Posted by:
Craig
(
)
Date: July 01, 2015 11:11AM
I’ve been out of the church for about 15 years now and had my name removed only about 6 years ago. I did not do it sooner because my father was ill and near the end and I didn’t want to add to his suffering. He believed in the church until the end and my mother who lives with me now still does. When my mom first moved in with me after my dad passed and I told her I had removed my name from the church we had a little battle but once she accepted that I had not changed and in fact I am happier now than I have ever been she relaxed and we get along great now.
So with that preamble I will get to the reason for my post. I live in the heart of Happy Valley so I am surrounded by Mormons. With my mom living with me she has HT’s and VT’s coming around all the time so it is obvious that I will have to interact with Mormons constantly. I have come to some conclusions that I wanted to share.
Last night her home teacher came by alone because his companion is on vacation. He is a very nice man and I actually like him as a person so I have no problem that he came alone or that he comes over whenever he wants. As we sat there talking I looked at this man who is a successful businessman and no doubt that he is intelligent I wondered how someone like him could be deceived by the morg for over 70 years. I sat there listening to him tell his stories about his youth and his memories from childhood I contemplated this question and I came to the conclusion that he may actually know the truth about the church but that he chooses to continue to believe because he gets something from the church he can’t get anywhere else.
I realized that life is uncertain. Everyone knows that someday they will die but nobody really knows what happens when we die. That is the big question that has plagued humankind since humankind has had the ability to think and reason. I came to understand in that moment that with that uncertainty of what happens when we die most people simply can’t live with that uncertainty. It takes a special type of person, like our beloved Steve Benson, who has completely accepted that there is nothing beyond this life and he is just fine with that. I am making a blanket statement here which I don’t like to do, most people simply need religion because it tells them what happens when we die and even though it is just the opinion of whoever created the religion that they choose to believe in, it still gives them comfort in at least believing that they know what will happen. The manipulation and coercion that goes along with the particular religion they choose to believe in is blocked out of their mind with cog dis and they just accept it for what it is because it answers that one big question and that gives them comfort.
I have not arrived at the point that Steve is at yet and I still need to believe that somehow, not related to religion in anyway, we do continue and although I have absolutely no clue what will “actually” happen I want to believe that I will be with my sweetheart and kids after this life closes for me.
What this has done for me is to help me not look at people who devote their lives to religion with derision even though it may be blatantly obvious that the religion they have attached their wagon to may be lying through their teeth, such as the morg. It has allowed me to accept people for who they are and look past the religion they have chosen to follow. It actually feels good because I struggled with this ever since I decided that all religions are simply the inventions of man and that if there is a god that god has nothing to do with any religion. I kept looking at people like this man who came to our home last night with such derision and contempt. It was worse when I liked the person because I wanted to like them but my feelings about their choice to follow a religion was a road block to me accepting them as a genuine person. I thought I would share because it feels pretty good to have come to this conclusion and it will allow me to accept people more openly for who they are as a person even if they are fanatical about their chosen religion.