Thesis 12: The End of Learning
As a child growing up in the church, I soaked up the songs and lessons and scripture stories like a sponge. As a teenager, I prepared to go on a mission, learned about the priesthood, and read the Book of Mormon. Then I went through the temple, went on a mission, and came back to adulthood in the church.
And then something happened: the learning stopped.
As a young adult I was encouraged to go to the temple once a month and sit through the same 2 hour movie and script over and over and over.
I was encouraged to read the Book of Mormon. No matter that it would now be my 14th and 15th and 16th time through the book. Pick out new details! Find new themes! The book’s knowledge is endless, they said. At BYU I was even required to take several classes about the book. I soon found that I didn’t have time to read other books, with all of my reading time being put towards the limited canon of scripture.
I attended Sunday School at church, only to find that the lessons were on a continually repeated cycle of yawn-filled drudgery through vague topics like faith, charity, and obedience. The lessons taught the same things that I’d been taught for 25 years, over and over and over again.
Between the hours each month at the temple, the hours each week at church, and the minutes each day reading scriptures, I was dedicating a lot of time towards things that had been on a repeat cycle for decades.
The scripted LDS response to this is that repetition is necessary to really learn and internalize the principles. But I don’t think it’s really that out of line to want to read a different book than the one I’d already read 16 times, or watch a different movie than the one shown in the temple every single time I went, or learn about something other than faith, charity, and obedience every week in Sunday School. And thinking about repeating the same book, temple sessions, and lessons for the next 50+ years of my life seemed unbearably silly, boring, and stagnant.
When I would try to reach beyond the standard lessons or books and dive into things like time, the details of creation and where evolution fit in, or something the tiniest bit “beyond the book” I’d be given an unsure look from other members of the church. Just stick to the script, their eyes seemed to say. “Advanced” topics of conjecture were ignored or met with a subtle roll of the eyes. Those interested in things not listed in the manuals were on the road to apostasy, they said.
And then something happened: I stepped away from the church. And all of a sudden, the learning resumed. In the last few years I’ve been overcome with a passion for learning about the history of the world, motivation and personality, business and entrepreneurship, the Roman civilization, the evolution of humans, the human body, nutrition and exercise, etc. I can honestly say that during my time in the church I did not feel the passion or love of learning that I feel now.
The books to read, the media to consume, and the topics to dive into are endless.
Very quickly museums have become my temples, TED talks and knowledge-filled books and podcasts have become my scriptures, and scientists and thought-leaders have become my prophets.
By emphasizing a closed canon of scripture and a select handful of principles and teachings, religion actively shuts out important knowledge and thought. It says, “we have all the answers, so no need to look elsewhere.”
But since taking a step away from religion I’ve come to discover a world full of knowledge that brings a sense of wonder, awe, inspiration, and joy that I haven’t known before.
