DiscussMormonism.com

I remember the old AOL chat boards. I'd go into the christian rooms and announce myself as a Mormon. I was instantly bombarded with calls to repentance, a bunch of "say this prayer immediately" mumbo jumbo and a few "hi there, read this...you might change your mind". What I remember most clearly was the adrenaline rush I got from viewing anti. I "knew" it was all bunk at the time yet every few days I would hit Altavista (yes, THAT long ago) and I would search for anti material. This also sparked my interest in Freemasonry and the internet as a whole.

Even after I got back from my mission I would, every once in a while seek out "anti" and spend ten minutes looking up certain cracks I had seen in the facade while out on my mission, the blood pumping to my head and the emotional rush id receive debating others.

What if we were to sit Mormons and non Mormons down in front of computer terminals and connected heart rate monitors and maybe an EEG? Strict codes of double blind applied. What would be the data we were to get if we were to present pro Mormon material and anti Mormon material? What if we were to have them read shocking theories and speculation uttered out of the mouths of Mormon prophets? what if we framed the quote as an anti-mormon argument?

I'd be interested to know if Mormon conditioning involves the control of heart rate in response to perceived emotional stimuli.

Mercury wrote:I'd be interested to know if Mormon conditioning involves the control of heart rate in response to perceived emotional stimuli.

Would it be able to measure a heart breaking, because the church isn't what it could be?

Mercury wrote:I'd be interested to know if Mormon conditioning involves the control of heart rate in response to perceived emotional stimuli.

Sure it does. Over my lifetime I have had hundreds of opportunities in the church to do musical performances. And then when I hit the teens, I was giving talks in church with regularity. I only went on a youth mission, but it was also a very good training ground for learning to deal with jitters. I would imagine a full time mission would magnify that. I absolutely feel this conditioning helped my comfort level in all sorts of otherwise scary public situations when I became an adult.

I never spent time on Briggies brigade of Bible bashing baboons, but I can relate to the heart pounding from the late night googling during my initial epiphany.

During my initial visit with the bishop to tell him I was leaving he said he was told that researching the deep dark corners of church history was more additive and destructive than PORN.

I joked and said he was correct. Once one has the truth about Mormonism most will likely leave. THAT is destructive to LDS Inc as they loose that members tithes over the remainder of their life along with the future tithe from their children and generations to follow. Members with a porn problem keep paying tithing.

He tried to correct me, "No, I did not mean that.. about the tithing.."

Then the rest of what I said about the generational membership losses seemed to have struck him, "So you are saying that you will take your family out of the church?"

"Wouldn't a good father keep his children away from what he sees as evil and wrong?", I asked.

"Well, that is your opinion.", he stopped.

And yes, I did follow through as my wife and children have been out of the clutches of LDS Inc for almost a year now.

Polygamy Porter wrote:
And yes, I did follow through as my wife and children have been out of the clutches of LDS Inc for almost a year now.

When Polygamy Porter speaks to his family, the thinking has been done?

PP:"Well, they made their own conclusions based on the evidence I provided."

Good answer!

My mom was a southern Baptist before she joined the church. As you can imagine she was bombarded with anti Mormon literature from her sister, who remains to this day very active in her church down in Georgia.

I recall a drawer my mom had filled with various literature against the church, such as "Mormonism Mama and me" by Thelma Greer. So I was introduced to this stuff at a young age.

I did get a thrill when Id go on Christian chat rooms and get booted off. I found it funny that merely a mention that we have a Heavenly Mother would get them in such a frazzle that theyd throw me out and ban me.