One of the things that helped me through the early confusion of leaving mormonism was to examine what kind of god I actually did believe in. Did I believe god to be a total prick without understanding for the fact that life is at times confusing? No I did not. Would a god that demands mandatory faith be a true god? Certainly not I reasoned, surely god of all people would understand that belief isn't an act of will and therefore outside moral judgements.

A god that punishes intellectual honesty is not a god I can believe in. That is just as evil as it's irrational. It immediately raises the suspicion that the reason this god has to hide behind a cloud of fear is because there is no reason to believe in him in the first place and hence that he doesn't exist. It's a ploy invented by hoaxters that god would punish you for disbelief. The real god, if there is one, is way above such nonsense.

"A god that punishes intellectual honesty is not a god I can believe in."


That pretty well wipes the slate clean, brefots :)


No god in history can afford to tolerate intellectual honesty.

I was still a believer in a god when I developed these ideas. It was just as sincere as I now doubt the notion of a god and perhaps that proves your point. But in my view belief in god doesn't need to rely on reason, it just needs to not be in opposition to reason, which historically it has been throughout the ages.