My Journey from Mormonism to Atheism

[InquiringMind]

From your experience, do most Mormons spend much time actually thinking about the afterlife stuff, or is it kind of in the background.  My understanding is that at least some Mormons believe people can become gods.  Did you know many people who believed this?  Do you think they really believed it and took it seriously, or was it just something talked about in church?

Most Mormons definitely believe that we can become gods.  I certainly believed it when I was a Mormon.  I think that Mormonism has a somewhat beautiful and grandiose cosmology with a grand plan where we were originally created for the purpose of becoming gods.  A lot of Mormons use it as self-esteem when their life isn't going as well as they'd hoped, as in "Maybe I didn't get that scholarship, but I was created to be a god someday, and that makes me worth something."  

The focus of Mormonism has shifted in recent years, though.  There used to be a lot more talk about the deeper and more grandiose and frankly crazier doctrines, but now Mormon culture focuses more on the problems of everyday living, especially within family life.  There's a lot more focus on getting through tough times in your life now, whereas it used to be more end-of-the-world gloom and doom.

I don't mind people bashing Mormonism, because some of the beliefs are crazy for sure.  But there are positives about Mormonism as a faith tradition, even if the institutional Church should be burned to the ground.  I feel much more alone now that I'm out of the Church because the Mormon social support system is truly remarkable.  And I miss the sense of meaning and purpose that I had when I was Mormon.  I felt like I was part of something big and important.  Now that I'm an atheist, it feels like nothing really matters.  That criticism by religious people of atheism has turned out to be true.  I'm asking myself at this point - if religion gives people a sense of meaning in a meaningless world, even if that meaning is ultimately wrong, does it really matter that their sense of meaning was based on a lie?  If life is ultimately meaningless anyway, then what does it matter whether your sense is meaning is based on truth or fiction, as long as it helps you to get through life?