Posted by:
benjimanluther
(
)
Date: October 23, 2010 02:03AM
Seems to me that the typical exit story on this board is where someone discovers "the rest of the story" with regard to the church's historical claims, which leads to them leaving the church. Sometimes they join another church, sometimes they end up deconstructing Christianity and God the way they deconstructed the Mormon church and become atheists or agnostics.
I approached things from the opposite direction. During my upbringing and mission years, my mind was so poisoned against all things anti-Mormon that I quickly dismissed any information that challenged Mormon historical claims. Any time someone tried to tell me non-faith-promoting facts, I simply blew it off as anti-Mormon lies.
My first major doubts were about the existence of God and the Mormon method of "knowing" (epistemology). This started during Biology 100 at BYU when we discussed evolution. My journey concluded a few years later when I read Dawkins' "The God Delusion." Long story short, God and Jesus went the way of Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. I continued to attend regularly for nearly two more years out of consideration for my believing wife, but intellectually and emotionally I was out as soon as I stopped believing in the supernatural.
Absent a belief in God, my belief in Mormonism evaporated. Since then, my curiosity has led me to investigate Mormon historical claims and find out what really happened, but this was not a critical part of my exit. I don't know if any of the traditional "issues" would have led me out of the church if I hadn't first deconstructed God. I didn't even find this board until 18 months after I stopped believing.
Did anyone else here leave the way I did, by first deconstructing their belief in the supernatural and only later deconstructing the historical claims? Or am I unique in taking that approach?
Your answers will be much appreciated.