I like to think I do, but again, I'm so unsure....

I do. I left TSCC and I am now a Christian. It's what works for me.

I've spent twenty years in the ELCA Lutheran church, although I'm currently taking a sabbatical from organized religion. (no pun meant, haha) This is because the pastor I loved was forced out of my longtime congregation by a pack of ugly-hearted assholes like I used to encounter in RLDS congregations. Right now I want nothing to do with "churchgoing" people so I'm out of the game.

I really don't know if I have a testimony anymore. I still contribute to charity through payroll deduction and I'll never stop doing that even if I never go to church again. But if there really is a God and if Jesus is real, I think they must be rightfully appalled at the way they are represented on earth.

Completely agree.

Thinking about the organized religion thing, I suddenly realized that I actually give more than 10% now!

I get to choose when and how I donate and lo and behold, I am more generous when left alone than I was when I was "required" to demonstrate generosity by giving what they said I had to give.

Not a voluntary contribution and compelling a person is not helpful to the developing of real compassion.


Kathleen Waters

I do.

I do! :)

I consider this a relationship like any other. There are days when I feel more strongly than others. Love is like that:)

RMM

I have a testimony of Carl Sagan, and Demon-Haunted World is scripture.

I agree with Sam Harris that "spirituality" is an innate, complex, not understood, intricately evolved instinct, but 100% neurological.

"Jesus" is in your head. I believe in Jesus all right. I believe he is a powerful tradition, a sociological phenomenon, a historical enigma, a marketable brand, and an excuse.

John Dehlin explores this idea a lot and what it means for new order mormons, mormons who are faking it to make it, and ex-mormons. I suggest checking out some of his podocasts.

http://mormonstories.org/


I don't know what I believe. For example, I like to look at all the lights and feel the magic at Christmas, that is when I'm not sick of all the commercialism.

this one below specifically talks about issues people have when they leave the LDS church and why many of us find it so difficult to go to other religions

http://mormonstories.org/pastor-don-mackenzie-on-progressive-christianity/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2014 03:54PM by nationalnewscampaign.

The whole concept of having a "testimony" is only one trick from a whole library of Mormon brainwashing techniques. I respect people who believe in jesus and who are sincere about it. I am very suspicious of anyone who claims to have any kind of testimony about anything that can't be taken seriously in a court of law. When you leave mormonism, you need to learn to leave behind the Mormon paradigms as well. As long as you operate within their paradigms, they still own a part of you. So no, I don't have a testimony of Jesus. But I have faith, a rare element in mormon practices.

Well said. I have similar thoughts about faith and testimonies, and I reserve my faith for what's really important.

Yes I do.
But the Mormon church, like all religious organisations is a lie and irrelevance.
At least that is how I see it.

No. I do not even have a belief. The farce of mormondom robbed me of the ability to suspend disbelief. From time to time I long for the life of faith I had in my early years as a protestant and cannot see a way to regain it. For this reason I despise The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, its scriptures, prophets and teachings. I think I'll go visit a temple and piss on a corner stone and then wash my feet against them. I guess I'm angry today because they took the joy of Easter away from me. I didn't mind Christmas so much, but Easter used to be important to me. My testimony of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord was my most precious bit of knowledge but when my eyes opened about Mormonism, they open on Christianity as well. Good job, Joseph!

Not sure what I beleive. I believe I am towing the line between agnostic and atheist.

I do believe in and follow Jesus. I love the relationship I have with God.

I don't believe in resurrection or ghosts.

I was a protestant before I briefly joined the LDS church. After I left TSCC, I lost my faith in God. I tried going to Catholic Mass, Unity church, back to the Protestant church (PCUSA) and to be honest, I wish I believed in God. I'm spiritually hurt and the only reason I went to the Presbyterian church this morning was to listen to Handel's Hallelujah.
I wish I still believed in God. I would be so much happier. My love of Christianity (before I briefly joined the LDS church) made me so happy. I was not a 100% believer but I took whatever would work for me and other people did the same. The first time I heard about "Believe or else" was at TSCC. And this has hurt me so bad. The way I was treated and even worse when I left has stripped me of faith in God.
I basically feel the same way as "FormerRLDS" describes, above and to quote him, "...if there really is a God and if Jesus is real, I think they must be rightfully appalled at the way they are represented on earth." Very well said.

I do!

I do too. I was agnostic/atheist for many years before believing again. Now I consider myself non-denominational.

hikergrl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I do too. I was agnostic/atheist for many years
> before believing again. Now I consider myself
> non-denominational.

Wow, how do you do that? I can't imagine my beliefs ever going in that direction again.

I believe that he existed and that he was a powerful teacher of spirituality. I don't believe in the miracles ascribed to him. But I can appreciate those stories as a powerful human impulse toward the divine.

I don't believe in Jesus in that I don't believe in Paul's doctrines of propitiation for sin to appease a wrathful god by the shedding of innocent human blood. However, I do believe the teachings of Jesus -- his teachings of the love of God (which obviates the need for propitiation). When you can separate the gold from the dross, his teachings were the real deal.

Yes, I do. But it's private and personal, and not manipulated by
people in high religious office who tweak the "rules" to suit their own purposes.

Can't you at least test the words of NT?
Nobody's ever moving mountains, healing sick, turning water into wine. It is a total farce. What will take you to shake this nonsensical faith, which is so obviously as farcical as Mormonism is.

Unfortunately, as I learned about the farce that is the tscc, I realized that many of the logical fallacies of tscc applied equally well to religion in general and Christianity in particular. I really want to believe in Jesus, but I'm still trying to sort out what I truly believe and I'm afraid that the trajectory I am on will ultimately lead to atheism. I'm not saying there is anything inherently wrong with atheism. It's just that after spending most of my life believing I could be with my family for eternity, the cold reality of our ephemeral existence is less satisfying to me.

As a TBM, I used to believe in Jesus and his divinity, but then I read and studied the Bible and its origins. So much for believing in Jesus. At one time, believed that the Old Testament clearly testified of Jesus and then I read Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason", where the author used the Bible (OT) to disprove the Bible. Then I found D.M. Murdock's book, "Who Was Jesus?" and found out about the many stories so very similar to the Jesus story that is found in so many cultures long before the Biblical Jesus. So, I no longer believe in the myth of Jesus.

I strive to be an authentic and credible disciple of Yeshua.

As my wife heads off to Catholic mass on Sundays I often smilingly say "say Hi to Jesus for me." She's yet to come home with a reciprocal message.

I do.

For those who do, does it matter?

I'm a very strong atheist. I don't see any reason for any god and that god(s) in the Bible do(es)n't make sense to me, but I can see where people can disagree with that.

However, for those who are theists, what makes a difference? If people work hard to live a moral life, does it matter if what they believe?

From the view point of the other side, if your god demands a believe in them in order for an eternal reward, then that god is an @ssh0le, IMHO and I'll take my eternity in the fire.

If that god rewards good people and punishes bad ones regardless of belief, then I'll stand the same chances as someone who goes to church every Sunday.

Those need not necessarily be the only options. There is also the concept of progression: that everyone is (morally or spiritually) some distance away from the ideal, and that acting morally and/or engaging in spiritual activities can help us to gradually become purified and reach the ideal by the grace of God. Variations of this doctrine are accepted in certain faith traditions. Those rooted in the Vedic tradition of ancient India (which include Hinduism and the Hare Krishna faith) also accept the idea of reincarnation until salvation, where each birth offers an opportunity to progress forward and come closer to the ideal.

According to this worldview, God does reward and punish regardless of belief, but God also rewards belief. True belief (which, from the Hare Krishna faith perspective, manifests as selfless pure love of God and His creation) as well as right action (which would naturally be engaged in when pure love of God develops) may qualify one as having reached the ideal.

So, if you're an atheist who is otherwise a good person, or if you're a believer who is still imperfect, then you may be making progress, but you've still got some more advancement to go. You would stand not necessarily stand the same chances as anyone else, because your circumstances are unique and the advancement you have made may differ from that made by others. But in the sense that everyone has the opportunity to enter into the Kingdom of God, yes, you'd have the same chance as anyone else. That said, how long you would take to get there could be quite different for how long it might take for someone else who is advancing more quickly or more slowly. Naturally you might want to get there faster by choosing the right. :-)

That's a different way to look at things.

The big mistake is stopping your progress when you've reached the kingdom of god of which you speak. But it's a good starting point.

No. He was a great teacher, but nothing more. The story of a resurrected man is not original to Jesus Christ.

I don't know what I believe any more.
I'm working on it, but I can't imagine joining any kind of organized religion at this point.

I do, I was BIC in Mormonism, but I hated, always hated and ashamed of being a Mormon. I'm not what you call a born again or a jesus freak, But I have a belief in god jesus. It works for me.

No and I never did, I just thought I did because that's what people raised in a christian context think.