OK, so, we, Heavenly Father's spirit children, had to come to earth to learn and grow, however we can not know the answers until after we are out of here !!!! yah, that makes sense in a MORmON kind of way !!!!
Well, sure, but now they know the "answers" involve tithing, polygamy, gold plates, and people cursed with dark skin because their ancestor wasn't faithful.
the Church had the answers that couldn't be found anywhere else.
It seemed impressive for a while, until I started taking an inventory of the "answers" that were being offered by the Church.
Then I came to realize that the Church specializes in stupid answers that are devoid of meaningful content.
Here are just a few gems:
Q: Why are we here?
A: To get bodies and learn stuff.
Q: Why do we need to get bodies and learn stuff here?
A: Because that's why we're here.
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Q: Where did we come from?
A: We came from the place where we were at before we came here.
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Q: Where are we going?
A: We're going to the place that we will be at after we are here. There are many possible destinations. Some are better than others. In the best one, everyone is sealed to everyone else and living in big polygamous families. Some of the polygamous families will include spirits of ladies that were stolen from other guys by guys who had bigger priesthoods.
Q: Why is polygamy so important?
A: Because there's lots of sex in heaven with resurrected bodies and the guys who work hardest to make the Church big will be rewarded in heaven with big resurrected priesthoods and lots of sex in harems. It's better than the 72 virgins in the Koran because there's no limit in the Mormon heaven and they don't necessarily have to be virgins.
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Q: Can we become gods?
A: If you believe in couplets, maybe. But you know how it is with couplets. They're just couplets. (This is essentially President Hinckley's "answer" to that important question.)
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Q: Why are black people black?
A: You have to ask Brigham Young. But he's dead. So maybe you can ask the portrait of him hanging on the wall, hah, hah.... But seriously, that's a fleck of history that we don't think about. (This is essentially President Hinckley's "answer" to that question.)
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Q: Is Adam our God and the only God to whom we pray and give worship?
A: That's a damnable lie and anyone who teaches that is a despicable, degenerate apostate who deserves to burn in hell for all eternity, except for Brigham Young, who was possibly speaking as a man with the best of intentions when he preached that doctrine in General Conference in his capacity as President, Prophet, Seer and Revelator, and what his intentions were is just a matter between him and God. (That's basically the answer from Bruce R. McDonkie and basically the answer from most leaders of the church following Brigham Young's death.)
------- Q: If you insist on doing temple ordinances for dead people, why not just have one ordinance that is performed "for and on behalf of all who have died without having the opportunity to receive this ordinance in the flesh" instead of attempting to perform the ordinance for and in the name of every person who ever lived? Isn't it obvious that it is impossible to do such work using all the names of all people who have died? Don't you realize that most names of people who lived and died in the past are lost forever, many of the names that can be found are inaccurately recorded? Can you see that there is no particular logic supporting the notion that performing the ordinance using the physical body of a living person somehow equals performing the ordinance on the actual physical body of a person who died, any more than performing heart surgery on a healthy person will somehow benefit a person somewhere els who died or is dying of heart disease?
Q: If you agree to stop asking questions, we will supply you with all of the answers that we think you need.
Wally Prince Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Isn't it obvious that > it is impossible to do such work using all the > names of all people who have died? Don't you > realize that most names of people who lived and > died in the past are lost forever, many of the > names that can be found are inaccurately recorded?
This reminds me of an experience in high school. We had a church activity at the Family History Library at our stake center, and on a whim I decided to look up J.S. Bach. Bach had two wives, Maria Barbara and Anna Magdalena. In the church's system, it showed that the "work" had been done for no fewer than 7 wives of J.S. Bach, variously identified as Anna, Anna Magdalena, Mary, Maria Barbara, and--I kid you not--"Mrs. Bach." Yes, someone went to the temple and was baptized for "Mrs. Bach," which even a cursory search should have informed the bored retiree who submitted the name of the actual identities of Bach's spouses.
Then, extrapolate this level of incompetence regarding an easily-identifiable historical figure to the vast multitudes who have been lost to the haze of the past, and the even more vast throngs who never had any information recorded.
Answers are over rated. They are however a great tool to use to keep a religion going which is why the answers always come on the layaway installment plan
But questions. Even as a BIC child I was fed the questions. That is the danger. They focus you on the questions they want you to ask because they have the practiced answers for those.
I was told as a child that the entire world was desperate to know the answers to these three questions: Where are we from? Why are we here? Where are we going?
I actually asked a lot of non-Mormon friends about their need to know those things once I left the Mormon church. About 90% only had one or two questions, "Where are we going for dinner?" and "Do you think I have a chance with that guy over there?"
Probably both. Smith needed a concept to allow for him to continue to change things because that is how he held sway. Now it is a control mechanism itself. The message has become their medium and they call it "continuing revelation."
life and the lives of my children, they not only didn't have an answer, they had the wrong answers.
Wait, I thought they talked with God. They seem to think they have the answers, but they don't. So what is it?
I know that most people don't like Dr. Phil (I do, but I don't take anyone's opinion without researching it myself), but Dr. Phil says, "You can't make sense of nonsense." The lds answers for me were all NONSENSE.