Outside the Box

Why would someone leave a box with so many beautiful pictures on the walls and nice people inside, where all questions had a simple answer and all doubts could be stuffed in little black boxes and forgotten? It would be crazy and stupid to even consider the exit, especially when that exit meant eternal death and immediate misery. At least, that was the threat...

Then why did I leave the religion box? I finally decided to give credibility to my many doubts and questions. After a thorough investigation I found myself in a totally unfamiliar world.

• I did not belong to a special group of people destined to rise above all others
• All people were in the same basic situation
• Important questions about life had many possible answers, but no definite ones
• The source of evil and despair came from other humans, not from ghosts or fallen angels
• The beauty of life and the world outside the box exceeded the quality of life inside the box 

When seen from different angles and in natural light, the pictures on the box walls could be easily recognized as artificial and all my doubts and concerns about the reality of the box suddenly became validated. With a little courage, I considered more reasonable explanations for all my disturbing questions.

Concerning Christianity and religion in general, I always disregarded the following questions:

• if god uses feelings to confirm truth, why do so many people seem to get the same answer as their parents?
• why does religion teach people to have more faith in other people than in themselves?
• why is god such a collectivist?
• why do the methods of brainwashing and mind-control have so much in common with how religion teaches children and people?
• why was god's solution to problems involve killing large groups of people?
• why did god command the ancient Israelites to kill all the men, women and children of certain lands?
• why does god protect little children who pray or who are prayed for, more than children who don't pray and who don't have people praying for them?
• why did people after Jesus get to live the higher law? Why did Pork suddenly become acceptable to eat?
• why did Jesus walk on water?
• why is there no reference to the birth of Jesus in the old testament, except for a misinterpreted reference taken out of context in Isaiah?
• why did Jesus believe mental disorders to be caused by evil spirits?
• if there was a god and he knew everything and had all power, why did he do so many stupid and contradictory actions, as described in the Bible?
• why did Jesus appear to be in support of Cesar?
• why did the god's chosen people, the ancient Israelites, treat women and others so horribly
• why did god seem to approve of slavery?

Concerning Mormanity, I always disregarded the following questions:

• why could Joseph Smith translate the golden plates without even having them within eyesight?
• why did Joseph Smith put his face in a hat to translate the Book of Mormon?
• why would Nephi create a new written language to write his history?
• why does the Book of Mormon have so many significant changes to the inspired translation?
• why did Joseph Smith write significantly different versions of the first vision?
• why did Joseph Smith marry very young girls and other men's wives?
• why are the temple ceremonies copied from the masons and then significantly changed since Joseph Smith first introduced them?
• why did the lost manuscript fiasco make Joseph Smith and Jesus appear so powerless and timid?
• why did the civil rights movement and the blacks obtaining the priesthood happen suspiciously close to each other? how could god be such a racist?
• why did the Book of Mormon contain the same mistakes the bible translators made?
• why did an Angel have to take the Golden Plates back to heaven and why would Moroni have to bury them if an Angel could just keep them safe?
• why does the church disregard most of the Word of Wisdom?
• if the Book of Mormon explicitly condemns nations being the aggressor in armed conflict, why does the church show no objection to any modern aggressive action?
• why did god command the church to abandon polygamy instead of making a way for his people to obey his commandments?
• how could communism be the highest and most noble state of society?
• why do modern prophets act so timidly and politically correct when being interviewed by secular news sources?
• why did Joseph Smith make so many inaccurate predictions?
• why did Jesus command Joseph Smith to create a bank based on fiat and fraud?
• why did the leaders of the Mormon church act completely opposite as the book of mormon leaders?
• why does the church endorse misleading reasons for persecution of the early members?
• since all the precious truths had been lost from the Bible, why did the Joseph Smith translation contain no new or important information?
• how could non-member historians who studied Mormanity, not believe in Joseph Smith?
• why do ancient prophets in the Book of Mormon use the word 'Christ' as if it was a last name?
• why would I get so annoyed by the special attire in the temple?