20 year born and raised mormon who finally opened his eyes.

After living in a semi-firm LDS family for 20 years I can finally say i get all the hate. I had grown up attending church and interacting with people who were the very definition of good people; when it came time to start questioning the things I was being fed (ie:homosexuality is a sin, joseph smith was a prophet of god, etc) I was a little tepid. I had never had a reason to think this way and was unsure of the result I would get, despite being a grown man I truly thought that this stuff happened. i sat down with my bishop one day and told him honestly that I must be missing something because none of this makes any sense.

I had run this conversation in my head thousands of times and each time the word faith was tossed around constantly; needless to say I was cringing when he opened his mouth after some thoughtful consideration.

"I agree completely," the words rolled off his tongue like he has said it a thousand times before. Now I kept my meager guard up, I'm nothing if not cautious. "I'll put it bluntly," he said loosening his tie, "it doesn't matter. At all."

Welp. I got nothing.

It turns out he was a pretty bad mormon by mormon standards, but he was an exceptional person. It was from him that I learned that the whole theistic discussion is meaningless for people capable of thought. The only people who need the "God does (or does not) exist" discussion are those who are believe the bible to be fact.

Religion is but a means to an end. I want to be the best person I can be to everyone I meet. I weigh each issue to see if I can be a better person by applying that. With religion most of the time i say no; but there are times when i see something positive to gain from my life by utilizing what I am taught there. I still go today, not because I believe a single word they tout as fact. But because I am surrounded by kind and good people who don't press their views but are trying to accomplish the same goal I am.

I will close by saying that I don't believe in anything about my religion that makes no sense/has no bearing in reality so please don't assume I'm a blind mormon cultist or some shit.

TL;DR--Belief is not necessary to gain positive things from religion, and agreeing with one aspect does not constitute total submission and acceptance.

Spectrum of theism:

Extreme Atheism-----------------Extreme Theism = (lol sky wizard. u idiot)--(god hates fags)

                                           -me-
              (who gives a fuck? just be excellent to each other)