Black & White

 

When I thought about writing this, the lyrics from Out of the Woods by Taylor Swift just kept coming to mind.

The rest of the world was black and white, but we were in screaming color.

One of the biggest ways mormonism still impacts me today is my thought processes. I think religion in general teaches people to have very black and white thinking. It is SO difficult to get yourself out of that mindset. 

I was really interested in what specific aspects of religion breed this type of thinking, so naturally I looked it up.

There's no "real" answer to this question, it's kind of just an opinion thing. But I'm gonna list some of the reasons that I found(mainly from reddit comments).

Absolute Morality - clear rules define actions as strictly right or wrong, good or bad.

There is really no gray area in religion, which I used to see as comforting. You know the rules, so you can follow them. Easy. Except life is so complicated. As I've grown older and had more experiences and talked to more people I have realized more and more that it's not as easy to define good vs bad as I once thought. The first example that came to mind is murder. Objectively, taking someone's life is a horrible thing. But what if they were trying to kill you and the only way to survive was defending yourself, resulting in their death? What if your parents or your partner was abusing you and it was your only way out? 

Cosmic Dualism - people/forces/outcomes are placed on opposing sides, god vs satan, heaven vs hell.

I think this is also a major cause of "othering" people. It is human nature to group things (and people) together, so I guess I can't only blame religion. But it's true that religion makes it difficult to find common ground. Even between religions there is this opposition. Islam vs Christianity vs Judaism. Despite their claims that they teach morality and love...

Another person mentioned the ingroup vs outgroup also being reinforced by seeing people as "believers" vs "non-believers" and trying to convert everyone to their own side. Although I would try to convert everyone to be an atheist/agnostic so I can't talk lol. One thing I know mormons do is constantly say how they are "the only true church" (it's like a big part of their origin story too lol). I think this leads to a lot of ego problems, mormons do tend to believe they are better than everyone else. 

Loss of Nuance - complex human suffering or moral dilemmas are reduced to simple failures of faith/character.

I remember as a kid when I heard people left the church, adults would discuss how they "weren't faithful enough", "they wanted to sin", "didn't pray enough", etc. Now, having left the church myself, it is none of those things. This also relates to my example of murder not always being so clearly a bad/evil thing. Simplifying peoples experiences is such an awful way to think, and I hate that I do it myself. There are so many factors that go into each and every decision we make. You can't just boil it down to someone "being a bad person" (well, I think in some cases you can but that's besides the point)

Stifled Growth - questioning authority or exploring alternative ideas is viewed as dangerous or sinful

Mormons are told to "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith" (I think I've said that before). Don't ask questions. There's a kids song that says "follow the prophet, don't go astray". If you question church leaders or church doctrine, you are questioning god. And how dare you question god. They always say "we aren't meant to know in this life", if you have any questions they can't answer. And being taught not to ask questions has genuinely been so harmful. Thankfully I have always been somewhat a critical thinker, I just didn't apply that to religion for a long time. 

I feel like I have so much more to say on this topic but I actually need to go to work rn. But one of my goals for myself is to see the "screaming color". Life is not black and white, there is not only right or wrong. There are so many things that are in between and it's okay to search for those answers. You don't have to fit into a perfect mold. 

Anyways, I love y'all thank you for reading xoxo