Investigating the problems of Mormonism takes great courage. Many prefer to remain comfortable rather than expose their sacred beliefs to criticism. While essentially everyone who deconstructs Mormonism is grateful to have “woken up”, we should also understand that this process comes with a price. Emotional capital is spent, spiritual trauma is incurred, Grief, betrayal, anger, and sadness will be felt. And most importantly relationships will change. Some for better and some for worse. This journey has risks and yet I have not yet met a person who would go back to ignorance if they could.
1.) Read the Mormon Primer and consider the fact that the Church has intentionally told a whitewashed story that does not hold up to scrutiny. – http://mormonprimer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/MormonPrimer7.pdf
2.) work to understand the process at which our brain’s ability to reason about religious beliefs and how we approach those beliefs changes over time. – https://christoffaith.org/2018/04/7386/
3.) Consider how unreasonable a literal approach to Mormonism and a Literal Biblical Story is
– http://johnlarsen.org/podcast/Archive/MormonExpression276.mp3
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2016/09/post-dominant-narrative-not-true/
– http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html
4.) Wrestle with the deeply withheld history of your faith along with how often we tell stories as if they are true when they are not.
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2015/09/seer-stones-folk-magic-and-alvins-hand/
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2016/03/202-replay-life-trial-john-w-taylor/
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2016/09/premium-adam-god-historical-subterfuge/
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2016/06/premium-first-vision-founding-event-restoration/
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2017/12/premium-lucy-walker-spiritual-experiences/
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2017/11/premium-heritage-fabricated-faith-promoting-stories/
5.) Listen to the journey of others who have wrestled with this religious system
– https://www.mormonstories.org/podcast/andrew-and-allison-jolley/
– https://www.mormonstories.org/podcast/hans-mattsson/
– https://www.mormonstories.org/podcast/tom-phillips-and-the-second-anointing/
– https://www.mormonstories.org/podcast/jeremy-runnells-and-his-letter-to-a-ces-director/
– https://www.mormonstories.org/podcast/christine-jeppsen-clark-daughter-of-general-authority-malcolm-jeppsen/
– https://www.mormonstories.org/podcast/john-and-brooke-mclay-from-ces-to-ex-mormons/
7.) Explore the problems with the standard works and the accompanying biblical criticism.
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2018/05/haley-lemmon-joseph-smith-translation-revelation-plagiarism/
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2015/01/brian-hauglid-the-book-of-abraham/
– https://www.dropbox.com/s/a26ybr6hdavwyhl/Translation%20and%20Historicity%20Book%20of%20Abraham.pdf
– https://www.mormonstories.org/podcast/applying-higher-criticism-to-mormon-scripture-david-bokovoy/
– http://www.exmormonfoundation.org/files/BookofMormon07.PDF
– http://www.churchistrue.com/blog/19th-century-protestant-phrases-in-book-of-mormon/
– http://www.churchistrue.com/blog/anachronistic-christian-doctrine-in-book-of-mormon/
8.) Explore why the Holy Ghost is not sufficient as the evidence that your faith system is true.
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJMSU8Qj6Go
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevation_(emotion)
– http://faculty.virginia.edu/haidtlab/articles/haidt.2000.the-positive-emotion-of-elevation.pub020.pdf
9.) Conclude by exploring two more documents and then taking all your questions to those who claim to have suffcuient answers and explore those answers asking if these are reasonable
– https://cesletter.org/CES-Letter.pdf
– https://www.letterformywife.com/download-pdf/
– https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Main_Page
Deconstructing Mormonism further along with Historical Christianity in One More Week
You’ve come this far. If you wish to deconstruct Christianity and religion generally then take these final steps.
1.) Explore what social sciences say about how religions are created
– https://www.npr.org/2018/07/16/628792048/creating-god
– https://www.dropbox.com/s/29fvfk0ks67ufnm/ReligioninHumanEvolution.pdf?dl=0
– https://medium.com/ceoeducation/notes-on-sapiens-a-brief-history-of-mankind-26e35553bd7d
2.) Exploring the Historical Jesus
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2016/12/premium-historical-jesus-pt-1-gospel-mark/
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2016/12/premium-historical-jesus-pt-2-gospel-q/
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2016/12/premium-historical-jesus-pt-3-gospel-mathew/
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2016/12/premium-historical-jesus-pt-4-gospel-luke/
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2016/12/premium-historical-jesus-pt-5-gospel-john/
– https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2016/12/premium-historical-jesus-pt-6-conclusion/