“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”–Carl Sagan
Dave the Atheist Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: > If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to > reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no > longer interested in finding out the truth. The > bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too > painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that > we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan > power over you, you almost never get it > back.”–Carl Sagan
This. I’m grateful I was only bamboozled for a bit more than a decade, and that my family was never part of it. Made it easy to leave
"Spiritually speaking, the Mormon Church is dead. Many members seem to be running on fumes. The meetings don’t nourish the spirit, but rather pile on the guilt. The lesson manuals are uniformly boring, and written at a very rudimentary level. They do not address the spiritual and intellectual needs of lifelong members. Heaven help any member who takes history seriously, particularly church history. He/she is branded as a pariah. Indeed once the glory of God was intelligence. Today in the church, the glory of God has become obedience."
I've read this before, but I particularly like this quote, "To objective scientists outside of Mormonism, the Book of Mormon has as much historic validity as The Hobbit, and is certainly a far less interesting read."
Imagine if instead of moving from one math subject to the next each year, you had a 4-year cycle of arithmetic,algebra, geometry and trig. At the end of that cycle, you redid arithmetic,algebra, geometry and trig. The books were almost identical, just a few revisions to justify selling you a new textbook. Then at the end of that cycle, you started all over again. Now imagine doing that for 60 years from age 18 to age 78, repeating each class 15 times.
That is what LDS Sunday school is like. You take those classes in Primary, then ym/yw as well as seminary. Then you go to BYU and take those classes for college credit. Then you go to Gospel Doctrine where they repeat those same classes until you die in your 70s or 80s.
How mind numbing to repeat the same classes over and over again, repeating the same lessons from the same books with the same discussions. I quit church before the iPhone became a thing, so I can imagine that most people are becoming experts at Tiny Wings or Plants v. Zombies, which is apropos.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/2014 08:58AM by axeldc.
I agree, this is pretty mind numbing. Don't forget the same endowment video... That is even more repetitious as there is no room for discussion and variation.
Having been out for a few months, I can tell you that there are some folks that do use their iPhones to play games.
He is, in short, my hero. He was probably the single biggest contributor to my resigning from the church. His life also mirrored mine a great deal. Not exactly a parallel universe, you know, but close. Anyway, I did a bunch of research based on what he said, and--Bob's your uncle--I was out of the church.
I love this quote: - All TBM Women...You are OK with this?? No matter how much talent or success my daughter achieves in life, she will always be a second-class church member with no voice or authority in the Mormon Church
I’m a believer of God and even more so of the Bible too especially after experiencing a cult church just as Andersen reveals everything about the manipulation they use. I am shivering just as I did whilst I’ve read his article through also now while I am writing here.
I’ve become a ‘humble servant’ in an international organisation in London for about two years with the exact same teachings and methods. They separated me from any outside contacts - no friends and mainly no family because I was not close with them at that time so it was quite easy for them to encourage me to continue… I gave them trust and they, the leaders, used anything in their sermons & group meetings that I shared with them about myself so they could make me feel a ‘valued member’. Furthermore they gently, so I’d not be suspicious too early, forced me to talk in front of the whole congregation when ‘I’ decided to get baptised so the ‘church family’ will get to know me. Also I had to go on dates only in public than think about marriage because this is what you must do however you can stay single in order to be in a position relating to your appearance. You also need to pretend = act as you’re such a good person and put all of your skills, time & money for the sake of others….
If I wouldn’t be nearly at the edge of losing my job & accommodation and realising on time whatever is going on I would continue suffer from guilt and bearing children for their evildoer’s society.
I hope that helps to at least one of you to get out of anything similar the sooner than the latter.
Life is too short to let anyone suck out all you have into a purpose that is UNGODLY.