Mormon->Doubting Mormon->Atheist

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I think it's a pretty simple process if you were a TBM. All other faiths were untrue. You clearly saw how silly other faiths are, but had a mental block when it came to Mormonism. Once that changed it became a kind of All or Nothing.

I like to think the fog lifted, and I can now see spirituality/faith within its proper context.

[Guest]

In my case, doubts were raised in Seminary. A couple of my early morning Seminary teachers were sort of over the top with their "just so stories" in response to the hard questions about Joseph Smith and Church History. I realized that the best working hypothesis was that the whole Mormon religion was simply an elaborate set of delusions, lies, imagination and misunderstandings maintained by willful ignorance.

Nonetheless, being in a TBM family and a TBM environment, I remained a Mormon through my 20's, and even married TBM.

However, experiences from military service, grad school overseas, and especially living and working overseas, finally made it clear to me that maintaining even the semblance of Mormonism was damaging to my life, family, and career.

According to DCP, I am now apparently a "scientistic" individual (or if he became really annoyed with my pesky logic and facts, an "arrogant scientistic dogmatist").

I consider myself to be an "extremely low probability agnostic" when it comes to religion and a "liberal concerned scientist" when it comes to overall worldview.

For me the transition was pretty linear, with no traumatic epiphanies or sudden great insights. In hindsight, I guess I sort of figured it out in high school.

Anyone interested in hearing about sudden traumatic insights into Mormonism would do better to talk with my dear wife.

[_Some Schmo]

The church didn't make me atheist; it made me a disbeliever in all religions, not god. I was agnostic for about 20 years before flipping from god-believing agnostic to god-disbelieving agnostic, and that was mostly a simple matter of coming to fully understand the concept of "burden of proof."

[_stemelbow]

I know a couple of folks who were once Mormon and are now atheist--outside of Mormon message boards anyway. They simply don't pay much attention to Mormon studies at all and never have. They simply claim they never really believed in the first place. They just kind of went along with it. Now looking back they have plenty of reasons to doubt, but their faith, as it were, was always a question to them.

I'd suppose that most folks who leave any religion akin to Christianity and trun to atheism would follow that path. And I suppose the exceptions probably rue the day here and other boards.

[_sock puppet]

I know a couple of folks who were once Mormon and are now atheist--outside of Mormon message boards anyway. They simply don't pay much attention to Mormon studies at all and never have. They simply claim they never really believed in the first place. They just kind of went along with it. Now looking back they have plenty of reasons to doubt, but their faith, as it were, was always a question to them.

I'd suppose that most folks who leave any religion akin to Christianity and trun to atheism would follow that path. And I suppose the exceptions probably rue the day here and other boards.

I think that it is easier for those yet believing to dismiss apostasy as 'mostly' just people that realized they'd never believed than true believers that have discarded those beliefs. To accept that those who discarded those beliefs once truly and genuinely believed them causes a yet believer to pause and doubt his own beliefs. To protect the yet believer's faith, better just to chalk apostasy up 'mostly' to those who came to the realization that they never really believed. That way, the yet believer is not troubled and does not ask about or investigate for himself or herself the issues that caused a true believer to discard those beliefs.

[_aranyborju]

I think it's a pretty simple process if you were a TBM. All other faiths were untrue. You clearly saw how silly other faiths are, but had a mental block when it came to Mormonism. Once that changed it became a kind of All or Nothing.

I like to think the fog lifted, and I can now see spirituality/faith within its proper context.

That is exactly what happened with me. Has a TMB you already spend part of your time dismantling other faiths as you try to justify your own. The entire foundation of Mormonism rests on the premise that all other churches are corrupt and false.

Once I began to study the history of the early church and realized that I had been misled by a fog of lies, it wasn't hard to discount religion altogether.

Maybe it is intellectually and spiritually lazy of me to not investigate the possible truthfulness of other religions, but there isn't enough time in the world to investigate every kooky claim that has been foisted upon humanity.

When people ask me how I could write off religion completely, I tell them that I haven't and that I am really looking into this whole Zeus thing right now.

[_Hades]

I know a couple of folks who were once Mormon and are now atheist--outside of Mormon message boards anyway. They simply don't pay much attention to Mormon studies at all and never have. They simply claim they never really believed in the first place. They just kind of went along with it. Now looking back they have plenty of reasons to doubt, but their faith, as it were, was always a question to them.

I'd suppose that most folks who leave any religion akin to Christianity and trun to atheism would follow that path. And I suppose the exceptions probably rue the day here and other boards.

Whatever makes you feel good Stem.

[_Buffalo]

I went Mormon->Atheist->Oh yeah, the church isn't true either

[_stemelbow]

I think that it is easier for those yet believing to dismiss apostasy as 'mostly' just people that realized they'd never believed than true believers that have discarded those beliefs. To accept that those who discarded those beliefs once truly and genuinely believed them causes a yet believer to pause and doubt his own beliefs. To protect the yet believer's faith, better just to chalk apostasy up 'mostly' to those who came to the realization that they never really believed. That way, the yet believer is not troubled and does not ask about or investigate for himself or herself the issues that caused a true believer to discard those beliefs.

Its not about easier nothing. I merely offered an example of pepole I know. And I tend to wager that most people who leave the Church don't spend their time on message boards whining about the silly things that SP does. I'm sure you think the group of people who go about it the way you have is so large its unfathomable. But reality is, you are an exception, dude.

[_Blixa]

Perhaps some one might say that I'm just "claiming" I never believed. But how completely patronizing and arrogant is that statement?

In my case, I "left" god long before I "left" Mormonism

There was never a time in my life, even as a very young child, that I fully believed in god. It never made sense to me and it never felt real.

I had plenty of questions in Sunday School and Primary classes. I dropped by the Bishop's office a few times to talk about dinosaurs and my baptism interview turned into a two hour seminar when I refused to accept that a part human being could also be "perfect." But these things were really just "academic" points to me, the kind of things you ask about in school when something doesn't make any sense. They never really touched on the issue of belief.

My own questions about belief were between "god" and me. Even though I was pretty sure there was nothing there, I gave it a try, prayed, pondered, wondered. Nothing. I held some late night monologues with any deity who might've been listening in. I gave it my best shot: the problem of suffering. "Look," I said, "if you can do something about this and you don't, well that's just screwed up. Sorry. End the war in Vietnam right now or you're not worth believing in even you don't exist."

Going to church was a social and cultural thing. Everyone went. There were not many non-Mormon families in my suburb and back then people cared a whole lot less about who attended all the time and who was "inactive." Everyone was Mormon. End of story.

Because of Mormonism's hegemony in Utah, my complete break with attending church took a little while longer. Finally, though, it was a matter of whether or not I wanted to associate with an institution that seemed as deeply racist and sexist as Mormonism. The racism was straight up disgusting. But the sexism? That crap was up in my grill every day. "Some day you'll meet the right man and you'll forget all about school. You'll realize that you don't really want to be an English professor, you just want to marry one." (actual quote)

This might be why my perspective is a bit different from some exmos. I was always half in/half out and never had the sense of total identification with the religion or culture that is part of many people's background. That doesn't mean there aren't parts of Utah/Mormon culture that I identify with---there most certainly are---but the whole business of "leaving" never played out for me with as much pain as it does for many.