to the rest of the family for both L and I.

As I listened to this exchange, my general impression was that Marion was more open to imaginative, metaphysical ideas, while Bob was attempting to reign such ideas in in the name of science. Although I agree with Bob that we need to be careful about such unscientific metaphysical influences--religious or otherwise--I would suggest we also need to be careful about embracing a rigid materialist science worldview in the face of a reality that is obviously much broader than our evolutionary heritage allows us access.

Since Stuart Kauffman was mentioned positively, I will add a quote from his book, "Re-inventing the Sacred:"

"Science itself is more limited by the un-prestatable, unpredictable creativity in the universe than we have realized, and, in any case, science is not the only path to knowledge and understanding. . . . [S]cience cannot explain the intricate, context-dependent, creative, situated aspects of much of human action and invention, or the historicity that embraces and partially defines us. These, however, are just the domains of the humanities, from art and literature to history and law. Truth abides here, too." (Page 7-8)

Also, in response to the podcast, it might be well to remember the words of neuroscientist and Nobel Laurette, Roger Sperry, which are relevant today, and which, I suspect, would be endorsed (perhaps reluctantly) by Kaufmann:

"I must take issue with that whole general materialist-reductionist conception of human nature and mind that seems to emerge from the currently prevailing objective analytic approach in the brain-behavior sciences. When we are led to favor the implications of modern materialism in opposition to older, more idealistic values in these and related matters. I suspect that science may have sold society and itself a somewhat questionable bill of goods." Roger W. Sperry, "Mind, Brain, and Humanist Values."

Finally, if we remember that Kaufmann's approach to "the sacred" centers around the concept of "emergence," and that this concept is itself not currently well-grounded in physics or biology, and to that extent is also "metaphysical," we should appreciate the fact that metaphysics as associated with "the sacred" are alive and well within science itself. Perhaps that should give us pause when challenging the sacred in a religious context as being "unscientific."

Again, my best wishes to both of you. I suppose we never quite finish our program of recovery from Mormonism, or our search for answers in life--which is probably a good thing, as painful as it sometimes is.

Nice podcast. I envy that you and your daughter both came out of Moism. My only regret about no longer believing in an afterlife is that my nevermo dad had it right all along and he didn't live long enough to see me leave the corporation. He tried so hard to make me see the falsehoods when I converted. He and I were very close and we only butted heads when it came to Mormonism.

You were a big poster when I first discovered RfromM and I enjoyed your writing. Now I have a better grip on why so many of my intelligent, well read, still in the fold friends will not question anything about their faith. They are mostly in their sixties and I can see why they have no desire to rock their whole world. I only worry that if their children start doubting and leaving they will not react well. I have a whole new understanding of just how hard a mental shift it is for people born and raised in Mormonism. I always knew it but didn't quite understand it the detailed way you have explained things. Thanks.

Actually, you were quite instrumental in my decision to resign from the church. I read all your stuff, so I'm grateful to you.