Tell me a little about the pre-existance

First, I think it’s pretty much speculation, even though I love the concept of eternal life that started before mortal birth.

Second, I’m going to respond using classic Mormon theology as the foundation. I just want to make that clear right up front.

We had no body.

Technically, we did – but it was different than our mortal body. We teach that everything is “material” to some degree, even spirits.

No physical pain obviously. How about emotional pain?

I would say yes to emotional pain. I can’t believe we would have been totally emotionless or immune from the effects of seeing people we knew and, I assume, loved choosing differently than we did – and watching them “be cast out of heaven”.

Did we know right from wrong?

I don’t know, but I think we were able to reason and choose between competing options. The possibility that we didn’t, at least not fully, is what keeps me open to the possibility of all spirit children being “saved” at some point – even those who chose Lucifer’s plan.

(Again, that is from a literal, traditional viewpoint. Since I see the Fall narrative as figurative, and since I see “a third-part” in the ancient Hebrew terms of “a minority” or “a smaller number” not literally 1/3, I can believe that very few spirits were lost in the “War in Heaven” – or even that nobody was but, instead, the description refers to this earth and the percentages of people who will end up being with God and being separated from God. This means I can believe that “a small number” will be separated, while “a large majority” will end up with God. I can believe that if we really didn’t have full choice at some point, this type of life is all about learning to exercise choice in constructive, productive, empowering, ennobling, community-enhancing ways. It’s one of the benefits of not being tied to a literal interpretation of everything.)

Were we capable of emotion…sadness, happiness?

Again, I believe so. The alternative just doesn’t make sense to me.

I was leading the conversation last Sunday on this. I was throwing out all kinds of questions to challenge the beliefs of the members. You know what, this is just one of those areas that is so Mormon that it has become much more than scripture documentation can support. In my HP group they had an answer for every challenge. Most of them having no support other than their opinion. But pre existence, agency and the whole plan of salvation are so integral to the narrative that they have to be fact in order not to have a brain spasm

I’ve never heard that, GIL – but I’ve heard other doozies.

As part of my return to Mormonism, I’ve decided that there are some doctrines that I’m probably just not going to believe, and the pre-mortal life is one of them. As mind-expanding and exhilarating as the doctrine is, I personally find that it causes more problems than it solves, and I find myself feeling irritated when I take the doctrine to its conclusions. For example, if I meet someone smarter than me, then that means that either that person worked harder than me in the the pre-mortal life to become smarter than me, or God created that person to be smarter than me. I have trouble accepting either of those scenarios. I suppose that there are other possible scenarios, but I can’t think of any at the moment. So I just don’t accept the doctrine at this point. I think that our lives probably began with 23 chromosomes each from mom and dad.

Of course, no one can really demonstrate that there was no pre-mortal life.

Likewise, no one can demonstrate there was a premortal life. While I do like Mormon theology, at least part of it is mythology. We know so little about pre-mortal and post-mortal existence that the vast majority of the teachings and doctrine are really just supposition and speculation. I believe we may have existed in some spiritual form before coming here, and since I’m not even sure about that (and there is little evidence), beyond that I don’t believe anyone can know for sure. Saturday’s Warrior is a nice story, but it’s purely fictional IMO.