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It was the magic underwear that saved me!
#1
It was the magic underwear that saved me!
Hi All! I'm new here. I wanted to tell you all a little about my journey into non belief.

I was born and raised a Mormon. Dad came from a long line of Mormons, mom converted from southern Baptist so she'd be allowed to marry my dad.
As a child, I remember church being unpleasant. It was long and boring, (3 hours!) and there were lots of words I didn't understand and no one was really interested in explaining anything. I was taught to repeat phrases ( I still can! "I would like to bear my testimony, that I know this church is true, and Joseph Smith is a true prophet...") It was drilled in from a young age.

I was baptized at age 8, because that is the "age of reason". As I got a little older, preteen to teenaged, I started to realize this stuff was not making much sense to me. I got into a full on argument with my Sunday school teacher about why there are no dinosaurs in the bible. (I was told it was because the bible was written about humankind and dinosaurs weren't important to the story.)

Around about the time I turned 14, my parents got divorced. They stopped going to church because divorce is looked down on, but they still forced my sister and I to go. I was an angry teen and just wanted to piss them off...so I would sneak out of church and go smoke pot in the baseball field out back. LOL. I was trying to be bad and rebellious so I started saying things like "God is dead" and listening to Nine Inch Nails and refusing to go to church.

Then my beloved grandpa got into a car accident. My sister called to tell me that he had been in a coma for 2 days, laying in the hospital unidentified because he left his wallet at home. I asked her how they figured out it was grandpa, and she told me that the nurses found his garments and called the church, who sent members down to identify him.

Hold up now. They found his what? My sister said "You know, his temple garments. His underwear. That's how they knew he was Mormon, and called the church." What what!?! 14 years in the church, and I had never heard of these garments. These magic underwear. What the hell? I felt so betrayed. Why the big secret? Why does everything have to be so hush hush?

I decided to do my own research into these "garments" and the founding of the Mormon religion. It didn't take me long to find out why everything was so secretive. It is because that religion is BAT. SHIT. CRAZY. (In my research, I found a great book called Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck. It is a great read and explains so much! I highly recommend it!).

From there I didn't jump straight to atheism, I dallied for a while that I was just anti-organized religion. But the more time that passed and the more reading I did, I had to admit to myself that I just didn't believe in God the way other people did.

I wasn't ready to use the word atheist for a long time. I had believed for so long that atheist really meant evil satan worshipers, and that people really only used the term for shock value.

Then I found The God Delusion and it changed my life. I felt I no longer needed to be ashamed to be an atheist, in fact, I could be proud! Atheist doesn't equal evil! Now I understand it equals someone who thinks about the world around them and doesn't swallow every crazy story they are told. It is really just based upon evidence! It is such a freeing concept!

In 2008, a barn burned down and killed 14 horses. One of them was my beloved thoroughbred, Uno. I was devastated. But my new found rationalism meant I didn't have to blame myself. I didn't have to wonder what I did to make god so mad that he would torture my horse to death. It was so freeing to realize that sometimes shitty shit JUST HAPPENS! Uno didn't die because I did something bad to deserve it. I won't see him again in heaven. That is a tough one for me! I'm sure that is the toughest part for a lot of us. Knowing that our loved ones who are gone are really lost to us forever. But I think it helps us to appreciate the here and now, and remember what is important. Because we really only get one shot at it.

Shitty shit may just happen. But wonderful things happen, too! I'm so glad to be alive in a time when I can express my thoughts and not have to worry about being burned or beheaded for it. I'm so glad for my grandpa's magic underwear that started me on my journey to get here.
[Image: Uno_Daisy_Chevy014-1.jpg]
We are are part of nature, built from the same stuff as stars, planets, asteroids, and comets. Our protons and neutrons have been around since the earliest times, glued together into heavy elements of long dead ancient suns, blasted out into the universe and resculpted from diffuse interstellar dust clouds by the gentle hand of gravity. When the pattern of atoms known to be you ceases to be, the building blocks will return to the voids of space, and in a billion years or more, they may take their place in another structure so beautiful that a future mind may perceive it to be the work of a god. ~ Brian Cox
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#2
RE: It was the magic underwear that saved me!
Quote:I know this church is true, and Joseph Smith is a true prophet

Substitute "Mohammed" for Joey Smith and you could be a muslim. Odd how interchangeable all this happy horseshit is.

Congratulations on escaping the cult.
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#3
RE: It was the magic underwear that saved me!
Great story. Welcome to the forums Smile
Self-authenticating private evidence is useless, because it is indistinguishable from the illusion of it. ― Kel, Kelosophy Blog

If you’re going to watch tele, you should watch Scooby Doo. That show was so cool because every time there’s a church with a ghoul, or a ghost in a school. They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
The f**king janitor or the dude who runs the waterslide. Throughout history every mystery. Ever solved has turned out to be. Not Magic.
― Tim Minchin, Storm
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#4
RE: It was the magic underwear that saved me!
Great story.

I actually just read the story about ol' Joseph Smith dictating the books of Mormon from his imaginary plates using his magic stone decoder to his neighbor sitting across from him with a blanket suspended between them because if he saw the plates he would die. Or there is the head in the hat version. Batshit crazy is the only name for it.
"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything." -Friedrich Nietzsche

"All thinking men are atheists." -Ernest Hemmingway

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." -Voltaire
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#5
RE: It was the magic underwear that saved me!
Smith was a con man..... but what does it say about the people who were taken in by such a preposterous load of shit?
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#6
RE: It was the magic underwear that saved me!
Great story! Richard Dawkins might be prickly, but he brings the atheist out in people, doesn't he! Thanks for sharing this.
42

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#7
RE: It was the magic underwear that saved me!
Welcome! Magic underwear.... Found at "Smith's Secrets" shops?

Also, now I'm picturing Glenn Beck in magic underwear. My eyes! Aggghhhhhh! Panic
My ignore list




"The lord doesn't work in mysterious ways, but in ways that are indistinguishable from his nonexistence."
-- George Yorgo Veenhuyzen quoted by John W. Loftus in The End of Christianity (p. 103).
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#8
RE: It was the magic underwear that saved me!
Thank you for sharing your story!

(April 27, 2012 at 11:46 am)BadSheep Wrote: Knowing that our loved ones who are gone are really lost to us forever. But I think it helps us to appreciate the here and now, and remember what is important. Because we really only get one shot at it.

I couldn't agree with you more.

Btw, it's nice to finally have a face to go with 'BadSheep' Smile Is that the Seattle skyline I can see in the background?

When I was young, there was a god with infinite power protecting me. Is there anyone else who felt that way? And was sure about it? but the first time I fell in love, I was thrown down - or maybe I broke free - and I bade farewell to God and became human. Now I don't have God's protection, and I walk on the ground without wings, but I don't regret this hardship. I want to live as a person. -Arina Tanemura

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#9
RE: It was the magic underwear that saved me!
Welcome to the forum. Great story. I agree with a lot of your points and sentiments.
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#10
RE: It was the magic underwear that saved me!
(April 28, 2012 at 4:06 am)Kayenneh Wrote: Thank you for sharing your story!

(April 27, 2012 at 11:46 am)BadSheep Wrote: Knowing that our loved ones who are gone are really lost to us forever. But I think it helps us to appreciate the here and now, and remember what is important. Because we really only get one shot at it.

I couldn't agree with you more.

Btw, it's nice to finally have a face to go with 'BadSheep' Smile Is that the Seattle skyline I can see in the background?

It is Seattle! Cinjin was nice enough to help me with my avatar pic and did some computer magic to add that in there. I'm actually in Tacoma, but there is nothing memorable about Tacoma. Seattle is better.

We are are part of nature, built from the same stuff as stars, planets, asteroids, and comets. Our protons and neutrons have been around since the earliest times, glued together into heavy elements of long dead ancient suns, blasted out into the universe and resculpted from diffuse interstellar dust clouds by the gentle hand of gravity. When the pattern of atoms known to be you ceases to be, the building blocks will return to the voids of space, and in a billion years or more, they may take their place in another structure so beautiful that a future mind may perceive it to be the work of a god. ~ Brian Cox
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