Eric joined us on Books in Heinessight to discuss his transition from being a “radical” Mormon or Latter-day Saint to a life of atheism and how it came about.

I spent three years working as a correctional officer at the Utah State Prison before becoming a patrolman for a rural police department in the middle of nowhere, Utah. I served as a member of SWAT and also as a narcotic interdiction K9 handler before accepting an appointment as Chief of Police. After nearly four years in that capacity I took a break from law enforcement before returning to work once again as a patrolman and now detective for another Utah police department.

On the topic of religion, I spent 23 years as an aggressively active member of the Mormon Church and spent 2 years as a proselytizing Mormon missionary before eventually leaving the church and disavowing religion in general. I am now in the process of writing a book on the concept of radical Mormonism and the general effects of specifically intensive religious institutions on the psyche of young people.