DiscussMormonism.com

Not original to me but I read a blog that said exmos's often turned to no god /atheism because the morg teaches the eternal nature of matter - so when existence of matter has no god to create it, then one can take god out of the religion equation and simply believe big bang, evolution, survival of the fittest and that is what many ex-mo's do even though they may not understand why they became godless.

by the way how can matter be outside some force that caused it- i believe in God and ex-nihlio?/from nothing did the Creator bring the universe into existence- i can take the big bang theory if God caused it.

anyone say why they became atheist for that or another reason?

k

Well, I obviously can't speak for other exmo's, but I will tell you this. Go to:

www.reddit.com/r/natureismetal

and

www.reddit.com/r/watchpeopledie

And that goes a long way to explain why I, as a person who has eyeballs, can come to the conclusion that we're no different than any other creature on this earth, and life itself is inherently meaningless unless you consider survival of the fittest, meanest, or most brutal is somehow meaningful beyond my current understanding of life.

- Doc

kairos wrote:Not original to me but I read a blog that said exmos's often turned to no god /atheism because the morg teaches the eternal nature of matter - so when existence of matter has no god to create it, then one can take god out of the religion equation and simply believe big bang, evolution, survival of the fittest and that is what many ex-mo's do even though they may not understand why they became godless.

by the way how can matter be outside some force that caused it- i believe in God and ex-nihlio?/from nothing did the Creator bring the universe into existence- i can take the big bang theory if God caused it.

anyone say why they became atheist for that or another reason?

k

It doesn't explain it for me. I just think that once one comes to realize they have been fed lies all ones life...nothing and I mean absolutely nothing is taken at face value any longer. Every claim dependent on super magical non existent powers is no longer credible to me.

Fool me once...

Water Dog wrote:Fool me once...

Yeah - that and I would imagine that atheism provides a soft spot to land in - and live in. But what do I know, I'm not an exM0 or an atheist.

Peace,
Ceeboo

I disagree that that the cause has anything to do with matter (or creation and evolution to start with).

1. The only true church on the face of the earth.
2. Every member a prophet.
3. Jesus is the Christ.
4. Avoid even the appearance of evil, the fear runs deep.

When 1 and 2 start to fall apart, I clung tightly on 3 and 4. Even breaking the indoctrination of wearing the G's took forever. The fear/waiting for the other shoe to drop (gospel of prosperity) took forever to fade, which allowed the doors to open for the study of things outside the church approved material.

After a while, 3 became as 1 where the failure of both, in combination with the study of outside material, becomes apparent.

If the almighty Mormon God falls, all gods eventually fall. Its a matter of bursting out of the indoctrinated world view.

duplicate

I think part of the reason is that the Church has a narrow view of Christianity. When one is taught the "Atonement theory", and the "Jesus's physical conception by Eloheim" among other things, one forgets that there are many Christians who are led more by Jesus's teachings about love, mercy, and sacrifice. I believe Unitarians can be good Christians, but most Mormons are more like the Baptists and other evangelical, "One Way" literalists. But, I could be wrong.

I can't find the statistics now, but from what I remember the lifetime statistics for Mormons are as follows:

70% remain LDS
15% become atheist/agnostic
15% switch to a different religion

This was a few years ago, so I have no idea if the numbers are the same now.

I think it seems like all become atheists because most in this neck of the woods or in the bloggernacle go that route. Since people tend to go to locations on the internet they agree with, and since you are here, you likely see most ex-Mos go atheist. I'm guessing if you went other places you would see more continue in some kind of faith.

You can see this when John Dehlin interviewed Sandra Tanner. He asked her why most ex-Mos are atheist. She replied that the ones she works with tend to stay religious. I believe both were making accurate observations and telling the truth, they are just observing different populations of ex-Mos.

I think this topic often comes up as a way of demeaning Mormonism, probably well-intentioned as a passive way of suggesting to the post-Mormon turned atheist that their atheist position is just an extension of their Mormon past. Which in turn is possibly intended to suggest there are still vestiges of Mormonism that should be shed to get to the real truth where one will discover the true God that Mormonism interferes with us knowing.

Perhaps there is more to it than this, but that's how it comes across to me. Worldviews being such a mixed bag of rationally obtained positions scattered liberally amongst the much more significant background of beliefs that are outside the scope of our reasoning minds to accurately and reasonably comprehend, I've moved on from caring about a person's particular worldview and am much more concerned with a person's degree of certitude regarding the preeminence theirs should take in the world, how a person tends to act when confronting information that is new or possibly contradictory to their worldview, and if it has implications beyond their own lives for society that I find concerning. Otherwise, I have promises to keep. And (hopefully) miles to go before I sleep.