Doing what has been done on other worlds & Reincarnation

Our theology is WAY closer to Eastern ideas (Buddhism, particularly) than to mainstream Christian theology, in multiple ways.

I love thinking about apostasy in terms of overarching theology more than structure, organization, authority, etc. Your questions are some of my favorite. The key is being able to look at things non-literally – and many people just can’t do that.

I’m not saying the literal is wrong or bad. I don’t know, ultimately, one way or another. I’m saying non-literal works better for me, especially in this kind of area.

I’d say the idea of reincarnation would take care of some problems. For example, the severely handicapped child that doesn’t need baptism, or will never marry, or will never experience being a parent. Or the child born in the jungles of the amazon and never hear of Christ and never experience living on earth with that view or all the blessings that we are promised when we covenant with God. Or the people abused or killed by the agency of others, depriving them of their intended experiences in life.

We have tried to put a band aid on some of these situations in life, and say that temple work provides the opportunity for all to be set right, or that the millennium will be the time for some children to be raised on earth.

But to me, those don’t fully work as explanations. More often, it comes down to people saying we just don’t know, and god will set it right.

But if there is so much emphasis on the need for experience in this life, but we all just get only one shot at it, and there is so much injustice in this life…well…that could all just be corrected by having other chances to experience mortality. If we live for eternity…why only have one little tiny blip of a chance for mortality and that determines the rest of our existence??

I’m open to that idea of multiple chances on multiple planets. Let those in the CK that have figured some things out be gods to let those in TKs keep working on it until they figure things out or get their experiences, and even the 1/3 that lost their 1st estate keep getting chances as we work for the immortality and eternal life of man.

But it isn’t mormonism as we know it now.

I’d say the idea of reincarnation would take care of some problems.

Might drastically cut down how much work for the dead that needs to happen. We just need to have one of the lives of every entity to either get their work done themselves or via proxy.

It also would parallel lessons in the church – the same 70 lessons over and over your entire lifetime.

70 lessons? That did it, I’m coming to your ward to hear some fresh material. :angel:

I just remember hearing that when correlation was started they ended up with 70 index cards with 1 topic per page. As you can tell, I have not paid close attention at church all the time. Plus my last calling that I had for years kept me out of 2nd and 3rd hour blocks. I do miss that and I do attend most weeks. I will skip out if there are things like having a chat with a recent RM that I know had a hard mission wants to talk or someone I really need to coordinate with. But part of me actually wants to engage in class to both show I am “in” and at the same time nudge some boundaries or have people actually think at church.

That’s always been the hardest sell for me with respect to reincarnation. If you can’t retain any knowledge and experience what’s the point? Of course the same could be said of the preexistence/veil.

…we get bored and beg for a mortal experience again and begin the cycle anew…

That’s a good point. It would be pretty lame to be bored for eternity. Reset button to the rescue.

That’s always been the hardest sell for me with respect to reincarnation. If you can’t retain any knowledge and experience what’s the point? Of course the same could be said of the preexistence/veil.

…we get bored and beg for a mortal experience again and begin the cycle anew…

That’s a good point. It would be pretty lame to be bored for eternity. Reset button to the rescue.

Yeah, I think doing anything for eternity would get pretty boring and at some point we might wish to not exist anymore. Reincarnation to the rescue!

If the fate of humanity is to become god and god is the same today, yesterday, and forever we essentially already are gods.

Of course these days my definition of god is totally different. Maybe god is mortal. Maybe god isn’t omniscient or omnipotent. Maybe god is just some poor schlub that’s self aware but doesn’t quite know what to do about it.

I think that is what I was trying to get at, the idea that we are already Gods, and if we are what does that say about Gods in general (to the point of being a self-aware schlub )?

John Dehlin posted a poem on FB by Carol Lynn Pearson this week which I really liked:

WITHIN

I read a map once

Saying the kingdom of God

Was within me

But I never trusted

Such unlikely ground.

I went out.

I scoured schools

And libraries

And chapels and temples

And other people’s eyes

And the skies and rocks,

And I found treasures

From the kingdom’s treasury

But not the kingdom.

Finally I came in quiet

For a rest

And turned on the light.

And there

Just like a surprise party

Was all the smiling royalty,

King, Queen, court.

People have been

Locked up for less, I know.

But I tell you

Something marvelous

Is bordered by this skin:

I am a castle

And the kingdom of God

Is within

I don’t think it’s so far fetched. I have pondered before on Joseph’s description of eternity as “one eternal round” and comparing it to a ring. I think the theology that we always have and always will exist is pretty clear. If science is right (and I think in this case it is), all matter that will ever exist already exists. I believe that can extend to that which is spiritual as well. And aren’t the ideas about “enlightenment” and “Nirvana” pretty equal to LDS theology about godhood?

Because nirvana is when a being ceases to exist in the conventional sense. We use that word as a synonym of Heaven in English (or grunge ) but it doesn’t mean that at all.

According to some Indian doctrines, we may have as many as 180,000 incarnations, maybe more, so I suspect actually getting away from this is understandable in that worldview.

Becoming a god is more akin to Buddhist ideas about bodhisattvas. Gods – both asuras and devas – in Buddhism are part of the wheel of life, and therefore trapped within existence until they reach Nirvana. (The monster you see wrapped around this wheel represents suffering (samsara) and pain (dukkha), which are associated with existence.)

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