The High Price of Freedom

Resigning your membership and taking your name off the church records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is no laughing matter. The price for this choice may be high. It also has the disadvantage that you may feel suddenly alone and alienated from your cultural roots. Many people are not prepared sufficiently to deal with this unexpected emotional void. The reason that I have made this choice is not due to insult or injury, not to rebel, but after much deliberate and conscience study I have discerned for myself that the LDS faith (nor any religion for that matter) is not for me.

I am free. Free as I have never been free before. I am now confident that those who remain close to me truly love me and not just because they are supposed to love me. Now there is nothing holding me back from determining my own destiny and finding my own path through life.

"To my mind, a kind of mild-to-severe schizophrenia results from trying to keep one foot in and one foot out of an authoritarian church or belief system. A person, like a nation, cannot long exist half-slave and half-free. If we nibble at the fruit of the tree of knowledge but still cling to the security of Authority, we are caught in the impossible position of trying to take a journey and stay home at the same time." - Hymns to an unknown God, p. 102, New York: Bantam Books

The church does not make it easy for members to leave. Its attitude is that it knows better than you do what you need to be saved and it wants to protect you against yourself.

Thank you for your “genuine” concern.

Most people believe that I am going through a phase, that I am bending to Satan’s temptations and that I am committing eternal suicide. To this I must say that I have not taken this decision lightly. I have wept many a night thinking of the possible relationships that could be lost because of this choice. I have been torn about staying true to family tradition and values. I respect my history and my family. I love them all dearly and am grateful for the experiences that I have with them. I do not wish for one moment to sever any relationships. What it comes down to is that I must be true to myself. I have studied church teachings and can no longer with honesty, integrity and respect for myself claim relationship with the church.

I have found that there are several basic issues of Mormon doctrine, history and practice, including:

--the historicity of the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham;

--the “translation” of the fraudulent Kinderhook Plates;

--the Masonic origins of the Mormon temple ceremony;

--the rewriting and altering of LDS Church history;

--the question of consistency within Mormon doctrines;

--the racist and sexist teachings of Mormon scripture; and

--the reversal and denial of official Mormon teachings

The more I have studied in these areas, the more I have developed an intellectual resistance to, and eventual disbelief in, bedrock Mormon claims.

I have started the process of resigning from the church – officially. I must free myself from this chapter in my life and allow myself to proceed with life anew. Hopefully in a few short months I can say…it's over, done, finis, schluss jetzt, end of story, that's all she wrote.

Praise to the man (or woman)

I was taught growing up that I should praise God for all the good that happened in my life. The bad that happened where lessons from God and all the in between was still attributed to God in some way or another that put him in the best light. Since this thought process had always been drilled into me, I thought it was normal. When I moved away from home I went through a time of great loneliness and I called on God to comfort me and I praised him when that loneliness went away. As I look back I can see that my de-conversion happened over the past 10 years. When I started working hard to figure out who I am and what I want in life, I started realizing that the good that came to my life was because of MY hard work or the help of other fellow humans, but what I still did for the longest time was continue to give the praise to God. I honestly went through phases, I tried for the longest time to push myself back into church and then I would feel empty again, then someone would reach out to me and get me involved again. I wanted that security that religion brought to me, after all it had been a part of my life since I could remember. I hadn't experienced patting myself on the back for my own accomplishments. Now, I am not trying to say that we as human beings shouldn't practice humility. What I am trying to get at is that when we accept that our choices are our own, that things happen in life because of those choices, then we start not only taking accountability for our own choices and consequences more, but we also start giving ourselves (and other people) the praise that it takes to step it up a notch a become truly happy. When I decided to leave the church, I started to take inventory of all the good that had happened in my life. I feel that I have accomplished a lot in my short life and I have (and do) experience an extreme amount of happiness. This happiness is due to learning from my mistakes, taking accountability and constantly challenging myself, working hard to attain the things in life that bring me joy. I am sorry, but I can no longer give praise to the man upstairs. I give that praise to myself and my fellow human beings. There is good out there and it is because of good people and their good works. Part of saying goodbye to God for me has been accepting and realizing the many PEOPLE and experiences that have influenced my life and made me who I am today. I wouldn't change any of my life experiences because they have made me who I am today and I love who I am ;).

Three Crucial Things You Must Know Before Challenging an Atheist

I came across this on the internet and found it relevant to my experience.

There are three categories of atheists:

1. Natural Atheists: Those brought up by atheist parents who never experienced the conflict between religion and rationality.

2. Apathetic Atheists: Those whose faith was not particularly strong and who, without a compelling drive to believe or not believe, defaulted to atheism – becoming an atheist involved very little internal debate and conflict.

3. Dissonant Atheists: Those who grew up with belief but who were overwhelmingly torn up over the incompatibility between faith and rationality. These people sought one thing – to rid themselves of the terrible cognitive dissonance cat #1 and #2 atheists are spared from.

I’m here to talk about category #3 atheists because, well, I am in that group.

Three Things You Must Know About Category #3 Atheists

1. We Sometimes Wish Were Wrong (Even Though We Know We Are Not): I think one of the biggest mistakes theists make is to assume an atheist’s decision to ditch god was arrived at without deeply studying the issue. They honestly believe that all they have to do is raise a little awareness and, viola, they will have an easy conversion. This is not the case for cat #3 atheists. For us, becoming an atheist was the biggest decision of our lives. After all, becoming an atheist, not only means (for 99.9% of us) getting rid of god, it also means abandoning the idea of immortality (ourselves and our loved ones) and that makes it a very, very big decision. Many of us go through a very real grieving process over all of this. With all this on the line, do you really think we’d only put a half-assed effort into our decision?

2. We’ve Heard It All Before: I’m amazed how often – in my time as an atheist – I’ve been challenged by someone who thinks they have the ultimate argument for religion. Trust me, you have nothing new to offer us on this discussion. Why am I so cocky (clue: see #1 above)? We’ve heard all your objections and questions before – probably many times before. Where have we heard them? We heard them inside our own heads during our de-conversion process. We’ve run the scenarios and questions many, many times – over and over – in our minds and, eventually, logic won out over these objections and we accepted reality. Most cat #3 atheists will have read multiple books on both sides of the argument, spend hundreds of hours on the web, and viewed countless Youtube debates (frankly, once you’ve seen Christopher Hitchens or Sam Harris demolish the likes of Dinesh D’Souza a few times, our own debates seem …rather lame). What you need to know is that by the time you come into the picture, your objections are not at all new to us.

3. You are Projecting: What we’ve come to realize about your questions and objections (e.g. “What’s the purpose of life without God?” and “Why be moral?”) is that you’re projecting your thoughts, insecurities and fears onto us. Sure, we can answer your questions but, we know in doing so that our worldview troubles you, and that you ask those questions to help you imagine what it might be like to be an atheist. My advice is to keep on asking these good questions, but to also make sure you ask them of yourself. I think you’ll find that you can imagine there’s no heaven. You may even find that it’s easy if you try.

To be blunt, what all this means is that you have very little hope of converting a cat #3 atheist to your religion (you probably won’t have much luck with a cat #1 either). Seriously, your best chance will be attempting to convert a cat #2 atheist, so you might want to start by asking a few questions before wasting time on the wrong category.

Now you have a better understanding of us. You also have a more specific target conversion market.

You’re welcome.

Story of deconversion

This story of deconversion is very well stated and compelling.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Evid3nc3#p/c/A0C3C1D163BE880A

What is God?

I recently stumbled on a review of a psychology study called Creating God In One’s Own Image. Here is a small exert from the review (since they state as good or better than I can); "For many religious people, the popular question “What would Jesus do?” is essentially the same as “What would I do?” Through a combination of surveys, psychological manipulation and brain-scanning, researchers found that when religious Americans try to infer the will of God they mainly draw on their own personal beliefs. They use their own beliefs as a starting point, which colors their final conclusions about what God wants.

Researchers even manipulated people to change their views on God by getting them to read a speech that either supported or went against their (and God’s) stated position. The task shifted people’s attitudes towards the position in their speech, either strengthening or moderating their original views, and altering their estimation about what God’s attitude was.

People may use religious agents as a moral compass, forming impressions and making decisions based on what they presume God as the ultimate moral authority would believe or want. The central feature of a compass, however, is that it points north no matter what direction a person is facing. This research suggests that, unlike an actual compass, inferences about God’s beliefs may instead point people further in whatever direction they are already facing. If the first link is too academic, here’s another link to an article about the research." I found this research quite intriguing. Almost in the same breath I stumbled on this documentary, Oh My God , which asks people from all walks of life, from celebrities, to the religious, to atheists and the common Man – the question – “What is God?” This documentary has beautiful imagery and brings up many interesting points from very diverse people. I would suggest watching it no matter what you believe, it adds different perspectives from all around the world. If anything, you find it interesting. What I got out of this documentary and reading this study is that God is whatever you want it to be. There is a huge spectrum of what people believe regarding God. As there is no evidence to prove or disprove any of these beliefs, one must come to the conclusion that either they are all right and God is all encompassing or they are all wrong and that he does not exist.

I personally love the variety and beauty that this question portrayed. Even though I feel that belief in a God is misguided on many levels, I can respect a person's right to base their life on a belief in God. I would prefer that those efforts would come together to gather proof of God's existence, imagine if all those efforts were combined to study science and our universe. What amazing things would we know by now?

Right now, if I ask myself the question "What is God?" my answer is that God is an excuse and crutch that people use to justify their actions. None of us can "know" with a surety that God exists. Ask yourself, What is God to me? Do I use my belief in God as a crutch? If God is something beautiful and sacred to you then do your belief system a favor and seek to disprove it through the scientific process. Doing this will either strengthen your beliefs or open your mind to other possibilities.

The Top 30 Atheist/Agnostic/Skeptic Blogs

I just found this list of Blogs that I thought might be helpful.

http://unreasonablefaith.com/2009/02/05/the-top-30-atheistagnostic-blogs/

I haven't read all of them, this is a list composed by another blogger. I have found that it is helpful to hear what other people have to say. So good luck and let me know if you like any particular blogs more than others.