Questions and doubts

[The Ex-Mormon]

Should a member of a church have questions and doubts regarding the religion of ones own? Should this church member analyze his own church critically? May he or she doubt whether the heads of the church take the right decisions?
I would have answered these questions with a loudly clear "no" still until few days ago. No because the beginning of faith would already be in my eyes lead to apostasy. I am no longer so sure today.
And I have to thank Nickman for it. A former member of my church (LDS); this one did not encourage me to believe everything blindly.
And I start with a journey now, I do not know the end. And I would like to ask all of you for it to support me with your questions, suggestions and prayers.

[Furrowed Brow]

Should a member of a church have questions and doubts regarding the religion of ones own?

Yes.

Should this church member analyze his own church critically?

O yes.

May he or she doubt whether the heads of the church take the right decisions?

If they are not to be sheep then of course they must.

I would have answered these questions with a loudly clear "no" still until few days ago. No because the beginning of faith would already be in my eyes lead to apostasy.

Well I guess apostasy must look like a very bad thing to you.

I am no longer so sure today.

Thank heavens for that.

And I have to thank Nickman for it. A former member of my church (LDS); this one did not encourage me to believe everything blindly.
And I start with a journey now, I do not know the end.

Good luck. May your critical mind shine bright and not be dulled by the need to avoid honest answers to searching questions.

And I would like to ask all of you for it to support me with your questions, suggestions and prayers.

Running against everything I have just said I would offer a warning. Do you really in your heart feel it is worth running the risk of maybe irrevocably changing your relationship with your community and loved ones just to gain control of your critical faculties. Are you ready to run the risk of seeing your church in a different light? Just how fierce is your thirst for the truth? Are you really prepared to turn over every stone? Or do you need to confirm to yourself your church is ok?

Seriously. If you are happy with your life and your church and asking hard questions is not so urgent for you then do you really need to do this. A short time ago you admit you would have said "no" to asking questions that to anyone else should call for a resounding "yes". This is a big turnaround and requires a fresh psychology. Are you ready? What do you value most? the ability at ask hard question or the comort of belonging to your church.

I can't offer you prayers but I wish you well and hope you work it out for yourself.

[McCulloch]

Doubts must be suppressed. Thinking for yourself can only lead to doubt or apostasy. Trust and obey, there is no other way! Isn't there some reason why the faithful are described as sheep? Be a sheep, that's apparently what God wants.

[connermt]

Should a member of a church have questions and doubts regarding the religion of ones own? Should this church member analyze his own church critically? May he or she doubt whether the heads of the church take the right decisions?
I would have answered these questions with a loudly clear "no" still until few days ago. No because the beginning of faith would already be in my eyes lead to apostasy. I am no longer so sure today.
And I have to thank Nickman for it. A former member of my church (LDS); this one did not encourage me to believe everything blindly.
And I start with a journey now, I do not know the end. And I would like to ask all of you for it to support me with your questions, suggestions and prayers.

Everything that has the potential to affect you and your family directly should be questioned. Otherwise, you're simply being led by 'who knows who'!
The church likes to say they like independent thinkers and answering questions. And they do, but only in as much as it leads you back to the church. Any independent thinking that could lead you from their money hungry, power controlling hands is frowned upon. History shows this to be true of TRCC and history being made today shows the same thing.

Blind belief/faith is a dangerous thing to undertake.

If you're questioning christianity, I would suggest to go as far away from anything "christian" as you can. Only then will you be able to see fully.

[thepandemicson]

This is about the same way I came to become an agnostic. I feel it is very important to be able to break away and look at your beliefs from a fresh perspective.

One of the hardest things to do when it comes to Christianity and similar religions is to be able to question it. Most churches I've been to vehemently reject open thinking like this, embracing instead the act of blindly following ancient scripture that may have been tampered with by people in power over the centuries. Often times, such thinking is thought of as heretical and leading to doubt, which could weaken one's relationship with the church, and therefore God. After all, if the bible is the absolute truth it claims to be, then to question it is to question the word of God.

If one has been taught all his or her life that this is the case and that doubting the word eventually leads to hell, well, then one would be afraid to even think about pursuing this line of thinking, as I was so many years ago.

I think that this threat of hell was instilled by people who wanted control. People who wanted followers to be so afraid of a damnable alternative that they planted a fail-safe to keep religious followers in the throes of their control. This may not necessarily be the case with all religious leaders, but I can think of some who certainly feel entitled to push for power in this manner.

If God exists, and I think he/she/it does in some way, then I don't believe that God would begrudge a child who wants to know more. I think of God as an artist. I think that God likes the diversity of religious belief and philosophy that exists in the world, and would never treat heaven as a club that one needs a special pass to get into.


On a side note, a word of caution. If you pursue this idea openly, be prepared for the possibility of being rejected from your church, and from your friends. You never know some people as well as you think you do, and you may find yourself ostracized from them for radical thinking. Very few people I grew up with kept in contact with me after learning about the sort of man I turned out to be.

[playhavock]

Should a member of a church have questions and doubts regarding the religion of ones own? Should this church member analyze his own church critically? May he or she doubt whether the heads of the church take the right decisions?
I would have answered these questions with a loudly clear "no" still until few days ago. No because the beginning of faith would already be in my eyes lead to apostasy. I am no longer so sure today.
And I have to thank Nickman for it. A former member of my church (LDS); this one did not encourage me to believe everything blindly.
And I start with a journey now, I do not know the end. And I would like to ask all of you for it to support me with your questions, suggestions and prayers.

I do think you should ask questions. More so if people are telling you to not ask questions.

This is how I thought about it when I started my search (outside of my faith) for truth and fact, I thought to myself "Self, if I have the real reality, then I will find plenty of facts and suport for it outside of those who belive that this is true and thus would be biasied to it being true, so if we HAVE the truth, then I should not fear any truth that I find." If you can bring yourself to a point where you are honestly looking outside your own faith/relgion for answers, looking at other relgions, other ideas, other philopicys, science, logic, and so on - you have allready grown as a human. If we can not change, we can not grow. If you do indeed have the truth, then there should be things you can find that will show that it is true - but of course "outside" the relgion/faith - for clearly, those in it will contune to say it is true, where as those outside might have a difernet view point.

Asking critical questions is very healthy to do.

Why do I think this is true?
Can this be demestrated to be true?
Who does not think this is true?
Why do they not think it is true?

Remember the most inproant thing when searching for the truth is something that took me awhile to learn, so although I share the words with you now, I suspect it might take awhile for you to accept them:

Whatever is true is true regardless of how we feel about it, if we want it to be true, if we knew it was true, or we want to deny that it is true - it is still true.

I hope this helps in some small way. Anything I can do to help you learn about logic that is what is known as "infomral logic" please pm me I am a former christan and if you ever feel bad during any process of learning , I can be there for you as a human that has been though that emotional process without judgement or anything of that sort.

Peace.

[The Ex-Mormon]

Doubts must be suppressed. Thinking for yourself can only lead to doubt or apostasy. Trust and obey, there is no other way! Isn't there some reason why the faithful are described as sheep? Be a sheep, that's apparently what God wants.

By this experience I am just going. I have always believed what the church had taught. It was like the commandments of God who are chiseled into stone panels for me.
At my critical analysis of the church I had also because of the language barriers; primarily German-speaking internet pages gone. Some of these sides were made by Christians, others from atheists or heterodox operated. I have on three topics limited myself for the time being:

The first vision
The BoM
Joseph Smith (his life and his prophecies)

The topic of the first vision almost is completed. And what I had found out has made me furious, really furious! The LDS lies to their members. The LDS lies to me. Everything at the first vision is a lie and presumable of Joseph Smith invented to be able to sell the BoM better. Not only, that Smith claimed to have seen only angel, then again God or Jesus Christ once; no, he wants even a "green man" (clothed in green?) have seen. Smith went to the church of the Methodists to 1828; and his mother mentioned in a letter to her brother the BoM but not the first vision. And did not give 1820 any religious revival movement but first in his residential area winter/spring in 1920 (spring according to the statements of Joseph Smith) but at winter/spring 1923/24. Moreover, Oliver Cowdery, one of the three witnesses to the BoM, said that Smith was 17 years old, and not 14 or 15, how Smith claimed.

[McCulloch]

By this experience I am just going.

See what I mean? You have started to think. Thinking is dangerous to faith. If you want to remain faithful, you have got to rein in your thinking. Only think along the prescribed pathways. Veer not to the left or to the right. You have been warned.

[The Ex-Mormon]

You have started to think. Thinking is dangerous to faith. If you want to remain faithful, you have got to rein in your thinking. Only think along the prescribed pathways. Veer not to the left or to the right. You have been warned.

What would have been the alternative? Far a stupid obedient sheep, instead of being a person thinking critically?Give money, time and energy further for a church which lies and abuses (see Mitt Romney and this one unofficial influence of the church which I suspect) public and members? Work according to the LDS, instead of living?
I tell you this:

If the LDS has lied, deceived and cover-up things in their history and doctrines, I will leave this church if my further checks yield, that. I know which price I have to pay for this. But I am ready for it. Because I would like to be able to look at my face in the mirror every day; without having to spit out in front of myself.

[Nickman]

The part that upset me the most after I searched and came to the conclusion that the church was not true, was the 50000 dollars in tithing I gave the church over my time as a member. I can never get that back. I also cannot get all those moments I spent in sunday school, sacrament, and the temple. I could have been spending my time as an independant mind. Instead I was a mindless nobody lost in the multitude of blind believers. I realize now I was just another number and asset to which I blindly forked over thousands of dollars, so the Church could build a damned shopping mall. The good part is I can at least visit the mall I helped build. The bad part, I still have to buy stuff at the mall. A mall I helped build.