It seems like every few weeks we hear about someone being called to a disciplinary court for apostasy for daring to speak out about their unbelief. Usually, the justification is that publicly questioning the church’s teachings causes others to lose faith and to doubt, thus we are leading people out of the church. Frequently, they claim we…
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Written in January, 2012: In December of 2011, my husband, Justin, and I respectfully resigned from our callings and stopped going to church. It’s been a long, tiring, enlightening process. I’ll start with the day that really got us going down this path. It was a Sunday in May or June of 2011. I got ready for…
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(or how do we know what we think we know) I am by no means a Philosopher, but I think it is crucial to address this topic here. It can get quite complicated, and people have spent lifetimes, written dissertations and countless books on this subject. But basically, what is needed is a reliable method to…
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The Church makes many specific claims about matters of history (both its own, and that of other peoples), the migration of people from one continent to another, the translation of ancient documents, etc. These are perfectly legitimate subjects to be examined using the tools and logic of Science. I do recognize that some claims the…
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The odds of you knowing of someone going through a faith crisis seem to be increasing. Perhaps that is because more people are going through faith crises. Perhaps the internet provides an avenue for those people to be more vocal about it. Or, perhaps it is a combination of both. In any event, you probably know someone struggling with…
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One of the hardest things to try to come to terms with — NOT knowing. Is there life after death? Will we see our loved ones again? It wasn’t as scary when I ‘knew’. When I had my head in the sand. Feeling these fears is part of exposing myself, part of being honest with…
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I’ve focused mostly on the Book of Mormon, since I accept that it is the keystone of the religion, just as Joseph Smith, Jr stated. The Book of Abraham and his other translations are close behind. Some of the other topics that have affected my testimony: Polygamous marriages of Joseph Smith, use of coercion, several…
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There is a real fear among the some faithful that questioning the veracity of the church or the Book of Mormon is a sure way to lose your soul to the devil. I think this mindset is at odds with the more central, key teaching of the LDS church, which is even taught as the…
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This essay was written in Fall 2012, during my investigation into my faith. Read about how I began to doubt in my post How I Lost my Faith by Defending it. Please see the table of contents to this series in the right sidebar, or if you prefer to see the full series in one…
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I was raised in a very loving family in Arizona. My parents were both raised as members of the LDS Church, and they decided to raise us, their kids, as Latter Day Saints as well. I was generally a good kid who tried to do what was right. I followed the faithful path outlined for…
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