https://oncemormon.com/ Essays by Jerimiah Baldwin on life after Mormon belief en-us https://oncemormon.com/cosmology https://oncemormon.com/cosmology Thu, 12 Sep 2024 17:25:16 GMT One side of the creation debate has rocks, fossils and DNA. The other has a feeling. Here's why that mattered to me, and why Christmas survives it. https://oncemormon.com/from-the-ashes https://oncemormon.com/from-the-ashes Mon, 09 Sep 2024 02:28:47 GMT Mormon children are buried in water at eight. Rebirth is the oldest story we tell, and it always starts with something in us having to die. https://oncemormon.com/historicity https://oncemormon.com/historicity Fri, 21 Jun 2024 16:36:04 GMT "Is it true?" is the wrong question to ask about scripture. Two better questions, and better words, for sorting history from legend. https://oncemormon.com/unraveling-consciousness https://oncemormon.com/unraveling-consciousness Fri, 17 May 2024 21:58:32 GMT Erich Neumann argued that each of us relives humanity's oldest myths as we grow up. One idea of his changed how I think about God. https://oncemormon.com/church-community-space https://oncemormon.com/church-community-space Wed, 08 May 2024 11:56:36 GMT A ward will carry your couch and feed your family. Those strong ties are a real gift, and they cut both ways. Here's how I hold both. https://oncemormon.com/spirited https://oncemormon.com/spirited Sat, 06 Apr 2024 03:36:45 GMT I didn't stop being spiritual when I stopped believing. My spiritual experiences just don't have to fit a story anymore. https://oncemormon.com/god-magic https://oncemormon.com/god-magic Wed, 27 Mar 2024 22:18:55 GMT Why I use the plain word "magic" for supernatural claims, how our beliefs sound in plain words, and why wonder doesn't need a magician. https://oncemormon.com/cosmic-revelations https://oncemormon.com/cosmic-revelations Mon, 19 Feb 2024 23:48:29 GMT Norse giants, a cosmic egg, a sky father pushed off the earth. We call those myths. Why do we exempt our own, and is the Big Bang any different? https://oncemormon.com/meaningness https://oncemormon.com/meaningness Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:42:22 GMT When the plan of salvation stopped holding my life's meaning, nihilism moved in for a while. Here's what I found on the other side of it. https://oncemormon.com/christianity-unveiled https://oncemormon.com/christianity-unveiled Mon, 15 Jan 2024 03:17:44 GMT Sacrifice, baptism, a god fathering a son with a mortal woman: all older than Christianity. What Tom Holland's Dominion helped me see about what was new. https://oncemormon.com/changing-tides https://oncemormon.com/changing-tides Thu, 23 Nov 2023 13:03:22 GMT The church is changing, quietly, one shifting baseline at a time. I welcome most of it. But I don't think it can stop where it is. https://oncemormon.com/the-things-we-feel https://oncemormon.com/the-things-we-feel Sat, 11 Nov 2023 02:02:07 GMT I've felt the burning in the bosom too. The feeling is real. What I no longer accept is that it proves a doctrine is true. https://oncemormon.com/revelation-gone-wrong https://oncemormon.com/revelation-gone-wrong Fri, 29 Sep 2023 14:21:31 GMT Personal revelation is ordinary, and it was never meant to replace thinking. Why emotion-based decisions go wrong, and what scripture says instead. https://oncemormon.com/language https://oncemormon.com/language Tue, 05 Sep 2023 18:44:30 GMT Fallen. Lost. Struggling. The words we use about people who leave carry a verdict. Changing a few of them is where dignified dissent begins. https://oncemormon.com/best-of-ces-letter https://oncemormon.com/best-of-ces-letter Sat, 12 Aug 2023 09:30:55 GMT My short list of the CES Letter's strongest points: the ones the church's own essays now acknowledge. Honest about the facts, fair to the faithful. https://oncemormon.com/plates-of-gold https://oncemormon.com/plates-of-gold Sat, 17 Jun 2023 11:50:26 GMT The Book of Mormon world keeps getting smaller: from two continents to a few hundred miles. Here's why I think that matters more than it seems to. https://oncemormon.com/god-is-dead https://oncemormon.com/god-is-dead Fri, 19 May 2023 10:40:12 GMT Nietzsche's most famous line isn't a victory chant. Here's what I think it means, and why I outgrew God as the church taught him without becoming anti-god. https://oncemormon.com/beyond-dogma https://oncemormon.com/beyond-dogma Fri, 28 Apr 2023 07:45:10 GMT I'm not anti-God and I'm not anti-religion. I've just loosened my grip on dogma, and kept the stories as something to live with, not argue over. https://oncemormon.com/archetypes https://oncemormon.com/archetypes Fri, 10 Mar 2023 15:23:19 GMT A story can be untrue as history and still ring true in us. That isn't a dodge. It's how Jung's archetypes help me keep scripture without the literalism.