When I was willing to begin questioning whether the church was not just false, but totally made up, I noticed that, like many people, my entire foundation disappeared. I was lost for about a year and a half, just trying to figure out who I even was anymore. However, though it takes time to recover, I have come to a point where I am more comfortable with me, and not only not committed in any way to the church, but like many of you on this site, actively devoted to its demise.

The picture is clear now. There is no question that TSCC is COMPLETELY false. Yet people continue to ask me to respect their beliefs. I won't. If a kid kicked me in the shin, then told me it was because Santa told him to, I would never be expected to respect that belief. How is this any different?

My main interest in posting, however, is to try to know what you've all felt when the clarity of consciousness began. How can I describe that to people? It seems almost unanimous that most of us have have a similarly radical wake-up call, and yet people discount the validity of such claims.

Remember (easier said than done), they discount us and out stories, not because of anything we did or who we are, but because they cannot help it if they want to keep their world view. And they need to fight to keep their world view because their entire life, stretching infinitely forward and backward, relies on that world view. Their everything is dependent on the truth claims of TSCC. Therefore, until they are ready to go through the painful process of reconstructing their eternal identity, they need to fight and discredit everything you say and think.

They aren't, and can't be, committed to truth, but they must be committed to protecting their paradigm.

But there's no need to respect ideas like magic underwear and non-existent golden plates.

It isn't as if mormons respect my beliefs or they wouldn't show up at my door to tell me I'm wrong.

The funny thing is I would probably say "the vale has been lifted".

For me it was like suddenly living in 3D.
The previous 44 years had been spent like a rat in a maze, trying to make sense and figure out the Mormon world construct 2D maze. The stepping back process was like rising above the maze to see the world in 3D, with the accompanying realisation that the whole maze is man-made, and the endless search for "truth" cheese was futile due to the terrestrial origins of the maze.
Like many more on this board, it was quickly followed with the realisation that all the mazes are man-made, and a rapid ascent into atheism.