Mormonism and the Death of Curiosity

Mormonism sells certainty at the cost of curiosity. For creative, sensitive, and philosophical people, it’s not liberation but a slow suffocation. The system tells you that all the big questions have already been answered, all the mysteries already solved, all the authority already spoken. What’s left for you is obedience, not exploration.

At its core, Mormonism trades away the human spirit’s greatest treasures — wonder, imagination, sensitivity, and autonomy — in exchange for tidy answers and social approval. It promises belonging, but only if you amputate the parts of yourself that don’t fit. What could have been poets, philosophers, and dreamers instead learn to clip their own wings and call it righteousness.

1. Creativity as a Threat

Artists in Mormonism learn quickly that imagination is dangerous. You can paint landscapes, sure. But question theology? Explore sexuality? Write something messy and real? That’s branded as “flirting with apostasy.”

Creativity requires ambiguity and risk — both of which Mormonism forbids. Instead, members are funneled toward safe, church-approved hobbies: scrapbooking, watercolors, children’s choirs. The raw energy that could have birthed prophets of imagination is domesticated into crafts that never threaten the system.

Carl Jung wrote, “The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.” But in Mormonism, play itself becomes dangerous if the object isn’t faith-promoting. The result: artists are shackled, and art loses its power.

2. Philosophy Replaced with Doctrine

Mormonism doesn’t nurture philosophy; it replaces it with dogma. If you ask why, you’re told to pray. If you doubt, you’re told to read scripture harder. If the answer doesn’t fit, you’re the problem.

The church delivers prepackaged responses to existential questions — like vending-machine wisdom. But real philosophy thrives in mystery and paradox. Socrates said, “Wisdom begins in wonder.” In Mormonism, wonder is a liability.

Curiosity becomes sin. Freethinkers are imprisoned inside ready-made answers. Jung warned, “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.” Mormonism institutionalizes that avoidance. It tells you what to think so you never risk discovering what you actually believe.

3. Sensitivity as Weakness

In Mormon culture, sensitivity is treated like a defect. Sensitive men are told to “man up.” Sensitive women are told to “endure.” Intuition, nuance, emotional honesty — all of it is seen as a liability, not a gift.

The system rewards toughness, certainty, and conformity. So sensitive people either harden into brittle masks of stoicism or collapse under the shame of being “too much.”

Jung observed, “The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.” But Mormonism insists there is only one shoe, one path, one identity. Those who don’t fit are told the fault lies in them, not in the system.

4. The Silence of the Doubters

Philosophical freethinkers often see through the cracks early. They notice the inconsistencies, the moral evasions, the manipulations. But Mormonism trains you to silence yourself, to bear your testimony even when your gut screams otherwise.

You learn to perform belief for survival — in church, in family, in your community. Over time, the mask fuses to your skin. You lose track of what’s real: your doubts or your performance. The psyche fractures.

Nietzsche warned, “Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” Mormonism doesn’t just discourage truth-telling; it punishes it. And so the most sensitive and searching souls learn to bury their voices until the silence itself becomes unbearable.

5. Authority Over Autonomy

Mormonism thrives on hierarchy. Every decision, from how to spend your Sunday to who you marry, passes through a chain of authority. Autonomy isn’t celebrated; it’s suspect.

To think for yourself is dangerous because it might lead you outside the lines. To follow yourself is heresy because it might lead you away from the brethren. And yet Jung wrote, “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” Mormonism makes that privilege into a crime.

6. The Death of Mystery

Religion at its best points to mystery, to awe, to the great unanswerable. But Mormonism has an answer for everything: where you came from, why you’re here, where you’re going, and who will stand at the door to let you in.

The price of certainty is the death of wonder. Rainer Maria Rilke once said, “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.” Mormonism tells you to hate the questions, to drive them out with testimony. But without mystery, the soul atrophies.

7. Shame as Social Glue

Shame is the air you breathe in Mormon culture. Shame about your doubts, shame about your desires, shame about not being enough. It keeps the flock docile and compliant, terrified of stepping out of line.

But shame corrodes the psyche. Jung wrote, “Shame is a soul-eating emotion.” When shame is institutionalized, entire generations learn to despise their own humanity. The tragedy is not just lost faith — it’s lost selves.

Conclusion

Mormonism promises certainty but delivers suffocation. It rewards obedience while starving curiosity, crushes creativity, mocks sensitivity, silences doubt, and weaponizes shame. For those who feel deeply, think broadly, or create wildly, it’s a slow erosion of the soul.

The tragedy isn’t just leaving the church — it’s realizing how much of yourself was buried while you were inside. But the flip side is liberation: the rediscovery of mystery, the resurrection of curiosity, and the reclamation of a self that was never meant to be silenced.