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Goodbye Jesus

Thank You, Mormons, For Opening My Eyes


GomerPyle

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If I'm going to worship anything, it'll be my wife's glorious ass. At least I know that's real.

 

Greatest coda of a post, ever. Welcome to ex-C!

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Excellent post, and a classic screen name.

 

It appears you're in good shape, likely better than good.

 

What do you spend your free time with?

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Excellent post, and a classic screen name.

 

It appears you're in good shape, likely better than good.

 

What do you spend your free time with?

Thank you! I like to spend my free time with my wife, taking drives in the country, or playing sports with friends.

 

One thing that was amazing was when we stopped going to church, what a relief it was just to not have the pressure of committing to half a day on the weekends. Toward the end we were Christmas and Easter only, but I've managed to avoid those for the past couple of years. On Easter I surprised my wife with a weekend getaway, which she was only too happy to accept rather than attending another boring church service. Now that she knows my feelings, she doesn't bother asking to go to church anymore.

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Welcome. Glad to have you with us!

 

 

The strange thing is, I no longer fear death.

 

That was the last step for me in my deconversion. i'll never forget that intense surge of joy at being free.

 

 

I sure as hell am not gonna waste any of the precious time I have left in this life trying to please or worship something imaginary.

 

Any god worthy of love would neither want nor need worship. Bruce Gerencser also deconverted in his 50s. I like reading his articles.

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Yeah, me too. I quit worrying about death after de-converting. Funny how Xianity is suppose to take the fear out of death but generally does just the opposite. That is probably so because Xians can never know for sure if they're saved because the Bible is ambiguous about how anyone gets saved or stays saved. Xianity is the ultimate catch 22.

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Pyle!!!

 

A former coworker of mine wrote this after doing a personal historical research on Smith. Not really sure how he became obsessed with Smith as he's from the Washington DC area (not Utah or Idaho) and is an atheist.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Smith-Origins-Mormon-Edition/dp/078640826X

 

Welcome to the board Gomer. 

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Pyle!!!

 

A former coworker of mine wrote this after doing a personal historical research on Smith. Not really sure how he became obsessed with Smith as he's from the Washington DC area (not Utah or Idaho) and is an atheist.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Smith-Origins-Mormon-Edition/dp/078640826X

 

Welcome to the board Gomer.

 

Shazam! I wish I had included some "goooollies" and "shazams" in my story!

 

Also I forgot to thank all of you on this board for being here. You might not realize how much you help the lurkers!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! (In Gomer voice)

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Isn't it weird when you grow up in a religion that you take all the crazy stories for granted?  Talking snake!  Manna from heaven!  Four horsemen of the apocalypse, eternal torment because you didn't say, "I accept you, Jesus!"!  OMG, those are hysterical now!

 

And as a protestant, I reverently drank my little tiny cup of grape juice and ate my tiny piece of bread (holding onto them so we could do it as a GROUP!), and pondered how jesus had died for us!!!  

 

And isn't it glorious having that whole half a day back to enjoy freely??!!??

 

I used to be very involved in church, teaching sunday school, being a deacon, being in various womens' groups.  Gad, all that time I gave them!  I haven't been to church in at least 10 years, and I don't miss it one bit.  I can't even imagine going back now that I'm a complete non-believer (I had always questioned, but always gave religion the benefit of the doubt, but I finally had my questions answered and I am DONE!); I couldn't bear to listen to the blahblahblah of what a sinner I am that needs god just to get through my day.  I get through my days just fine, thank you!

 

My ex-husband and I did raise our kids in the church, but I'm happy to say that they are both now non-believers.  They're in their early 20's, and realized much earlier than I did that the church stories were crazy!

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Isn't it weird when you grow up in a religion that you take all the crazy stories for granted?  Talking snake!  Manna from heaven!  Four horsemen of the apocalypse, eternal torment because you didn't say, "I accept you, Jesus!"!  OMG, those are hysterical now!

 

And as a protestant, I reverently drank my little tiny cup of grape juice and ate my tiny piece of bread (holding onto them so we could do it as a GROUP!), and pondered how jesus had died for us!!!  

 

And isn't it glorious having that whole half a day back to enjoy freely??!!??

 

I used to be very involved in church, teaching sunday school, being a deacon, being in various womens' groups.  Gad, all that time I gave them!  I haven't been to church in at least 10 years, and I don't miss it one bit.  I can't even imagine going back now that I'm a complete non-believer (I had always questioned, but always gave religion the benefit of the doubt, but I finally had my questions answered and I am DONE!); I couldn't bear to listen to the blahblahblah of what a sinner I am that needs god just to get through my day.  I get through my days just fine, thank you!

 

My ex-husband and I did raise our kids in the church, but I'm happy to say that they are both now non-believers.  They're in their early 20's, and realized much earlier than I did that the church stories were crazy!

Same story with my kids. It is ironic how parents want their kids to be exposed to religion so that they will have good morals or at least be scared into being decent people. How long do you think religion would last if people had to be over 18 before being exposed to it?

 

Another change that happened to me was the almost complete elimination of guilt. I'm not doing anything differently than when I was a Christian, but now there is not the slightest sign of guilt. If I was actually doing something wrong, it would be different, but the fact that no one is monitoring my thoughts eliminates the guilt over my private thoughts, which I believe accounts for most guilt in believers.

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Hi Gomer! Welcome to Ex-C.  I'm glad you found the place!

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Love the end statement. :)

 

Yeah, I was thinking about death as well...and your statement is along the lines of what Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) said about death, that he didn't exist before...and won't exist after.

 

Pretty much.

 

We make the best of what we have here and then when that time comes, it comes.

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Mormons deconverted us too! We watched a video sent from a brother-in-law that was Julia Sweeney in which she talks for a bit about some young Mormon missionaries. He was implying how stupid they were. I had the exact same thought as you did and went from fully committed, 100% dedicated xtian to total atheist in about 4 weeks. My wife took about 4 months but thankfully we are both happier and more in love than ever before, over 3 years later.

 

I'm still shocked at the suddenness of our deconversion but I'm a "no bullshit" kind of guy. If something is wrong - it's wrong and I don't mess around trying to make it "right". The wealth of evidence against what billions of people believe is scary. It's scary that so many humans can be so fucking scared and blind to the idiocy of religious belief. Hopefully in a few thousand years we've learned our lesson but somehow I doubt it. We're too scared that we are essentially meaningless in this universe. We want to be "special".

 

Welcome to ex-c!

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Mormons deconverted us too! We watched a video sent from a brother-in-law that was Julia Sweeney in which she talks for a bit about some young Mormon missionaries. He was implying how stupid they were. I had the exact same thought as you did and went from fully committed, 100% dedicated xtian to total atheist in about 4 weeks. My wife took about 4 months but thankfully we are both happier and more in love than ever before, over 3 years later.

I'm still shocked at the suddenness of our deconversion but I'm a "no bullshit" kind of guy. If something is wrong - it's wrong and I don't mess around trying to make it "right". The wealth of evidence against what billions of people believe is scary. It's scary that so many humans can be so fucking scared and blind to the idiocy of religious belief. Hopefully in a few thousand years we've learned our lesson but somehow I doubt it. We're too scared that we are essentially meaningless in this universe. We want to be "special".

Welcome to ex-c!

Yes! How could I forget the Julia Sweeney film "Letting Go of God"? That was a HUUUGE turning point for me, a real eye-opener. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it!

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Surprise, surprise, surprise! ;) Discovering that what we've believed all our lives isn't actually true is quite surprising, isn't it?

 

Anyway, welcome, Gomer! It's great to have you here. Enjoy the journey ahead of you....

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i wonder if youtube has letting go of God.

youtube has a hell of alot of mormon movies lol

the polygamy cults are awful how they treat women.

they probally got the idea from the old teatament

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i wonder if youtube has letting go of God.

youtube has a hell of alot of mormon movies lol

the polygamy cults are awful how they treat women.

they probally got the idea from the old teatament

I actually had to buy it from Julia sweeneys website for 5 bucks, but I see that it is on YouTube here:

 

http://youtu.be/xTvx_QA6gIc

 

It's better to see her performance rather just audio, though.

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i wonder if youtube has letting go of God.

youtube has a hell of alot of mormon movies lol

the polygamy cults are awful how they treat women.

they probally got the idea from the old teatament

I actually had to buy it from Julia sweeneys website for 5 bucks, but I see that it is on YouTube here:http://youtu.be/xTvx_QA6gIc

It's better to see her performance rather just audio, though.

Forget the above link. This is the actual film:

 

http://youtu.be/KiU5ht5W_lk

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There are millions of religions and Gods in this world, but don't worry... yours is the correct one! Wendycrazy.gif

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A side comment: Mark Twain said "I never understood polygamy. Now that I've been to Salt Lake and seen Mormon women, I understand it even less."

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