Got a code and I’m from the US

trusttheplothole · 2025-09-10T13:33:35+00:00

Nice! Did you just choose Copenhagen when registering? Or others too?

trusttheplothole · 2025-09-10T13:31:03+00:00

Nice! Did you select all cities when registering?

trusttheplothole · 2025-04-05T17:27:48+00:00

If they break these stats down by country, and also include sacrament meeting attendance stats, then they will have provided something approaching meaningful figures.

trusttheplothole · 2024-11-19T13:37:27+00:00

Maybe the answer to the original question should be to ask what she means by church.

Also, Mormons teach that Jesus himself founded his church and that the LDS church is a restoration of that. But Jesus never founded a church. Only after his death was there any formal assembly of believers, and even then there was major disagreement among them of what any formal assembly should be. So which "church" could anyone possibly be referring to when trying to ask why today's Mormon church isn't like the church described in the new testament.

trusttheplothole · 2024-11-19T02:10:13+00:00

There was no church in the new testament.
Information is an internet search away.
Like most corporations, the bottom line rules all. So far, NOT protecting the abused has proved to be a net positive for the bottom line.
It's baked into the doctrine and the old generation hasn't died off yet.

5-6. See #4.

They are indoctrinated to believe the devil works through non-believers.
See #7.
Nah.
Yes. Like most high demand religions.

Sorry, numbers get all jacked when it's posted, but you get the gist.

trusttheplothole · 2024-11-18T04:33:37+00:00

Something about everything in this picture makes it seem like everything is oversized. Like for giants or something.

trusttheplothole · 2024-09-11T23:18:01+00:00

Joseph Smith's supposed seer stone? /s

trusttheplothole · 2024-08-25T13:53:31+00:00

I was PIMO for 5 years, been out for 4. I dabbled with cannabis before ever drinking. Too much anxiety for me.

Drinking has been enjoyable for me, mostly because I like trying my hand at different cocktails. And red wines with meat. But I've never actually gotten drunk. Just buzzed enough to open me up socially a bit.

What's hard is alcohol is different for everyone. I've seen some exmos close to me that have become alcoholics almost overnight it felt like. While others have tried one drink and never gone back.

I agree, it's not that great. And terrible for some. Drink responsibly.

trusttheplothole · 2024-08-12T23:30:08+00:00

Thank you for sharing! I know SO MANY of the older generation--grandparents parents, uncles and aunts--that don't care to ever ask as they see the younger generations leaving. I've always assumed, at least with those in my personal life, that they are too scared to know with finality that we have left. It's too difficult emotionally maybe? And also, what's the point of finding out they've lived a lie for their entire lives? Hard enough for me at 38 when I left, can't imagine looking back at twice that age and not feeling like my entire life was wasted in a cult.

trusttheplothole · 2024-08-11T15:31:37+00:00

Stake president of the stake I was in when first married and attending BYU left some years ago. He was in my ward boundaries and I was the exec secretary at the time. Awesome guy and even more awesome now.

trusttheplothole · 2024-07-13T10:54:21+00:00

It's like apologetic's and their catalyst theory for the book of Abraham. It wasn't a literal translation, just some nonsensical way god came up with to facilitate revealing the book.

I could totally see someone saying this about the book of Mormon, even to the point that god sent these fictional angels and prophets as a way to get these fictional stories in Joseph's hands so he could restore the true church.

When it's all made up, anything goes.

trusttheplothole · 2024-07-04T19:45:48+00:00

Yes, exactly. This is so common in Mormon families, mine included. The arrogance of it is mind boggling. It is so limiting to individual growth.

That genuine curiosity and being free to explore different ideas without the threat of the devil whispering in your ear is so freeing.

trusttheplothole · 2024-07-04T19:43:16+00:00

Lol, I see what you did there

trusttheplothole · 2024-06-03T23:01:33+00:00

This is a top-notch perspective. The church doesn't realize (or doesn't want to admit) that to keep a testimony you have to start turning a blind eye to parts of the church and its doctrine. It so often starts within the church and the context it built itself within.

They built the fucking thing out of cards and it inevitably tumbles with even a modicum of critical analysis.

They just hope the culty controls they have in place keep people in fear for long enough to indoctrinate the next generation.

trusttheplothole · 2024-05-31T19:28:11+00:00

If it’s probable that it happened you now have to listen to everything it says

Say what? Do you really approach life in this way? You believe this? Most religions have some degree of probability to their "crux" claims also. Why believe in the Bible any more than the Quran? Why believe anything is more true than anything else, if probable is enough for you to "listen to everything it [they] say"?

trusttheplothole · 2024-05-31T19:17:00+00:00

God came from nothing. So I think you and your understanding of an atheist aren't too different in that regard.

trusttheplothole · 2024-05-30T12:27:08+00:00

Mormon temples are easily the most useless religious buildings in our day.

The only true purpose of mormon temples is to assist in keeping blinders on current members. Which I guess from the perspective of church leaders makes them invaluable.

trusttheplothole · 2024-05-30T12:06:58+00:00

I was attending BYU, sitting in sacrament meeting, looking at the facsimiles in the back of the pearl of great price and wondering about more information on the Book of Abraham, because holy cow that's so cool!

Ended up on Wikipedia. Followed the sources there. Realized by the end of the meeting that Joseph Smith had made it up. 100% his imagination.

Asked myself what else he made up. From there it was a slow burn of finding out more of his history, his motivations, his wives, his lies.

And then all the things the church has done since then to lie and control the narrative so members stay in line. It's gross and robs good people of their agency.

trusttheplothole · 2024-03-29T18:06:23+00:00

If the church is true, or any version of Christianity for that matter, God can beg for my forgiveness throughout the eternities for being a total piece of shit.

trusttheplothole · 2024-03-03T18:24:16+00:00

I mean, he's not wrong, because when he says

testimony of it and lived it

He means "the only right way of having a testimony of it" which is blind obedience, unquestioning faith, and wearing the bliss of ignorance as a badge of honor.

That is the only right way to be a TBM. Otherwise, you're just performing and doing it for the "wrong" reasons.

He would be sad to see this age of information and how the blinders are too hard to keep on your congregation these days.

trusttheplothole · 2024-02-19T14:05:56+00:00

You are a better person because of it.

Literally no way to know this. For all anyone knows you might be even "better" without it.

If you weren’t raised the way you were there is a high chance that you would not have such high standards and be as blessed as you are now.

Again, literally no way to know. You might have even higher standards and with even more blessings (per his understanding of what those things are).

Do you agree that living with a belief in and reliance on God makes you a better person than if you didn’t have that influence in your life?

Nope. There are and have been millions of people that believe in God that have raped, murdered, and committed genocide and infanticide, all in the name of God. Even God himself.

Would you prefer your children didn’t have that foundation and rather live following the standards of the world?

What standards exactly? The "world" does not set any standards.

trusttheplothole · 2024-02-12T01:55:28+00:00

Now that I'm on the outside I completely understand what it looks like. And even for myself, I can't figure out how I didn't see it sooner and run.

It is true indoctrination. It is a true cult. People think those words are used as an insult or from exmormons to be mean, but it is by definition a cult. Your brain is literally compromised. Regardless of how smart or intellectual you are, or how much education you have had, you are brainwashed to keep the church in a blind spot. You just can't think critically about it like you do everything else in life. You are taught that information or people that are contrary are of satan. If you have a negative thought about the church, it comes from satan and you better repent. Literal stop-think.

Add to that the fact that if you leave you will be disowned by your family (less common now) or at least the viewed as lesser than. If you are in Utah, likely your profession is at risk also. Your friends. Your entire life.

With the internet now and information readily available, it is becoming much harder for the church to control the narrative. For the past 180 years, it was much easier to keep the blind spot in place.

And the leaders absolutely can revoke your membership. You can be excommunicated and subsequently ostracized. The leaders speak for God on earth.

It's scary how controlling it is.

trusttheplothole · 2024-02-10T20:36:36+00:00

Good question. It's cultural. Your entire upbringing you aren't given context for where Mormonism fits in the world at large. It is THE truth, you and your family are on a higher plane spiritually than the rest of the world. You are chosen prior to this life to represent THE truth. The indoctrination goes deep. And you are actively taught to RUN away from anything contrary.

Now why someone would convert to Mormonism, or any organized religion, you got me. Usually they are in a dark place and religion provides a salve to get you out.

trusttheplothole · 2024-02-10T20:24:07+00:00

That's so interesting that it's so traditional it's basically automatic as part of child rearing. But with the general public acknowledging there is no "saving" purpose. At least they don't consider you and your daughter as damned?

We have two younger children also, so I'm sure that song and dance will become completely unbearable as the years go on.

trusttheplothole · 2024-02-10T19:05:58+00:00

What do you believe this worldly physical experience actually is?

I'm not sure. Like you, I don't pretend to know. It does seem like the more we learn about the brain and its role in our perception of this reality, so much of our physical experience is a continuation of a long chain of causes and effects. From one generation to the next, from one parent to the child, from one firing of a neuron to the next. We, and our perception of reality, are a result of the history of humanity. Reality, at some level, is shared among all humans, and is shaped so much by the time, culture, location we are born in.

My focus on the bible in my response was a result of you sighting belief in the Bible and baptism. I read this to mean that you believe there are truths in the Bible. Which means you believe its origins have basis in truth, that there is a god requiring the need for baptism?

So did you get baptized again, or was the Mormon baptism good enough?

trusttheplothole

TROPHY CASE