It’s pretty common that ex-Mormons arrive at atheism as the best description of their belief in the supernatural. So common, that many LDS faithful feel the need to come up with a reason why.
Usually it’s some version of how losing the light of Christ blinds you to faith all together. But if you ask an ex-Mormon atheist how they got to that point. I bet they will tell you they feel like they were not faithless, but for the first time they began reasoning correctly.
You see the LDS faith I was taught included a very dear principle. The idea that the glory of God is intelligence. Rather than shirk from learning it’s typically encouraged that you use sense and reason. Especially when reasoning out the apostasy or false claims of other religions.
Personally I was always learning, I even took a college course on comparative Christian religions put on by the LDS institute that opened my eyes more than a little bit to the origins of various faiths.
I think that kept me pretty open minded to other faiths and their flaws. So I don’t think it’s abnormal that I believed the claims of Christianity nearly a year after leaving the church.
But it’s not because my LDS beliefs were so intertwined with Christianity that I eventually left that belief behind as well. The only thing that was intertwined was critical thinking.
Once you are honest enough to question the actual rational foundation your testimony was based on in Mormonism it’s natural to apply that same honesty to other beliefs too.
The fact is no religion stands up to critical, rational thinking. Every.single.one of them requires an active effort to be gullible.
They call it faith.
It was Dawkin’s “climbing mnt. Improbable” that led me to a materialistic end. We are evolved bi-pedal hominids. Period. The need to believe is explained very simply through our evolution. Once one comprehends our materialistic reality, can true love, appreciation and self actualization take place.
Exactly true.Well put.Once you start questioning Religion in all its forms you quickly realize how man made it all is and for me I am perfectly ok with there being no God at all as that truth makes the most sense answers a lot of questions and helps me to appreciate this life far more and if indeed at the end that’s all there is I am ok with that as well.