GIMR - I was angst ridden when I left the church in my mid-thirties. Losing faith in a belief system that provides a pervasive world view is never easy. I would certainly have related to many of your sentiments. I will never understand how some believers think that this process is so insignificant that exbelievers should be able to shrug it off and change beliefs like a pair of old shoes, with nary a backwards glance.
TD -
You know, I really do believe there is something to the idea that what we bring into our awareness cretes our reality, and what this means to me in real life (smile) is that when we listen to the news we see a horrible world. When we interact with the really nasty LDS folks on a message board we forget that they are not really representative of what LDS folks are.
Yes, there is a lot to this. I've got to swear off following politics and world events. It just seems to pollute my mind, and yet it's a hard habit to quit, because there are so many critical events occurring. (we better wait till better weather to do lunch! We're getting ice as we speak)
Jason
I think posting on boards like this and others can bring the worst out in us. I know it has with me and at times I need to go back and quickly edit stuff. Often I ask myself if I would really say these things were I speaking face to face with the person. I do not always succeed though.
On the other hand, there is the tribe aspect to any cultural group including LDS. It is often difficult to understand for those show still believe when someone rejects something they believes and lived. To confirm in the minds of those remaining that they are correct they must be able to declare the person who abandons the tribe as strange, odd, mixed up and mistaken. Religion, politics, cultural norms etc. all have this element.
You know what's funny - I think I was nicer and more tolerant of believers before posting on boards like Z and FAIR. Believers like to say it's sites like RFM that make people mean and bitter, but it didn't make me mean and bitter. I recently reread some of my earliest posts at Z and I was, well, nicer. I've become blunter as time goes on, and that doesn't always translate well. Despite my hopes of helping to bridge the gulf between believer and exbeliever, these exchanges seem to have made it worse.
Definitely this is pervasive, which is part of what bothered me. Politics is a perfect example. Where can a person who wants just FACTS about some of these crucial issues go??? Practically nowhere. Oh, sure, everyone claims to provide facts, but they are so completely altered depending on the source, I find it impossible to trust any source. If you follow politics, it's like human beings morphing into caricatures of ourselves and our worst instincts. We've always been like this - can we really overcoming it? Or at least control it? I do think it could destroy us, literally, if we don't.
Runtu, you do have an interesting viewpoint, having been on both sides. You're probably viewed with even more suspicion than those of us whose "switching sides" wasn't witnessed in real time.