I have been told that that Man was created in God's image, and that God was once a man who was so holy that he was raised up to become THE God of the world. But: if God was once a man, where did he come from? He created this planet and all the people, so where in the heck did he start out? When I asked this question to the missionaries, they gave me a blank look and asked me to come to a "lesson" later that week. When I showed up, they told me that the gospel is a meal: the steak is the BoM and all that, and what I was asking was a "dessert" question. They told me I didn't need to know that because it wasn't essential to my salvation. I told them that the way I personally come to respect a religion or belief system is to look at the fringes and ask the questions that don't seem to have a readily available answer.

The mission president just happened to be there also. He said that we will all be gods at some point, and our "children" will ask the same question. He seemed satisfied with that answer, but I didn't like it. He told me to pray. I told them that I bristle at the idea of praying to find all my answers, because prayer is an answer seeking a problem. It admits there is a god, and that he (or she) is listening, and that he (or she) will answer your prayer. When I told him that I have a hard time believing in a god, he told me to...wait...PRAY!!! Just after I had explained to him that I find prayer to be a logical fallacy. When I told this story to my GF, she told me that the missionaries aren't well versed in the deep doctrine and focus on the spiritual matters only. I argued that people who are supposed to be bringing converts into a church should have a working knowledge of all facets of the religion, she told me to ask the bishop or ward president. That is on my list of things to do.

I have a very strange fascination with Mormonism. I want to ask memebers all sorts of questions, but the answer I always get: pray. It's self defeating, but I am a fan of quioxotic quests.

missionaries aren't well versed, to become so is very self defeating. IMO

mormonism is a collection of good sounding platitudes built on a foundation of con artistry.

and btw I am an RM, I learned far far more about the church after my mission than on it.

Hi Kojak....In Mormon theology, JS taught that "the first principal of the gospel is to know for a certainty the character and nature of God." He taught that our Heavenly Father used to be a man. He had parents, grandparents, etc. It's known as "eternal progression".

"He created this planet and all the people, so where in the heck did he start out?"

According to what I was told, there were 'grandpa' gods infinitum going back through all time. The first grandpa god came into being after the 'big bang'...

Which, of course, doesn't answer the question, but... I thought the whole concept was pretty interesting coming from a morg.

And of course, he was making it up as he went along...

I've gotten the same reaction before. Trying to learn about what Mormons believe (other than the things that lie on the surface) is very difficult because often, they don't know, and when they know, they don't want to tell you. Those are *deep* doctrines.

Of course, there's nothing particularly "deep" about the deep doctrines. They're not exactly complicated or difficult to understand. I think the real reason they don't want you to know is that these ideas are *bizarre* and look obviously made up to those who haven't been carefully indoctrinated. Or, to be a little more charitable, these ideas just fall pretty far outside the mainstream.

Scientologists do the same thing. They try to reel people in gradually by spoon-feeding them the beliefs that are most easy to accept at their level of commitment. Don't let them know about the weirder stuff until they've already proven themselves loyal, or they might run off.




EDIT: Actually, anyone know where a good source of "deep doctrine" would be? Any good books I could read to become better versed in the wackier aspects of Mormon theology?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2013 06:01PM by doubtisavirtue.