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Allow me to introduce myself. Life member. Ancestry crossed the planes. I started having questions about 20 years ago. Just before my mission. I asked the stake president in my mission interview where the dinosaurs fit into Gods plan and where did they come from. He gave me some answer about the dinosaurs bones coming from other planets when the earth was pieced together. The answer didn’t set well with me because of the evidence we have showing how the dinosaur bones where laid down in the sediment and not piece milled together. I put off my questions and went on my mission as a TBM. About eight years ago I had a life changing experience. Life got turned upside down. My whole world view changed and I looked at the world in one great whole. Instead of looking at the world from in side the Mormon box I had been living in I was forced to look into the Mormon box from the out side. I began reading books by Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins. I read about Einstein and his discoveries. I began searching the internet to learn more about the Mormon faith I belonged to. I came across blogs and forums. I liked listening to a pod cast called Mormon stories. I also came across the New Order Mormon website. I posted a couple of times there but it just didn’t seem to fit me. I didn’t believe the truth clams of the church any more but I still wanted to stay a member. Eight years later I am still here in the church. Going strong, holding callings and paying tithing. I still get frustrated at times because I feel members and the church leadership are so closed minded to so many things. I cant get to upset because I was in their shoes once. Thanks for listening and being here. Welcome! I also heard that explanation about the dinosaur bones, it must have been popular back in the day. Your comments reminded me how I enjoyed reading “Mormon Scientist” because it showed me that good Mormons could take the attitude that the history of the earth is what it is, we don’t have to buck science, we don’t have to agree with everything any church leader has ever said.
Welcome. I hope you feel you can fit in here and share your perspectives. I’m not saying I think you don’t fit in, because I think you do as you are already managing to StayLDS. I am a member of the NOM board as well, but don’t participate there very often – I get what you mean there, some people are much farther outside the box than me and some are too negative for my liking. I heard that old dinosaur story, too, and also never really believed it but put in on a shelf. I think Mitt Romney did the church some service in running for president because I do think some people (both inside and outside the church) realized that one doesn’t have to believe the earth is 6000 years old and was created in 6 24-hour periods to be a believing Christian. My son came home from his first year at BYU thoroughly convinced that evolution is part of God’s plan, even to the point that one could not truly be LDS without understanding that.
I also had an experience where my whole world was turned upside down and inside out which led directly to where I am now with my rebuilt faith (construction is still underway). Like you, I also get frustrated at the closed mindedness and all of the things people seem to “know” in the church (when they really have no way of knowing any such thing – and if they know, why do they need faith?).
Yes logic tore down all my beliefs in the church. I currently think it is all made up. A fabrication of men. But I am Mormon by heritage and i still attend. Not sure why sometimes but I guess it is hard to break old habits Cadence, I think all religion is created by men. Some men who are very talented, charismatic, and imaginative. I think you could call that inspired. I find beauty in many religions. I don’t think the Mormon faith is any worse than any other religion. It to is my heritage. Even if I was not LDS I would still be Mormon. Its something a person just cant easily walk away from. Its why I think ex-members cant leave it alone. As so ‘eloquently’ put by some general authority. I like your avatar. What episode does Spock wear a beard?
Welcome. I am an analytical thinker, but, since I realized my analyses were giving me different answers than many around me at a very young age, it didn’t “tear down” anything as much as it allowed me to “build up” something uniquely my own instead.
It’s when you can shift from the tear down to the build up with full acceptance within yourself that the most powerful change occurs.
Ray, I agree. Its not so much that I have lost belief in something. Its more like I have gained belief in something else. kinglamoni wrote:Ray, I agree. Its not so much that I have lost belief in something. Its more like I have gained belief in something else.
Ya, as I put/putting my life back together. Understanding history in the bigger picture as to why people do and need certain things it becomes so much clearer then it ever was before. Rather then tearing down, it built up because you learn to recognize your own needs and why you(a person) does things. As well as what others need and why they do things. In short, understanding behinds to occur. What a person needs doesn’t need to be the same as others. And others doesn’t need to be the same as the persons.
You just told my story. Staying is difficult, but so is leaving.
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