Since being around this forum and speaking with people in person, I'm growing aware of a trend.

There are a significant amount of people who become atheists when they leave the church.

It almost seems like a product of the "Either this is the true church, or there is nothing out there" way of TBM conditioning.


What is the deal? Thoughts?

All religions are simply different flavors of the same shiz.

The problem was that I used the same critical thinking skills that showed me the faults of Mormonism. And what I saw was organizations built around myths.

I don't know why one would think JS was any different than JC. I learned from Mormonism how easily people can be led astray, how easily a man can be turned into a superhero.

And there are SO many problems with the idea of an Abrahamic type of God. How can a loving being who is omnipotent all most of his children to be miscarried, die of hunger and disease before age 5, etc.

It took years to slide from skepticism to agnosticism to atheism.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2010 12:49PM by Heresy.

I think it's a product of the application of similar criticisms to the Judeo-Christian tradition in general, or organized religion in general, that exmormons applied to Mormonism.

You have taught yourself to see the man behind the curtain.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2010 12:51PM by Dave the Atheist.

I'm glad you replied Dave... Your name is what sparked this thread. You are a thread celebrity

In applying critical thinking to the claims of TSCC these people found TSCC not to be what it claims to be.

They then apply the same thinking to other religions with the exact same result.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2010 12:52PM by MJ.

For me, the decision to leave the church was based on the realization that if God was who Mormonism said he was, I wanted nothing to do with him. God in Mormonism seemed petty, cruel, and unfair.

So I started reading the Bible, and immediately decided that I didn't like that God, either.

Even then, I didn't think I would ever consider myself an atheist. I still thought there was more out there, but that perhaps the Judeo-Christian myth was completely wrong. So I studied a few different religions. After a while of trying to figure out what I *did* believe, I opened myself to the possibility that there wasn't a God. That made the most sense to me.

That was the key to my leaving Mormonism - I just had to say to myself, "What if it ISN'T true?" and then I was able to unravel it. I just asked the same question about the existence of God.

An honest and courageous seeker of truth will eventually find that the scientific method is clearly the best system for finding truth. From there it is only a matter of time before one realizes that there is no other honest option.

Many of us have studied our way out of Mormonism. Here's my journey, as an example. I'd discovered that many of the things which had been presented to me as facts, such as the Book of Mormon being about a people which actually existed, the Book of Abraham being actual tranlated scripture, or there being only one First Vision, were simply not true. There is actual physical evidence out there to base this on. It's not just anti-Mormon lies or exaggerations.

But the thing is that along the way, one has gained new critical thinking skills, and one can't simply stop with the Book of Mormon. One day you think to yourself, "Well what about the Bible?"

You begin to examine the Bible with the same critical thinking skills with which you examined the Book of Mormon. That's when you realize that hey, there is no evidence for a universal Flood. You can't simply lose a group as large as the Israelites while they wandered in the desert for 40 years. Even their garbage dumps could still be found. At least some evidence of their existence would remain.

You start to think to yourself, "Okay, talking donkeys, burning bushes which don't actually burn, talking serpants, turning water into wine, a man being thought of as a god, pigs running off a cliff because they were possessed by demons, a man living in a whale for 3 days, etc. You think, "Wait a minute. This is all a bit far-fetched. Why did I never notice this before?"

So you study the history of Christianity. You study the history of the Bible. You even get the courage to study the history of Lucifer and realize that it's all just stories. Myths similar to all other myths which have been around since the beginning of time.

And then someone challenges you to study Evolution and for the first time in your life, you do so, and you realize that it's not a myth anymore. It's a proven fact.

Okay, so now there was no Adam and Eve, and therefore no Fall. If there was no Fall, there was no need for a Saviour.

You don't simply say, "Okay, so the Church isn't true, and therefore there's nothing." It's all about taking it one step further and studying. Reading, studying, study, study, study.

You study other philosophies and come to the conclusion that it's all about man trying to explain what he's doing here on this little blue ball hurtling through space.

I'm now into studying Physics and have realized that although we can't yet prove that God doesn't exist, there is some good circumstantial evidence that He doesn't. Or at least that His existence is not necessary, and if it's not necessary, then He probably, simply isn't there.

It's a journey. A fascinating journey of discovery as you study things you never allowed yourself to study before. Evolution, other philosophies, science - things which, in the past, would make you go, "I shouldn't be looking at this."

Suddenly, I'm free to study everything I can get my hands on and I've discovered that living in Mormonism was living in a very tiny, very limited box. I've burst out of the box and there's no going back now.

Am I anti-Mormon? No. I'm pro-truth, and I'm free enough and most of all brave enough to discover the truth. Even if that truth is not necessarily a comfortable one. I just want to know the truth. And it's okay to not know for sure, because some things are currently not knowable. Sometimes the mystery is the most fascinating thing of all.

Greyfort - Thanks for one of the best posts I've ever read...

I've been struggling with the whole "it is this or nothing" mantra. The LDS Church doesn't work for me, but I don't want to give up everything.

Your saying "I'm pro-truth, and I'm free enough and most of all brave enough to discover the truth. Even if that truth is not necessarily a comfortable one." will be a favorite quote of mine for the rest of my life.

That really sums it up.

It's really the only answer that makes sense.

+1 lol

Aww, thanks. I'm glad it could help. I've spent 2 years now studying, and it's an ongoing process. It's not an easy journey, but it certainly can be a fascinating one.

But one of the biggest misconceptions of ex-Mormons is that they are cowards, taking the easy way out.

It's not true. It's takes great bravery and they're the bravest folks I know.

I hate when people claim that leaving the church is the easy route...its not. Its much harder to admit to yourself that you've been lied to your whole life. Its also hard to give up all the relationships you've built because most of them just don't understand and don't want to be friends any longer with an apostate. Its hard to stand up for truth when others are telling you they already have the truth.

So many people in the church talked about how God speaks to them and I could never honestly understand it. I can't say that I've honestly felt someone from OUTSIDE of me speak to me. It was always my own feelings and my own words in my head. Having a good feeling is NOT the same as a god speaking to me.

I like the phrase mentioned by an exmo in the video Bookofabraham.info (totally paraphrasing here)

"When you leave the Mormon church, if you give up all religions because you think they are the same, it's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater"

After hearing that I carefully studied the origins of all major religions. I found out over a few years of intense research that they are all full of crap.

Then my best friend gave me "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Mr Dawkins makes more sense to me than any other person ever has.

Also, go check out the movie Religulous by Larry Charles and Bill Maher.

I don't hate the idea of there being a god, I simply fail to find adequate proof to believe in a supreme creator.

Just my 2 bits.

Clarence Darrow put it quite simply:

"I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose."

http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/379
_____


It took me about two years out of Mormonism using cranially-empowered examination and reasoning applied to other church options to realize that I was an atheist, because the evidence required no less of me.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2010 02:15PM by steve benson.

As has been mentioned often people who are burned by religion see that many/most of the man-made/man-run faiths have a lot of the same issues. People sometimes opt for agnosticism/atheism because many of the other choices out there require that you take someones word for something. Burn me once, shame on me and all that.

I think some people just want a break after Mormonism too. They want to just live and not have to solve the great mysteries...at least not yet.

I think too that Mormonism is uniquely equipped to produce atheist because a serious 'black and white, on or off' current runs through the organization and the theology. Actually Christianity in general suffers from this— but Mo-ism is a step further IMO. Part of this I think is the whole apostasy thing. For years as a believer you spend time learning how the other faiths are not Good's whole truth etc. When you find out that the religion you thought was God's isn't, you can feel there's no where else to go. As I believer I recall saying that if the Church weren't true then nothing is.

And now here I am....agnostic.

... before you figure out what the outcome will always be?

Timothy

John Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
...
> There are a significant amount of people who
> become atheists when they leave the church.
>
> It almost seems like a product of the "Either this
> is the true church, or there is nothing out there"
> way of TBM conditioning.
>
...

First of all, you do have a point, it seems like an apparent jump from Believer to Atheist. But the point assumes that participants on here have never tried alternatives. Most responses have already explained the how and the why, let me just add my name to the roster of folks who have investigated other religions after leaving the saints. Except that my problem with Mormonism was the Mormon version of God.

Despite the sudden shift, I had to cushion the blow by reading "spiritual" stuff. I use the Matrix movie metaphor, not everyone is ready to be unplugged so suddenly. I went total atheist when I was good and ready.

charles, buddhist punk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
I went total atheist when I
> was good and ready.


So now what is there? As an atheist, what are your hopes? What drives you? Why do you get up every day...?

I'm still waiting for the "Atheists have no morals" argument.

when you start thinking logically, it's difficult to stop

it wasn't a knee-jerk thing or a product of conditioning. I too, investigated other religions/schools of thought, and when I did come to the conclusion that there was no god...

...it was scary. The word "atheist" was scary.

It was hard.

I can't speak for others, I can only speak for myself and my own experience.

When I discovered that the LDS church was not true, I simply applied the exact same scrutiny to the Bible and realized that it had the exact same problems as the Book of Mormon.

Although most of the locations described in the Bible exist, the stories in the Bible are as fictional and fabricated as the stories in the Book of Mormon, at least most of them, especially the more fantastical ones.

I can't really say I am an "atheist" however, I am certainly an atheist to the Abrahamic God of the Old Testament.