Posted by:
Elder Berry
(
)
Date: May 16, 2018 04:30PM
We all have some kind of cognitive dissonance according to the article quoted and linked below.
For example, when I was Mormon I believed Nephites and Lamanites really existed and thought that in church. When I was reading about ancient America and Mesoamerican peoples I didn't really think that Nephites and Lamanites were really part of these things and peoples. I put the Mormon stuff in a Sunday and scriptural box. Rationalizing that Nephites and Lamanites were a subgroup of the ancient peoples of this continent, when reading The Book of Mormon this subgroup blew up to millions of people traversing large swathes of this land riding horses, eating wheat, smelting steel for swords, and building cities of cement.
Then Joseph Smith's history of sexual predation popped up in a gift of genealogy from my sister in her adoration for our esteemed ancestor.
I couldn't hold all the contradictions in anymore.
I couldn't be Mormon no more. I couldn't hold their platitudes anymore. I think I reached my personal limit of holding contradictions. Mormonism couldn't exist if the following weren't true for human beings.
"You make a mental note that your beliefs aren’t really contradictory. Instead, one belief holds in one set of circumstances, and the opposite holds in other circumstances. This has the benefit of being cognitively true."
https://www.fastcompany.com/3067169/how-your-brain-makes-you-hold-contradictory-beliefsI contradict myself. I was Mormon, I contain multiple attitudes towards Mormonism and not one of them contradicts my belief that we would all be better without it.