Atheist - the last calling issued by the LDS church -----

Got me.

But this morning I saw a news report saying a new survey had the US population at 21% "no religion." Highest ever.

And, since mormons are such a tiny proportion of the US population, it seems all the other churches are producing lots of atheists/non-believers at a pretty good clip, too.

I'm all for it :)

ificouldhietokolob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Got me.
>
> But this morning I saw a news report saying a new
> survey had the US population at 21% "no religion."
> Highest ever.
>
> And, since mormons are such a tiny proportion of
> the US population, it seems all the other churches
> are producing lots of atheists/non-believers at a
> pretty good clip, too.
>
> I'm all for it :)

Mormons always made it seem like they were bigger than they really were. Like they would dominate the globe pretty soon here.

I have thought about that, and this is such a good question the OP poses. I do not know if there are more atheists from the Mormon church, but it is probably substantial. I would think that most of the number of Atheists come from those born into the church. The thinking of all or nothing is compelling in that the thinking may be if you leave, what is the use of believing in God because all is lost anyway.

Converts have had the experience in other churches so may be they will find another church and continue to believe in God.
I am a convert and gave everything I had, including health, to the Mormon church. As difficult as it was to leave, I continued to believe in God and have found another church. I can only speak for myself. Do others think more converts continue to believe in God? Are more Atheists born into the church?

allegro Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The thinking of all or nothing is
> compelling in that the thinking may be if you
> leave, what is the use of believing in God because
> all is lost anyway.

That wasn't my thinking.
Nor of anyone else I know who was mormon and is now atheist.

It's more like this:
-- I found out that what I was told about mormonism was false.
-- It's probably a good idea to not just "believe" anything
-- If I'm going to consider some other church/religion, I'm going to see what evidence shows about the claims being true
-- evidence doesn't show any church/religion's claims true.
-- evidence doesn't show anybody's "god" claim true.
-- it's probably a good idea to not believe those claims, since nothing shows them true.

That's not the same as you wrote :)

Well put:

It's more like this:
-- I found out that what I was told about mormonism was false.
-- It's probably a good idea to not just "believe" anything
-- If I'm going to consider some other church/religion, I'm going to see what evidence shows about the claims being true
-- evidence doesn't show any church/religion's claims true.
-- evidence doesn't show anybody's "god" claim true.
-- it's probably a good idea to not believe those claims, since nothing shows them true.

JS was only off by one when he said all churches were wrong but one.

Wait, what!? Are you saying that there are TWO true churches?!

The main producer of Atheists is birth. What is the main producer of theists ?

Death is the main producer of theists! Because an explanation for 'death' is greatly desired.

So rarely does one hear about God in mormonism. We heard *handcarts* and *genealogy* mentioned a hundred times for every time Jesus was mentioned once. His name was only bookends for the meeting. Now it’s *the temple*, aka money. Once people leave mormanism, there isn’t much to fall back on unless they’ve had other religious instruction.

kathleen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So rarely does one hear about God in mormonism.
> We heard *handcarts* and *genealogy* mentioned a
> hundred times for every time Jesus was mentioned
> once. His name was only bookends for the meeting.
> Now it’s *the temple*, aka money. Once people
> leave mormanism, there isn’t much to fall back
> on unless they’ve had other religious
> instruction.

There is nothing to fall back on. And i hated all that handcart talk. Their minds are always on the past and always on death.

Judaism.

Well, percentage of atheist/agnostic is a lot higher in Europe than US so could quite possibly be Catholic and Protestant churches produce higher percentages of non-believers than Mormonism does.

Pew research center's religious landscape survey says that atheist/agnostic percentage for US is ~7% but UT percentage is ~5% so I'd guess even in US other mainstream churches are producing more non-believers than Mormonism.

If Mormondumb has produced a lot of atheists, at least it has done one good thing.

What good are surveys, unless people ADMIT they are Atheist. Mormons and ex-Mormons with TBM families probably won't do that.

I'm wondering about the percentage of ex-Mormons who end up Atheist. We already know the actual numbers of Mormons and ex-Mormons are near microscopic, in the first place.

What I know in my own experience, is that most Mormons who leave do not want to belong to any religion, after that. They are burnt out, socially. Spiritually, I agree that the black-and-white thinking does come into play, but in a different way. I figured that I had already "paid the price" of losing all my Mormon friends, and alienating most of my TBM family. At the same time, lightning was not striking me dead, so I might as well go ahead and enjoy my great life!

Hie's type of logic is kicking in for me, just now, after almost 10 years out. It's a slower process. I was raised on The Bible--perhaps because my parents were more Christian, at heart, than Mormon. They never believed in the temple.

My husband and I raised our two older children in the Lutheran Church, but after we moved to Utah, we raised our two youngest purely Mormon, and also the two older. The two Lutheran-rooted children are still Christian. The two strictly-Mormon children are both Atheist. My strictly-Mormon husband is Atheist. My Bible-raised self is still Christian. However, none of us attend church regularly, except at Christmas and Easter, maybe.

Everyone is different. "Studies" of this type aren't adequately controlled, and are too arbitrary. It would be interesting to know the answer, though.

That is a very good question. I once met a Baptist minister who told me that his experience with ex-Mormons was that they would become atheist before they would join another religion. He had thought it rather odd.

Personally I hope it's true because after leaving I definitely become an atheist. I actually have found great comfort with that decision. It not only affected me in that way but all the members of my family.

Most atheist I met have beliefs as wacky as any Religion’s. Nihilism is the only indisputable truth. Atheists just invent other fairy tales that don’t involve God.

What would some of those "wacky atheist beliefs" be?

Ya know,

evolution, climate change, physics

crazy ideas like those.

Is the fact that you believe in physics and that there is some underlying importance in that that makes you superior to some less educated person on an Indian reservation that may or may not believe in God silly. Belief in physics has absolutely zero importance or value. You are silly for believing you beliefs have some sort exalted position in the hierarchy of beliefs. You are like some poor religious fool are still searching for meaning where there is none.

The search for "meaning" is humanity's greatest scavenger hunt!!

There will eventually be a winning team! Actually, the fact (seriously, it is a fact!) that you can sit there in your underwear and type words that are seen by literally dozens of people proves that the search for meaning produces utility.

How did we get from "wacky atheists beliefs" to "Indian reservations"? Seems like a rather strange segue. Physics is fundamental - cooking, making a fire, shooting, carrying a load, leverage - all physics, just not always learned in a classroom.

Herman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Belief in physics has absolutely
> zero importance or value.

Oh, sure.
Until you try to use electricity.
Or design a bridge. Or a car. Or anything else useful.
Or...well, surely you get the picture, right?

The fun thing about physics, though, is that "belief" isn't necessary. You can learn facts, and then use them. They're demonstrable, repeatable, and they always work. What fun! How useful!

In Salt Lake City the Unitarians consider the Mormons their "farm team."

That's funny.

Mormonism seems full of enough lies that the fraud is easily discoverable, extreme enough that it feels great to leave, but not so extreme that you can't leave.

It's the right mix, the right breeding ground for atheism or the Unitarians.

Very unscientific observation: Upon leaving Mormonism people tend to revert back.

If they had been Christian, they go back to a Christian church.

If they were born into Mormonism, they become atheists.

All babies are atheists until taught otherwise.

I'm sure there are many exceptions.

I would bet that as a RATIO OR PERCENTAGE of the small Mormon population to the amount of ATHIESTS that come out the other end of the rabbit whole the answer is NO - Mormonism is the ultimate atheist machine - I think the maze out it is the perfect recipe for self- realization, critical thinking and new world view that leads to only one place and conclusion.

They've even taken to reproducing them, just in case there's not enough. They've also been reproducing dummies, sheep and robots, so...

It - "inactivity"/ freedom/ relief/ (eternal and instant) happiness/ truth/ equanimity/ sovereignty/ fairness/ understanding/ righteousness, etc., AND Mormons-Mormonism's lies, cheating, bamboozling, bumbling, covering-up, burying, perverted doctrine and practices, sacrament recessions and recitations, mistreatments, scandals, cheapskating, oversized, pompous, greedy, forgetful, unconscious, unaware, uncaring, untimely, ungrateful, overzealous, wishy washy, dirty, rotten, low-down, evil and mysterious, CULTY, dogmatic, scapegoating, over-controlling, blasphemous, higher-than-thou eyebrow, you bro, she sis kinda mess where people can't be people because PEOPLE 'CAN'T' "be themselves", because [their own (type)] "people" won't let them/ they won't let themselves - helped me see the rainbow of living light, which IMMEDIATELY let and led to peace, tranquility and bliss.

It's been joyous every sense. Every since I last checked my senses. Ain't it every tin thousand (island-dressing-room-ate) smiles?

I sense more "saints" waking up, increasingly.

You can only plug so many holes until the plugging itself creates holes. We're thinking whole square holes here.

The BS that Mormonism is, and that it creates in the individual and in the (WOULD BE) "family", and in the community at large, is built on self-destruction.

The backbiting and stabbing, the gossip and rumormonging, perverted bishoPricks "interviews" (interrogations!) and distractions by in-doctor-nation about masterbation and Mission (Control to Major Tom) statements in moments of intolleration and testimony's subtraction of your thought process leaves one bewildered.

Bewildered, one finds FREEDOM/ truth and happiness, and shares it, like a common recipe.

My sense of former Catholics in the U.S. is that they tend to retain a belief in God and Jesus. They just stop going to church and do their own thing. It may be different in Europe.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2018 08:37AM by summer.

It's been my experience over the years that ex-mormons don't really volunteer they were Mormon nor do they say they are atheists. I think ex-mormons just become non-religious and just don't want to discuss it.