WOTM: The Decline of Religion
In this video, I talk about the four big reasons for the demise of my own faith in the early 1990s and how those reasons align perfectly with the decline of Religion in America.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all your help. I'm still working on the last couple of videos if you can believe that. Just finished shooting in my new reading room (see the Misterpiece Theater in just a while) at 10:30. I think you'll really enjoy that one. B
Comments (6)
All I need is a smartphone? Unsubscribing from Patreon, now!
Wait!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!!
Yes, those of us who became Mormons Emeritus back then had to do some scrounging around to find verifiable, reliable facts. In my case, years of a subscription to "National Geographic" pretty much pulled the rug out from under the Book of Mormon for me. And I distinctly recall running across an obscure book on the Free Masons in a library that described in detail their rituals, which Joey sMyth obviously purloined wholesale for his temple ceremony. Whooooops. Remember first learning about the Kinderhook plates? And finally hearing the whole story about the Egyptian papyri rediscovered in NY? Pfffft. Kinda hard to pretend the Emperor is clothed, once you've caught a glimpse of his genitals.
Yeah, the National Geographic's public statement about the archaeology of the BoM was one of the first specific cracks in my faith. But all of those things were significant for me.
If I may add some more (but not as awesome as your 4) ... 5. Organizations like FFRF's efforts to remove religion from government, Humanist groups paving the way to understand morality without religion, the Reason Project, and much, much more (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_secularist_organizations" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_secularist_organizations</a>#United_States) 6. You mentioned the internet as an easy way to find info, but I would also subcatagorize Youtube with it's plethora of videos with likes of yourself, Matt Dillahunty, Aron Ra, etc. You go outta your way to make educational videos helping others to understand logical fallacies, inaccuracies, etc. (The Sam Harris, Hitchens, Dawkins, etc. folks are recorded on the internet when they speak, but the former groups actually make education videos on purpose) 7. Scientific Research: As we learn more about mental biases, how the mind works, history of our world, anthropology, etc. we're able to answer why we used to think (and still think) like we do and explain where religion comes from, i.e. that it's not a "truth" as it once was but a mere creation of the human mind.
These are all great points!!! And just imagine how much farther along we might be if we hadn't stopped spending on scientific research like we were in the 50s an 60s!!!