Some questions from Sweden.

[_Mephitus]

creepy....my initials....

ahh well, if it helps chris, I've felt SO much better after leaving. As some have said, once you really release the bonds that you let the church shackle yourself with, everything seems brighter, everything you learn seems more important, air...for lack of a better wording smells better, food tastes better, relationships seem more important, and things just look better than you thought you ever could. I regularly had issues with depression in the church, and i havent had a single episode since leaving. And i even had a death in the family since then.

It might seem bleak, but that's just the adjustment, it WILL get better, i would be willing to swear this to you.

[_ajax18]

And to continue, recently I watched 'This Divided State' by Michael Moore, and a pretty bad image was painted upon the Mormons, and I wondered if the religion I had been supporting for a while, really acted like this? In a country such as yours (U.S) with a Freedom of Speech, why did people decide not to let that guy speak? . . . Why didn't the religon I supported let that guy talk? that is beyond me.

That's a question I've NEVER been able to figure out. Apparently once Mormons become the majority, they're just as oppressive as those they fled.

Can you think of any minority where this was not the case? It seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

[_ajax18]

I feel if i don't have religion anymore, i might as well end my misery, right?

http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/

My dear brother and friend. I have walked the dark night of the soul, and I can assure you that it does get better. The darkness does fade, and happiness can be had again. If you'd like, you can PM me, and I'll help talk you through this (I'll even give you my phone number if that will help). I spent a good portion of my senior year of high school in a mental-health hospital because of depression/bipolar (and it's a battle I still fight), and I know what it is like to not be able to imagine living another day.

Please take a moment a breathe. It doesn't seem like it now, but things do get better.

I am here if you need someone to talk to.

-Stuart

Thanks for the nice comment, and I'm sorry to hear about your mental issues.
Right now everything feels really empty, i mean, i don't even have a family!! Everybodys gone, the remaining of my relatives lives spread out across U.S, and i live in a small apartment all by my self, i want to seek help, but without my family, i'm nothing.

I hope things work out, but right now darkness surrounds me.

I've become disenchanted with Mormonism for some of the reasons you've mentioned, but I don't believe that everything I learned or taught was necessarily a lie. I still hold a lot of the beliefs that Mormons do and I've found comfort in many of those. Some would argue that I'm just using religion as an opiate to cure my pain, but I still hold many things I learned in the Mormon Church to be true.

If my life is bad in the present, it doesn't mean my life is worthless, even if as far as I can see it has no reason to improve. We have a Father in Heavan. He is just and He is merciful. Nothing bad ever happened nor will ever happen to anyone without something of equal or greater value happening in return. There will be justice and we will receive according to our works in the end. There will even be mercy, and compensation for the injustices of life. Life does not end at death, nor did it begin with birth. We are eternal beings, and ultimately (maybe not now) the only factor that can change our happiness is our own actions and attitudes.

Now whether I should have to help pay some old man and his cohorts in SLC 500k a year to tell me that is another issue for me. Yet what I've stated above seems self evident to me, and not just comforting, but indeed true.

[_Dr. Shades]

Apparently once Mormons become the majority, they're just as oppressive as those they fled.

Can you think of any minority where this was not the case? It seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

You're absolutely right, but my instinct is that we should expect better behavior from members of the supposed "One True Church."