According to Mormon lore, there are four possible places a person can end up in the afterlife: the three degrees of glory and outer darkness.
The first degree of glory is the Celestial Kingdom. This is where god lives with all his most faithful and righteous Mormons. Has the glory of the sun.
The second degree of glory is the Terrestial Kingdom - reserved for those who never accepted the gospel but were still good people. Has the glory of the moon.
The third degree of glory is the Telestial Kingdom - the place where really wicked people go, such as murderers, and adulterers. Has the glory of the stars.
Outer Darkness - the final resting place of everything apostate. Has no glory at all.
Those who deserve to go to outer darkness are those who once embraced the light and truth of the Mormon gospel, and then, for whatever reason, turned away from it. This sin, known as denying the spirit, is unforgivable. The apostate can return to the fold before he dies and be forgiven, but once he is dead, it's too late. Those who go there are called the Sons of Perdition. No women will ever go there because they don't hold the priesthood.
Outer darkness is the equivalent of the traditional hell, only different. Instead of fire and torture, it is an endless, dark vacuum. It could be described as a place in the universe so distant from any galaxy that there is no light or matter. It is just dark nothingness. This is the eventual fate of satan and all his followers. Your soul will remain here for eternity with no chance of redemption.
Deeper LDS doctrine teaches that those in the lower degrees of glory can slowly but eventually work their way to the top glory. However, if you go to outer darkness, it's forever. What does a person have to do to go there? Simply state that he no longer believes in the LDS gospel. That's it. You'll be satan's roommate for eternity.
Murderers and rapists get to go to the Telestial Kingdom, which Joseph Smith described as being so beautiful that, if we could see it, we would kill ourselves to go there. So a murderer gets a pretty damn good reward and the person who intellectualized themselves out of the church gets outer darkness.
So if the fate of an apostate is so horrible, why did I dare to leave the church? Why am I so willing to trade my eternal soul for a few years of fun and party? Is that measley 10% really worth my soul? It's a pretty risky gamble. If it really is true, then my soul is screwed.
But that's just the thing. It's not true. The LDS church, again, uses fear to keep it's members from leaving. Threaten them with a punishment that is so horrible that they will be too scared to leave.
The LDS gospel functions on fear. Every aspect of it promises great blessings for obeying and horrible punishments for disobeying. I recognize this and that's why I am no longer afraid. There is no outer darkness. It's just another lie of LDS, Inc.
A person can stop paying tithing and still make it to one of the degrees of glory. But an apostate will tell other people not to pay. God just can't have that.
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