I often wonder how different it would be if I lived in a time before the internet was available. I always had doubts about Mormonism but it was only through researching the history of the church and JS on the internet that I learned the mountain of facts I needed to leave. It is so much easier having everything at your fingertips via technology. I think that the membership dropoff rate is much higher today in comparison to 20 years ago because people now have access to the truth. I am so thankful for technology!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2012 02:02AM by turnonthelights.

I dodged the bullet and didn't get baptized without the Internet. If there had been the Internet then, I would not have waisted the time investigating TSCC.

I left Moism in the 80s before I had internet service.

I was a BYU student, taking time off and working full time, and had my epiphany in a city library near my home. When I returned to BYU, I continued my research in the Harold B. Lee Library--when I was attending the school twenty years ago, they had quite a selection of unabashedly anti-Mormon books easily accessible to anyone--also available were a lot of books and journals on geology, evolution, archaeology, etc., which solidified my position on Mormonism.

This "generation" of question Mormons has it a lot easier, in terms of finding information damaging to the church--it's all just a mouse click away!

Yes, I did get out ... without the internet. Would have been nice to have a support group like this though ... and all the info I wanted at my fingertips. Those who are questioning are going to find out eventually ... with or without internet.

It would just take a hell of alot longer though but if you were persistent I guess you could.

I think it depends on a persons personality. I did it like BahBahBlacki. Saw that behind the facade, the church is rotten, racist, radical and not at all Christ-like and I took to my heels without looking anything up. That came later and just verified me in my decision to leave. There is absolutely NOTHING Christ-like about making entrance into a so-called heaven dependent on the brand of religion you were born and drafted into. Believing that the mormon one is better just shows how full of pride they are (as are many others). They all have parts of the truth (gag ... double GAG) but NONE of them have the full truth being that they're all prehistoric ways of explaining the world to people from the dark ages. That's why I have my own damn religion and the rest of you are going to hell! ;) Ok, sorry if I offended anyone. I'm done venting.

I left the church without looking anything up. I called their crap through experience and intuition. ...bastards.

So, TTFC for this here internet!

Indeed, I did.
before the internet there were these things called 'books'........one of my defining moments was when I read 'a book' called 'No man knows my history' by Fawn Brodie

I just finished reading NMKMH ! I really enjoyed it and it helped in my attempt to find out how that insane "church" started in the first place. Wow. What a story!

I would of found my way out without internet but the emotional toll would have been far larger. I would of suffered with my feelings while trying to reconcile something that can't be.

I tend to stay in damaging relationships far longer than I should.

between endure to the end and Buddha saying life is suffering, i would of been screwed.

lol

I had already left because I was tired of the Church harming my self-esteem. But it's also possible that I would have made my way back again at some point too.

The internet cut that off at the pass when I discovered the truth. I was trying to research out the truth, so that I could decide to either go back for good, or leave forever.

There's now a zero percent chance that I'd ever go back, because now I have the actual truth, as opposed to the fantasy truth which comes from having good fuzzy feelings.

Edit: After reading the other replies, I just had a comment about books. Where I live, there aren't really anti-Mormon books around. This is a very non-Mormon part of the world, so the Church isn't really on anyone's radar here.

I probably never would have even found out that there were such things as anti-Mormon books where one could find the truth. I would have simply put any of them down as crazy stuff, which I'd always been told things like The Godmakers were, so I never would have even thought to look at them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2012 08:09AM by Greyfort.

Computers were housed in gym-sized rooms at colleges and students in that field of study had to sign up for limited time slots to do their class projects.

Back in the mid 1970s when I left, thoughts of a world wide web and such had yet to be thought of.

Oh, to have had Google back in the day!

Timothy



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2012 10:11AM by Timothy.

Actually the internet was a great source of information that I needed to be certain, but I had already seen the evidence on PBS and heard the mormons confirm it. As an added bonus, the local library has books like Under the Banner of Heaven, One Nation Under Gods, and the one by Linn, and by Pomeroy Tucker.

While the internet did provide me with an abundance of information (who knew just how many claims by the church were false?) the most important thing was to connect with others and to see that I was not alone. Here in non-mormon land, there isn't anyone to talk to about these issues. Those familiar are either members or rabid antimormons, and the rest don't see the problem.

I'm pretty sure I would have got out anyway, but the internet is a great source of support for obsessive types like me.

Nope.

I was totally offended by my batsh!t crazy TBM Utah MIL during a trip out West. The first thing I did upon returning home to Florida was google, "Losing my testimony + Mormon." Up popped RfM. The facts emerged. And the rest is history.

Without the internet, I would have probably seethed forever and played passive-aggressive games with the church for years (screwing up callings, going inactive for brief periods, attending the Catholic Church on occassion with my family of origin etc.). But I would never, ever have officially left THE CHURCH.

And I would have felt permanent anxiety, guilt, and stress for my angry feelings and doubts. Honestly, I think this is what happens to a lot of older Mormons who never had the luxury of really researching the facts on a computer.

Likely not. I just had to find some things I knew were wrong about the church, and the Internet worked for that. Then I found RfM and that was the first time I had gotten to know people who had resigned. I said, "That's for me!"

I think you're right that the Internet is accelerating membership decline.

I left without the help of the Internet and felt isolated and occasionally unsure of my decision. Later, the Internet helped to confirm my own reading and understanding of LDSinc and also confirmed that I wasn't alone, which was comforting and gave me confidence when facing TBM family and friends.

I left after reading the BoM and the Bible during a year of study. Too many inconsistencies. RfM helped after I exited but didn't contribute to my decision to leave.

Because I thought it was true, and that's all that mattered. It didn't matter how boring it was or how much I disliked all the arbitrary rules, I was still going to follow it to the best of my ability, because it was true. I had some cognitive dissonance from all the anti-scientific claims, but I just put it on the shelf and accepted the answer that we will understand it all in the next life. As much as I disliked that answer, I didn't have any other choice but to accept it. The church was true, I knew it because I'd received the witness of the Holy Ghost in answer to Moroni's promise after reading the Book of Mormon at age 9.

At one point, I saw an anti-Mormon site that made a big deal about there not being any horses in the Americas during Book of Mormon times. As a young TBM, I thought that was a dumb argument because horses are barely mentioned in the Book of Mormon, and maybe there weren't very many horses so their bones weren't found. Maybe they were all killed off in the last great battle between the Nephites and Lamanites.

I found out about the Mountain Meadows Massacre online when I was a BYU student. That one really disturbed me. It didn't change my belief in the foundational claims of Mormonism, though. I still believed it was true.

It wasn't till I got on this site a few years ago that I discovered all the problems with the Mormon church. The Book of Abraham was a big one, the racism, the multiple accounts of the First Vision. I finally let myself consider "What if it's not true?" and everything fell into place, all the questions I'd had for so long were immediately answered. After that, there was no going back.

Without the internet, I would have continued to have those nagging doubts, but I wouldn't have had the information to realize that it's a fraud. I would have been a non-conformist type of Mormon because that's my personality, but I probably would have stayed in.

I left in 1985, so yes.

Yes. Technically the internet was around in the early 90s, I even talked my parents into getting one of the early modems and dialed in through the library gopher.

However, I had had serious doubts since I was baptised or so, but knew I had to stay under the radar. So much pretending messed up my certainty. By the time I left home, I was fleeing from everything my parents wanted for me. They didn't give a shit what I wanted in the slightest anyways. The church was part of what I was running from.

The longer I was out, the more superstitious and stupid it seemed. But why was my whole ginormous extended family so entrenched? They weren't right, were they?

Recipe for self doubt.

I even suggested to my husband when we were planning our wedding a decade later, that maybe we should eventually do the whole temple thing. You know, as afterlife insurance. I didn't think we'd get around to it until we were much older, if ever...
Politely, he said, whatever would make you happy dear.

Fortunately by then the internet was in full bloom, and having a stable home life enabled me to ask uncomfortable questions of the internet instead of just burying all of it internally.

And there was RfM!

I was right to be skeptical and grossed out by the whole thing!
It really is the rest of my family who is deluded! Yes!

I probably would be inactive, but I would be unsure if I was doing the right thing, and might go back. I think a lot of people were the same way back in the old days, and this is why Mormonism thinks they can trick us into coming back. They are not used to people knowing the truth when they leave.

Yes. It was l973. The way it happened all on my own is very important to me.

I am so glad there is google now because although I don't think it makes it easier to leave the church now-a-days, I think it makes it more likely. That is good.

I wouldn't have even known there was something wrong without the internet. Sure, I wasn't really happy as a young SAHM, or very happy w/ my RM or my life but it never occurred to me to blame the CHURCH. Only through google did I find out the church was lying. After I figured out the church wasn't what I thought it was did I realize what living Mormonism was doing to me and how it was responsible for my unhappiness.

But it was entirely the internet that got me out, right down to recommending the books I bought and the support I got here. The only other thing that came close in helping me leave was Bishop Jackwagon's attitude. But that just gave me the strength to do what was right - put the steel in my spine as it were. The internet did the rest.

I had suspicions of the book of mormon being a fraud long before the internet. Grant Palmer's book sealed the deal for me. I found out about his book through the internet, so I suppose one could say that the internet helped me find the way out.

I stopped going to to church without the influence of internet. I started wondering after I left if I should go back. The decision to never go back ever & have my name removed I did use the internet because I used it to search the history of the church. I think if I did not have the internet I would have searched about the history of the church the old school way by going to a library. But I may have not known how to resign. I think if I started to get hounded by members to come back I would have found out by asking the church how to have them stop contacting me.

So basically yes, I would have found my way out without the internet, it just would have taken longer to offically resign or just make the decision to never go back.

I left 13 years before I'd even heard of the internet. First I just went inactive and figured I'd have to address the matter of whether to go back or change religions at a later time. Then, as that time approached, I found some books (those were a quite popular, though archaic information dissemination device that some older people may remember ;-p) on the early history of JS and the church by an exmo that led to my final exit.

No definitely not. I take people for their word, and unfortunately, I had a bunch of priesthood holders conveniently hold the truth from a sweet Tiptoes. My biggest beef was the polygamy of JS. How could I be a member 13 years and not now the M F 'er had more than Emma? For the next 7 years, I spoke with my SP (lawyer for the church), and one or two bishops, and several "experts" and not one of those goddamn men cared to enlighten me on the true history. One would think if a person had 33plus spouses, it would part of their effing narrative! Yes I joined before the Internet, and my aunt found a book then about mormons rubbing oil all over their procreating organs in the temple. Of course, I was told that it is the devil trying to impede by baptism. 20 years of pure deception and taking people for their word. After the story of my young convert friend that I have shared in other threads, GOOGLE became my friend and I discovered the real history. Shortly after piecing a few things together (those damn mormons did make me a great detective doing geneology), I walked away and never second guessed my decision that the church was false and full of liars.

Yesterday on the radio they were discussing the yahoo guy fudging his resume...synopsis ended up being how could you trust someone who lies...do you understand that TBM lurkers? Do you understand that TBM trolls? The church expects so much more of you than than it expects of itself!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2012 11:45AM by tiptoes.

I was in my early 20s, a BYU student. Had the internet existed, I probably would have left as a teen. Even in the 1960s, I was suspicious about the whole BoM narrative. I had worked a bit on a dairy farm, and the image of turning a wooden submarine full of livestock upside down without killing everyone and everything inside was beyond ludicrous.

I was brainwashed from birth and it took pretty well. I always hated the church programs, the long repetetive meetings, the control, the requirement for absolute obedience etc. but I loved "the church". Yeah, I don't quite know how that works either.

I was constantly swimming up-stream to keep myself worthy enough. I never worried about being so righteous that I'd get translated like Enoch(my temple name by the way), but I always wanted to have that temple recommend. It wasn't that I was a drinker or a smoker or had problems with fidelity to my wife. My sins were far more serious. For example, sometimes that tithing check wasn't paid with a completely happy heart. Sometimes I'd actually admit to myself that the Home Teaching program sucked. Even as the EQP I hated that program and I knew I wasn't right with God for having those feelings. When a big calling opened up in the Ward I groaned inside because I sure as hell didn't want to be in a bishopbrick!

The church didn't work for me on many levels but I always pretended like it did. That's what you do, right? Endure to the end and all that?

If Google hadn't made is so easy to do search on the relationshiop between the Temple Ceremony and Masonry I would probably still be enduring to the end.