One of the most basic doctrines of the Mormon religion is that the one we
call "God" was once a being like ourselves who, through billions of years
of widely varied learning experiences and through the guidance and
training of those more advanced, learned the skills and developed the
intelligence and knowledge necessary to create living universes and
create intelligent beings who had the capability to mature into gods
themselves. "God" is not omnipotent or omnicient or omnipresent in any
absolute sense, but definitely is, relative to us. God is still learning
and improving himself, and always will.
In the Mormon religion, humans are God's offspring, created with the
potential to mature into beings with the capacity to create living
universes and countless intelligent offspring. The whole point of our
existence is to learn, forever; to keep advancing and maturing and
becoming more intelligent and powerful. This experience on Earth is only
one of countless learning experiences we've had. And we will continue
having more advanced learning experiences, forever.
There are other aspects to the Mormon religion, such as temple
ceremonies, the crucifixion and ressurection of Jesus Christ, but these
are all incedental in the grand scheme of things. The central doctrine
of Mormonism is Eternal Progress. Unfortunately, most of the members
don't realize that and don't focus on that. The Church leaders are
always imploring the members to improve themselves in all ways, and they
often have meetings which focus on various aspests of oneself that can be
improved. They stress education and learning throughout one's life.
Unfortunately, most members of the Mormon Church are sheep and have a
difficult time thinking for themselves, although their scriptures say it
is wrong not to think for oneself. They are often very judgemental of
others and very hypocritical. They are also very conservative and don't
like change much, even though their religion promotes the incredible
change of developing into a god.
The central core of Mormonism and Extropianism is the same -- Progress is
the highest priority. Joseph Smith (the founder of Mormonism) wrote, "The
glory of God is intelligence." Sounds pretty extropian to me.
David Musick (DavidMusick@juno.com)
- Continual improvement is the highest good.