Im a mormon (page 3)

Aussie Oz

Sounds to me that you may be using religion as a crutch too.

You can achieve the same results, ie; health, weight loss, self esteem etc by learning coping techniques for whatever triggers you.

Coming from a JW background i'm not at all surprised you couldn't find a conventional church to fit, so you found the next best thing, one almost like the JWs. Leaving them, i wouldn't be at all surprised to find you with the seventh day adventists or Christadelphians either.

You are looking for a warm fuzzy familiar feeling from religion.

You won't find it. Good on you for looking for answers...you are just looking in the wrong places.

Oz

free2beme

Of course, my first thought is. Have you married several woman and if so, how is a marriage threesome. In all seriousness though, going from JW to Mormon is like jumping from one pile of crap to another, only because the corn was a little more noticable and not as digested.

AvocadoJake

The Mormon system of belief must be helping, if you have stopped drinking, lost weight, they must be doing something right. With the newness of being a Mormon newbie coming to an end, are you not receiving the accolades and attention the new recruits are use to? You said, you are at a turning point, is the desire to drink coming back? For "leavingWt", I don't think a book written by anyone, is going to help someone who is use to self medicating with alchoholic beverages or chasing the religion de jour. She or He who does not take their medications (I know they make you feel dead, rob you of creative energy, or add weight gain with perpetual feelings of fatigue.) will not behave in a rational manner, but what is rational? Have you tried Cognitive Therapy, if so, did it help you at all? Those who use alchohol to deal with bi-polar and hypo-mania, schizophrenia end up very badly.

Karl Marx wrote:

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. "

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo."

dogisgod

You know what? there are many kinds of meds and many different levels of being bi-polar. I have had problems with depression and so I do take anti depression meds. They totally even me out. When I have stopped for what ever reason my feelings become really...I don't know...elliptical. I HAVE TO TAKE THEM and I know it. I know a lot of people who are bi-polar. Some are dilusional which involve really strong meds. there are side effects but I personally SEE with them that their lives are better functioning than without. they just don't realize it because they are so chemically imbalanced. the crazy becomes their norm. Personally if you are truely bi-polar (probably not have been most of your life) there are many different modalities to look at. I think the last one or even don't put it on the list would be to be involved in religion. that can really throw you off... for ever. I don't know how old you are or when you were diagnosed but it's not the end of the world. It's just another thing to deal with...like having to wear glasses to see. You want to wander around blind because you refuse to accept you cant see? It's your choice but just go slow and gather information. Invest and advocate in yourself.

dm6

Hi Ding, i was waiting to see your post pop up, the intelligent wise man that you are. Very nicely worded post i must say.

I have had several Mormon missionaries come to my home and tell me that they expect to be gods of their own planets some day.

lol this line did make me chuckle also.

jonathan dough

I started out in a christian church which i really liked but i didnt understand the jesus as god thing/trinity.

You jumped from one cult to another. Mormons are as crazy as JWs in their theology; truly amazing heresy.

The Trinity and the Jesus as God thing you speak of should not trip you up because it is easy to understand, sort of, and is very logical. Really. 2 billion Christians aren't wrong on this. Just take your time and read it through and think about it. It's logical and scriptural, and it is reasonable for believers to have faith in the trinity. The problem is that you have been mislead into believing what the trinity doctrine teaches; greatly mislead. Throw away the lies and it will start to fall into place.

It is all right here:

http://144000.110mb.com/trinity/index.html

designs

2 Billion christians are wrong godrulz, ask a Rabbi what 'One God' means, it is different from what the RCC defines 'one god' to mean.

Revisionists ssssshh.

Found Sheep

As said therapy, read Steven Hassen....

I knew a JW that was raised Mormon. I guess if you don't get the cult program out of you it's easy to run from one to the other

Good luck in your quest in life

FS

Qcmbr

Hi Deserving - I'm LDS but an atheist.

I think you could do with looking at this pragmatically. It sounds like you had a very turbulent life until you converted. Seems like you now have a lot better prospects ahead. If you can stomach the dogma but you are seeing positive benefits in your life that you may lose if you stop going then maybe you need to keep going - for a little while - and this site will be of great support and use to you:http://forum.newordermormon.org/ I used to post there as TracerBullet.

If you want to know why the Mormons are not correct from a purely LDS pov (i.e. not even addressing whether xianity itself is founded on any kind of truth) then this is an excellent comparison of what you will be taught and what the real history is: http://mormonthink.com/

If you want to go even further down the rabbit hole then stay here and watch some of the debates and you can hopefully make a more informed decision regarding brands of faith, atheism and a more nuanced agnosticism. Stuff that - stay here anyway :)

As for medical stuff - always seek medical professionals and don't be afraid of medicine. My only advice is be self aware enough not to make life changing decisons when at an extreme point and if you can't trust yourself not to, get a great friend who can sit through tough days. In many ways the LDS church will be able to help here (as long as guilt , worthiness and the costs of a calling aren't triggers!)

The warm fuzzy feeling needs addressing but indulge me as I set the scene. I was as converted as I could be , served a mission, gave tear inducing talks that people would come and thank me for, was temple married, Elder's Quorum President , I was on the short list to be Bishop etc. I was everything the church expected me to be and I had that incredible feeling of the spirit in my heart many times. I've even had a more powerful conversion event when I was a teenager. I was sold (and I'll always be a cultural mormon - some things are just to good to throw away) and I espoused many of the ideas you'll see from our more committed christians on this board.

Several things triggered my search for the truth but one of them was that despite all my sincerity, my heartfelt prayers, the hours I committed to god nothing ever happened that was supernatural. No genuine healings, no revelations, no great wisdom, no manifestations of a divine nature at all. In my quest to remedy this and make myself a more useful tool in god's hand I offered him my unbelief, in other words I told god that I would seek him out , that I was ready to be found but that I would admit his non existence if at the end of my journey there was still silence. Thus I am an atheist.

As part of that journey I wanted to know what those incredible emotional surges were, those sublime feelings of peace and fulfillment and why they seemed so particularly wedded to the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and the LDS version of God and Jesus. I found the answers in neurological studies. As deflating as that seems I researched about how the brain works, how it generates perception from the stimuli it receives and most importantly how we can generate sensations by expectation and certain mental states. The brain is an awe inspiring machine that works in harmony with the body to generate our consciousness and place in this world. That it can create sensations that seem otherworldy, that can feel like external divine intuition or can even be manifest as inner voices that can actually be heard is an attribute of the wonder of consciousness, sadly it isn't a marker of reality or truth. I can still generate those feelings despite now being an ardent atheist.

i hope this helps in some small way - PM me if you want to discuss anything less publically or to forward gold bullion certificates :)

Trust yourself.

Im a mormon

cptkirk