For the most part, I do not have a lot of animosity against my religious heritage. I grew up as a Mormon in Utah and had wonderful parents and a great childhood. Everyday was an adventure when I was young, it still is to some extent but in a different way. I have learned too much and can no longer accept at face value, everything told to me by others.

While we were not an overly zealot family, we grew up in an era and culture of religion. The Mormon religion affected everything from what you did, wore, ate, watched, and even who you married. Growing up in the 1950′s and 60′s things were a little more sheltered and they were even more so in Provo, Utah. It was wonderful, safe, and fun and to this day I would not change a thing.

So why am I writing a blog about skeptcism? I guess because I have always been a skeptic. There were times in my life when I would question but the answer was always “some things we are just not meant to know yet.” This was unsatisfying to me and would leave me in a perpetual state of wonder. So I came up with the strategy of just not thinking about it. As a child I loved science and it is still my passion. Since science told me one thing and religion another, it became easier to just not think.

I would go to church because frankly, everyone went to church. I even for a time tried to immerse myself into the religion and become somewhat “devout.” I was even a Relief Society President for a time which was quite a high position for a church going woman. But in order to be “devout” I had to separate what I believed was reality from what the Church was telling me. It also meant I had to live one life at church and around others and one when I was alone. I listened to hard rock by myself driving and hid instant coffee where no one could find it. When I met my current husband and best friend, (who grew up in the Bay area) he was astounded at my attempts to hide the real me from my girls. It seems silly now, to be worried about someone seeing me drink coffee or listening to Led Zeplin.

Gradually though, I learned to relax a bit and be myself but still did not really break from the church, I just stopped going. Like most people who go to church, even Mormons, I had never really read or studied anything about it. It was like belonging to a club. So while I was liberating myself from other taboos (like wearing more comfortable underwear) I decided to learn more about my Church, it’s beliefs, and how it all started,

While some books were blatantly against Mormonism and were promoting their own form of Christian belief systems, some were very informative and I was shocked. Actually to say I was shocked is putting it mildly because I felt stunned and duped.(I will go into Mormonisn in depth in another article) I then came to the conclusion that if Mormonisn was a separate branch of beliefs that stemmed from the Bible and Jesus, and it was undoubtedly a fantasy, was Christainity itself a complete sham also? If the branch is fantasy then is not the trunk and roots a form of fantasy also? So after I dived into Mormonisn I took a dive into Christainity, actually read the Bible, and became even more amazed.

It was mostly if not all, fantasy too. Not only were the stories fantastic, horrific, ignorant, sickening and impossible, many of the books authors were completely unknown. The sometimes factual events were mixed with unfactual and sometimes mythical events and persons. Some of the books were supposedly dictated by “God” with no evidence or witnesses what so ever. Not only that, the whole Christian history was full of lies, deception, racial genocide, power mongering, abuse, and idiocy.

So I became a hard core skeptic. Someone once asked me “how can you be so skeptical?” Well, I don’t think skepticism is a bad thing. Is questioning the validity of something and suspending judgement until more facts are known a bad thing? I don’t think so. Whether it is the media, politicians, teachers or church leaders, some judgements just need additional facts to support them. Of course some things depending on the information, can often be taken at face value. If I tell you “I bought some fruit at the grocery store down the street.” You can probably assume it to factual. But some things require more evidence. If I tell you “I was out of money and went to a cave and prayed to God who had an angel bring me the fruit” you may want to question if not downright disbelieve what I am saying. I know I am being simplistic here and nothing about religion is simple.

I know why it’s easier to believe. Sometimes it is all you have known and there is an amount of comfort believing in this supernatural being watching out for you (although if you actually read the Bible you would hide from that God as quickly as possible) Who doesn’t want to believe that they will see their loved ones after death? I love my family and there is a part of me that hopes we live on in some type of capacity but at present, there is absolutely no evidence to support it. I certainly do not believe we will assend to the clouds and sing praises to the cruel God of the Bible for eternity (if so, count me out church was boring enough). I don’t think anyone will die and receive 72 virgins (that many virgins per man would be hard to find), or several wifes, or sprout bird wings and become an angel. I also don’t think someone who makes mistakes no matter how grave, will burn in a lake of fire or be tortured for eternity.(perhaps hell would be spending an eternity being bored to death in church) I personally think spending eternity visiting muesums of natural history, planetariums, and Disneyland would be great. I am not living my life counting on that though. Perhaps it’s better to live this life as if it WAS our only one and life it with dignity and purpose. Perhaps it would be better to do good for the right reasons and not because we want some virgins or fear swiming in a burning lake.

People cling to religion and even other bizarre belief systems for a variety of reasons. Remember in the movie Dumbo when he fell asleep and ended up in a tree? The crows knew he flew up there with his big ears but he didn’t believe it. One crow gave Dumbo a “magic feather.” It wasn’t a real magic feather, just a feather but Dumbo believed and took the leap and flew. In my opinion religion is like the magic feather, a crutch for people to hold onto so that they can “fly.” Wouldn’t it be nice though if we as human did not need the “magic feather?” Imagine what the world would be like without religions killing each other. What if we could all reach our potential and do it without crutchs, rituals, tithes, fear, punishment, banishment, and discrimination? These may have helped early man in their struggle to survive but are they really needed now? Perhaps this website among all the other sites about skepticism, will help some let go of their magic feather, whatever it is, and fly and if not, perhaps you will just have fun reading it.

The natural world and universe is wonderful and exciting and there is so much to learn. Perhaps someday we can let loose the shakles of religious ignorance and superstition and really discover it.

To quote one of my favorite authors and scientists:

“It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” — Carl Sagan