Joy after Mormonism - Bill and Amanda Reel Pt. 3 | Ep. 1786

Finding Joy After Mormonism: The Challenge of Filling Identity and Community Voids

When someone leaves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after decades of membership, they don't simply walk away from a set of beliefs. They leave behind an entire infrastructure of identity, community, ritual, and purpose that has shaped their daily existence. In the third installment of a multi-part Mormon Stories Podcast interview, podcaster Bill Reel and his wife Amanda explore what happens when that structure disappears, and whether secular alternatives can genuinely replace what religion provides. This conversation matters because thousands of former Latter-day Saints grapple with these same questions each year, and the answers remain incomplete and contested.

Understanding What Religion Actually Solves

Bill Reel approaches this topic with scholarly nuance. Rather than dismissing religion as merely false or harmful, he excavates what sociologists and anthropologists have long understood: religion solved critical problems for human civilization. Drawing on concepts from Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens, Reel articulates how shared myths and religious structures enabled tribes to scale beyond the 150-person threshold where personal relationships alone could maintain trust and cooperation.

According to the Mormon Stories Podcast episode, Reel argues that religion served at least four fundamental functions: Identity formation: Religion provided a comprehensive framework for understanding one's place in the cosmos Community cohesion: Shared belief systems and ritual practices bound disparate individuals into functioning societies Moral codes: Religions established behavioral standards that prioritized collective stability over individual autonomy Meaning-making: Religious narratives answered existential questions about death, purpose, and the afterlife

The crucial insight here is that religion wasn't primarily about individual wellbeing. Instead, religious morality functioned as "a code of conduct" designed to prevent community disruption, even when that code caused suffering to individuals. Reel suggests this was not necessarily malicious; it was an evolutionary necessity. When confronted by rival tribes, ethnocentrism and tribal identity literally saved human populations from annihilation.