Posted by:
anagrammy
(
)
Date: April 29, 2012 02:02PM
After taking forestpal's advice, do the same thing to your mind.
The mind is completely different. You can't subtract the Mormon crap like you can when you throw out the books and homage photos. You have to dilute it by taking Mormonism out of the brainwashed paradigm of the "Restored One True Church" and replacing it with reality.
It is a fringe religion started by a perverted convicted conman, same as so many others. By a quirk of fate or happenstance, Brigham Young took over and his organizational and management skills plus isolation anchored the new cult. Had Samuel taken over you and I would probably be Methodists or Lutherans not needing a site like this.
How to do that? Start seeing religion in the Big Picture by educating yourself. Joseph Campbell is a great beginning because by understanding the origin of human mythology, it is a lot easier to forgive yourself for believing Mormon missionary hogwash. You realize that you are sort of preprogrammed to believe in a virgin birth of a god who comes down out of the sky and lives with mankind to teach valuable truths. The Hero of A Thousand Faces tells the story of how myth moves along throughout history being reinvented in many different ways. You can see the landmark documentary series of "The POwer of Myth" on Netflix.
This does not negate the truths of man's spiritual nature, rather the opposite. Enduring myths prove the hardiness of ideas about man's potential and the realization of human nature and the existence/relationship to god as expressed over and over by many different cultures.
With that background, study next the classic book "The World's Religions" by Huston Smith, now available in paperback for $.25.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Worlds-Religions/Huston-Smith/e/9780062508119.
Now you have a basic understanding of how different traditions have taken these myths and incorporated them into working religions that mesh with the cultures they are found in--i.e., the hero comes back and brings what the people need.
After this preparation, read the history of American religion without the Mormonism. If that is a little dry for your tastes, the textbook "Survey of American Literature, Part I" gives you a great feel for the emotional climate of the time. The fervor of the camptown revival spirit. Grant Palmer's book "Insiders View of Mormonism" tells about Joseph Smith's experience as an exhorter in the tent revival period in upstate New York. If you prefer to read the history of the Mormon religion through the eyes of academic integrity, Michael Quinn's work is without peer.
Before you choke on all this, be aware that these directions involve "flooding" your mind in order to neutralize emotion. There is value just in the emersion of studying religion to help strip away its power to evoke a negative response. As posters have mentioned above, to make it an "interesting" and "curious" developmental blip in American religious history, instead of the most important and significant event since the birth of Christ.
There is no question that the Mormon religion has become a high-tech soul-eating, family destroying monster. You are watching a horror movie about a Frankenstein mutant half business, half religion, who crashed out of the laboratory and is now running for President. It is bloated in size and so full of lies it cannot keep upright and is toppling while people run screaming to keep from being crushed as it falls.
Anyone who peeks under the business suit screams "my eyes, my eyes." Mormonism cannot stand scrutiny. It's bullshit is held together by bullshit, so don't lose a winks sleep that this stone will keep rolling.
It is already over for Mormonism, thanks to the weakness of its God, who apparently can't control even Google, let alone the weather.
Best
Anagrammy