LDS Gods - do they design life itself on their worlds?

[LivingWaters7]

I didn’t. If a mod didn’t think it appropriate for me to use CAF to post the link on the board, I’m assuming it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to use CAF to post the link in a PM either.

(Feel free to weigh in here Eric)

I think I just posted one link, it’s purpose is to engage in civil discussion about topics related to the LDS church. I don’t go there much any more, but it surely wasn’t anti-Catholic when I was there.

The moderators don’t read the threads/posts unless something is “reported”. Just PM me the link(s) and I’ll post it for you if you don’t want to.

 

[Tarquin]

Tarquin;11681019:

I am in the middle of Robert J. Spitzer’s

"New Proofs for the Existence of God." The first part is head-splitting, supremely technical physics. The essence of that, to put a zillion words in a single sentence, is that a transcendent intelligent agency is required for the universe to exist in any manner, shape or form. This sounds like a great deal of fun. Thanks for the pointer to the book!

You’re welcome. By the way, by “manner, shape or form,” I was referring to a number of different spaces, manifolds, branes, multiverses, etc. Whatever is seen as “the universe” necessarily requires something at a higher level than the spaces, fields, etc. that compose that universe, in order for the universe to exist. Spitzer gets into that; it’s way too complicated for me to try to explain.

Tarquin;11681019:

The second part, thankfully, provides much easier to follow philosophy

: “Philosophical Proofs for the Existence of God.” I see that he will be arguing that God is such things as understanding itself, intelligence itself, and presumably Personality. But his extremely logical development of his incredibly well-reasoned arguments are some notches up from the books on Metaphysics that provided me with my first logical proofs - and definition - of God. From this book, I have to change my mind. I now do believe that we can learn about the existence and nature (transcendent though it is) of God through reason.This makes a good deal of sense. I seem to recall that even isolated groups of people will figure out that there is a God, somehow.

Do you agree, then, that if the LDS God were true, that we would not be able to apply this reason for the existence of God? After all, the LDS God is one that is regulated by physics and not one creating the physics.

The LDS God does not transcend the universe. He does not even transcend time. He is as much a subject of Time as the rest of us, and as much confined by space, in his physical body, as the rest of us. Hebrews says that since God had no one greater by whom to swear to Abraham, He swore in His Own Name. The LDS God, however, does know someone greater by whom to swear, and that would be the God who raised him up. The LDS God seems to have no more metaphysical content, nor any more metaphysical understanding, than the average human. The LDS God’s power does not come from his Nature as a God! – But from his KNOWLEDGE on how to make things happen – how to travel really fast, how to communicate telepathically (or however), how to use natural laws to perform things that to people who do not know those laws look like “miracles,” how to counteract gravity – as some scientists are doing today. I suppose, given that the LDS God has “a body of flesh and bone” he might also have special knowledge on how to perform transplants on himself if one of his organs is damaged, and how to repair broken bones in ways that our knowledge can not match. Interesting, to say that God “has” a body, instead of that God IS a body. Does that mean that God is something other than his body, and his body is a temporary garment??

Tarquin;11681019:

By the way, I had a couple of Mormon friends who talked with me several times about the preparation they were doing now - learning biology, geology, physics, etc. - so that they would not have so much to learn in the next life before they would be able to start creating their own planets. I had another Mormon friend who showed me the drawing of the house he was going to live in when he got his own world. I remember hearing Mormons ask question in Priesthood meetings about the people who weren’t Mormons, who were not going to be exalted, who were not going to be able to be with their spouses except as platonic neighbors, who were not going to have spirit children, who would not have any planets to send their spirit children to in order to get physical bodies and be tested. So, yes, the official teachings (whether they were canonized “doctrines” or not) must have changed a lot from back then.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that they are changing the way that it is rolled out to their kids. I do not think that they have decided that they will not become gods. The 17-year old LDS priest that lives with me was told that this doctrine is true, once he started asking his mentor about it.

Ah-ha!