Faith in Faith...?

Mark D Larsen
June 30, 2012


I am most curious about the spectrum of religiosity that I read about in the ex-Mormon forums that I follow. We have all renounced the Mormon Cult as a fraud, yet I perceive that, in varying degrees, some apostates still seem to cling to vestigial beliefs, probably because they were indoctrinated with them as children.

For example, occasionally a few forum members still assert a belief in the divinity of Christ. I therefore assume that they must likewise believe in a god who mandates that all sins must be paid for, and that, if they accept Jesus as their savior, he will settle said debt for them.

You’ll have to forgive me, but I could never accept such an arrangement. I mean, if my sins really and truly need to be paid for, it would be unconscionable, unloving, cowardly, and downright selfish to have my brother pay for them. I should pay for my mistakes myself —not someone else. That is the very antithesis of doing unto others! And what kind of god would make such a demand, anyway? Noooo thanks! I would just as soon not spend eternity with that kind of nutcase. Talk about hell!

Then there are other forum members who no longer maintain a belief in Elohim, but still believe there is some sort of god out there —if not a being, perhaps a pervasive spirit, or soul, or transcendent consciousness, or ethereal power. I assume that they must also believe that they have a similar soul, a ghost-in-the-machine, even if merely a part of the universal, mysterious entity that will continue to exist after the brain dies.

Ironically, however, there is no more evidence for the existence of any of these things than there is for the Nephites. Feelings, emotions, hopes, desires, intuitions, inner promptings, answers to prayer, burning in the bosom, still small voices have never constituted bona fide evidence that would stand up in a court of law —and never should. It is almost as though some people just can’t let go of having faith... in faith. That belief itself, even when —nay, especially when— there is no concrete evidence to back it up, is somehow noble, admirable, unassailable, even desirable.

Of course, we all maintain an instinct to imagine a supernatural reality beyond what our five senses can tell us. It is part of our evolutionary heritage that helped our species in its survival-of-the-fittest. Children who believed their parents that there were unseen dangers didn’t go swimming in the murky river. Those who didn’t believe them... helped the crocodiles replicate their genes instead. Ancestors who projected intentions and purpose to tall grasses that were moving on the savannah, even when it was just the wind, passed along their believer genes to their descendants. Those who ignored that rustling... eventually ended up thinned from the herd by lions and leopards.

To this day even staunch atheists like myself still manifest such genetic predispositions. How many of us, no matter how skeptical of paranormal influences, will throw a bowling ball and then lean in the direction that we want it to go, as if we are trying to “Use the Force, Luke!”...? Never, not once, have I been able to sway that ball one inch with my imagined kinetic power, yet I still instinctively lean like that! I bet you do too.

Consider how we attribute some sort of special status to a bedroom because “George Washington Slept Here,” as though his aura somehow permeated the premises. We believe something similar with autographs, as if the writer’s hand left part of his or her essence on the page. How much do bidders pay for movie memorabilia, thus putting a higher value on a mere dress, no matter how ugly or useless, simply because Marilyn Monroe once wore it?

And we believe just the opposite also. How comfortable would you feel wearing a sweater that once belonged to Charles Manson? Doesn’t that show how superstitious we are that a trace of his evil being might still linger in the wool? Yet it is, when all is said and done... Just! A! Sweater!

I write all the above simply to express that I understand very well why some ex-Mormons still cling to a “belief in belief.” Yet I also want to suggest that there is a lesson to be learned from our escape from the Mormon Cult. Unless and until there is verifiable, reliable, cold, hard facts to substantiate the truth of any belief, the wisest and healthiest position is to remain skeptical of it.