My classes in philosophy and women's studies really broadened my worldview. I immediately realized that feminism and mormonism are not compatible. I looked at other religions and worldviews. They all seemed identical in that they all painted with broad strokes, relied on faith, had arbitrary rules, and made outrageous claims.

has anyone else found themselves in similar place?

Yes, during the last few years I have been self-studying philosophy, psychology, religious history, bible history and numerous other fields in order to find out what's outside of the Mormon box I was in. I didn't intend to become an atheist, but that happened. I feel liberated, of course. Religion has such a stranglehold on so many minds.

I also became socially liberal and politically progressive, a complete flip-flop from what I was before.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2014 06:57PM by rationalist01.

TSCC says you are over educated and you think too much.

Ain't that the truth.

It's like when I'm driving. I always drive at just the right speed. Anyone driving slower than me is an idiot, and anyone driving faster than me is a maniac.

Anyone smarter than them is an overeducated egghead; anyone dumber than them is suffering from a stupor of thought.

That's what a good education does -- it opens up your world. My classes in philosophy, religious studies, art history and more taught me a lot about how other people view things.

Yes. Law school helped me connect the dots. And I'm a prosecutor now so I'm the one who has the burden of proving up what I'm claiming with evidence. Of course my TBM in-laws think education ruined me. I guess I couldn't compartmentalize critical thinking when it came to the church. I know so many smart LDS lawyers who are able to do that and it's baffling to me.

Mormonism and education are compatible only to frauds and users.

I so agree. I love the endless and beautiful ways learning opens up life.

When attending the university, I walked into my first ever introduction to physics class. I was scared sh**less because I knew that my math education would be barely adequate, if I was lucky, to make it possible for me to squeak through this class, plus my first impression by glancing at the professor, was not a favorable one. If I had placed a bet on this guy having a dynamite way of presenting his subject, I would be washing dishes.

He LOVED physics, loved teaching and put his heart and soul into many fun visuals and experiments that accompanied his lectures. We class members were the lucky recipients who found physics was a brave new fascinating world. And, thanks to him, I passed the class. At this point, I was beginning to actually 'get' science. begin to love it, and later ended up majoring in anthropology.

It didn't take me long, with this type of a contrast, to dare to say with conviction and surety, what had begun to be more than speculation in my mind....The Book of Mormon is one of the most boring books I've ever tried to read. In fact, I find it to be pure torture. Church meetings are tied with the BofM in being boring and torturous. And, the church policy of censoring what you read, what you say and think, is pure nonsense. Plus, I was discovering over and over that I had been lied to. It didn't take me much longer to decide that anyone who wanted to take my place in church could have it, because I sure as hell had no use for it."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2014 08:22PM by presleynfactsrock.

Cultural anthropology did the trick for me! Taught by a TBM who didn't mention the Morg. Yet, rites of passage, taboos, etc were all there. Glad I went to college! The academic Boner.

when you start to study psychology, sociology or philosophy, you quickly see that mormonism is a bunch a crap.

Each time I see a black person or a black baby, I realize how much morminism is the sickiest christien religious movement in the whole planet. I prefer Catholics. How can God can say through his "prophets" that black people were less valient in the preexistence or that you're born in the covenant becuase you're more valient blablabla... Mormonism is based on a meritocratic system: the more you work and obey the cmds, the higher you go in the kingdom of God, but you need to be a while male, and not gay, otherwise, God will throw you out of his kingdom and tell you to go to Hell.

basic social psych and study of obedience, conformity, self-serving biases, confimation biases, fundamental attribution errors, stereotyping and subtyping....

I actually had a bishop who told me the other day not to worry if I quit and how it's all a belief and he just choses to believe. I found that refreshing. There is still hope for leadership guys.

Education opened my eyes too. Amen to that. I guess the right kind of education I guess. If you study engineering, there is a small chance you will understand that. But soft science, like the ones mentioned here are key to understand that Mormonism is screwed up

I know lots of engineers that were done with tssc after their education, including myself. If you apply the principles required of engineering to any religion, all religions fall apart. In the end it's all scientific method.

I think you may be referring to the fact conservative males are attracted to the engineering career fields because as a career it is high paying and is a very flexible.

BTW, I know more engineers who dropped tscc than social science majors, but I don't attribute it to education or career so much as I spend all day with engineers and that's the world I know.

Astronomy is another scientific field that will blow religion straight outta the water; thus, Carl Sagan.

Law school helped me to get out. After learning about evidence, and how to evaluate the strength of different claims, the church's teachings appeared to be nothing but baseless mythology.

I started having doubts by the end of my first year....then I learned about Joe's polyandry and the problems with the Book of Abraham. That sealed the deal.

Suddenly everything made sense when I realized that the church was a fraud (116 pages not being reproduced, Masonic temple rituals, lack of DNA or archeological evidence to support the BOM, priesthood ban, Joe's accusations of adultery, $Billions spent on the church's shopping mall, etc.).

Then I continued to learn even more troubling things that the church had hidden from me...

I started planning my exit strategy by my third year. I have now been out for a year, and recently "came out" to my family and in laws.


I figure that if law school could help me to reason my way out of the cult, then perhaps it was a worthwhile investment.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2014 11:56PM by magicrocks.

...Memories of my paleontology class at BYU also helped me to leave. That was the first time that I realized that Noah's ark was a fairy tale, as was the creation story. That was when I saw the indisputable fossil evidence for the evolution of human beings.

The last time I went to the temple, I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes when the temple workers were looking.

Do you think your professors were TBM's, or were they just playing along? I can't understand how some BYU professors can defend evolution, discuss pre-Adamites, etc..., and still be TBM's. I don't know for sure, but I had several professors at BYU that I would bet are just playing along.

See my screen name? 'Nuff said.

The kicker for me was when I read "Science and Mormonism." The author's tortured arguments as to how mormonism conformed with quantum physics and earth science were so nutty that I couldn't believe even Deseret Book would publish such crap. For an antidote, read Duwayne Anderson's book.

Just reading the New Testament all the way through was enough for my eyes to begin to open. "We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church." Yeah, right.

The more I read and understood the New Testament, the more contradictions I saw with not only Mormonism but within the text itself. More religious studies, history, etc... pretty soon I didn't know what to believe. And studying church history and hearing the idiotic, childish things said by the Lord's self-appointed sealed the deal.

How did the NT open your eyes? Every time I have an objection because something contradicts the bible, tbm always says: that's part of the bible that we think wasn't translated correctly.

One of the problems, a scripture that says (paraphrase) that in heaven there would be neither marriage nor giving in marriage. TBM's response: that means that if you're not married before then, you won't have another chance. You're stuck in the same state that you were when you got there.

Okay, then what about Paul, who wasn't married and said that he wishes that everyone would be like him? TBM: Well, Paul was married BEFORE he said that and was a widower. He didn't want people to get married AGAIN.

So, I'm curious how you reconciled all of that?

That was an odd response to the scripture about neither marrying nor being given in marriage after the resurrection.

I went back and read the verses leading up to that section which said that Jesus had been asked what if if a woman had married and then her husband had died and she was given to her husband's brother in marriage, and (repeat x6 more brothers) - which man would she be married to in the resurrection.

AND THEN Jesus had said that they had misunderstood because there was no marriage etc. So not only was she married, but was legally married SEVEN TIMES IN THIS LIFE. There was no mention by Jesus that she was not PROPERLY married. His point was just that there was no marriage in heaven.

I've studies Philosophy, Sociology and Cultural anthropology at college. I can't say it was the main force behind my apostasy, it was actually Church history, but I think my education was a vital piece in the process that moved all the other pieces to their places.

In my first semester at Arizona State University I was in a religious course and was assigned to read Malcolm X. It wasn't even about Mormonism but was a subject that struck hard at theology within Mormonism.

I was already questioning Mormonism at the time but that class and that book started to open my eyes.