An issue that made it difficult for me to believe in Mormonism is the message in the endowment ceremony that in the church you find pure truth, unadulterated by mortal philosophies. In contrast to this doctrine, a favorite argument of apologists, when confronted with distasteful doctrines preached by prophets, is that the prophet was merely speaking as a man or giving his opinion on a matter. Without using elite-level mental gymnastics, I am unable to rationalize a claim that "opinion" or "speaking as a man" is materially different from "philosophies of man."

Was this a sticking point for anyone else?

Philosophy is super neat. And it's way better than bullshit interpretations of bullshit scriptures.

But how dare anyone learn to think.

Not really a sticking point for me in my exit, but something I for sure noticed, and you have noted it well, thank you.

Opinions of men mingled with scripture, that's classic...

Such total hypocrisy.

I just remember sitting there in the temple (one of my first times going through) and the minister says the line "why we teach the philosophies of men mingled with scripture."

I thought, holy crap, that is exactly what the GAs do every conference.