Questions about creation and salvation

QUESTION: "Where did we come from."

ANSWER: From what I can tell or understand, our spirits have always existed and are made of the same thing that God is made of it. You could almost say that we are made of God... but the wording that I am the most familiar with is that "God organized our intelligences". This could mean a great many things, but one of them might be that He helped us to progress and develop into something more than we were-- and I believe that this progression and development continues today in a new setting of mortality on this earth. 

QUESTION: "How did God make the earth." 

ANSWER: Personally, I turn to science to answer these questions as there is very little functional guidance given from spirituality on the subject. The creation stories in Genesis only make sense to me as analogies or perhaps an order. I do find it interesting to note that if you replace dinosaurs with birds, the order of creation resembles the order that evolutionists give in the various stages of life on earth.

QUESTION"What happens when we die."

ANSWER: Well, there is the standard answer we get from Alma 40 that says:

"11 Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.

12 And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.

13 And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the wicked, yea, who are evil—for behold, they have no part nor portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than good; therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take possession of their house—and these shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own iniquity, being led captive by the will of the devil.

14 Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection."

I think what I get from this is that when we die our spirit leaves our body and we stand before God. The way that we have chosen to live our life (whether to follow goodness, light and spiritual truth or not) will have some impact on our conscience. We will have a perfect awareness of all of the consequences of our actions-- leading us to either be full of peace and joy or full of guilt and remorse. The condition of being in a state of peace and joy is a state described as spiritual paradise and the state of guilt and remorse is described as being in a state of "hell", often time analogously compared to a fire (the level of unpleasantness is compared to being burned).

Jesus Christ comes into play by helping us to overcome this state of existence and find a higher state of being by following his teachings of forgiveness, love, mercy, justice, honesty, morality, etc. Christs intercession (helping us progress towards a higher state of consciousness) is referred to as a part of what is often known as "The Atonement".

Abrahamic (and LDS) Scriptures are one source of "data". I have attempted to compile other sources of data on this subject from other religions. Several of which have been quite remarkable to me. 

I highly recommend this translation of the Bhagavad Gita:

Teachings of the Bhagavad Gita

Other sources I found very worth reading are as follows (I have read a LOT more, but these are a few of my favorite for starters):

The Message

Evidence of the Afterlife

Questions about the plan of Salvation:

QUESTION: "We were eternal beings in heaven. With personalities and experiences. And then we come to this earth to get a body? But then our actions while the veil is upon us literally determines our eternal outcome?"

ANSWER: I think this earth life is a small step in our eternal progression. It is an important step and one that we needed to take. Much like a grade in our schooling education, it was necessary for us to take the next step, but that isolated individual step is not the only step that determines our eternal outcome. Because this step is vital to the next step, I think that sometimes we emphasize (overemphasize) the importance of this step in the eternal scheme, but I think that the next step will be even more important and the step after that-- even more important still, and so on.

QUESTION: "Also what happens to the beings that we were before? Are they erased? Because of the veil is lifted then we should in theory have all of our memories returned and in that case, we would have the memories of an ancient being who watched the world get built and was with God before."

ANSWER: I think that this life (a mortal life involving uncertainty, scarcity, time, etc) would have been utterly incomprehensible to a being that had not experienced it-- much as an eternal existence without scarcity and time is incomprehensible to us now as mortals. In that sense, we have never existed under these circumstances before and the only way to truly experience mortality is to lose the knowledge of us being immortal. This requires a form of veil. Forgetting may cause us to behave differently than we would if we had our memory of our prior existence. I believe that Christ takes all of these things into account, but I believe that experiencing mortality is essential. If we KNOW that we are immortal, we cannot experience mortality, and without that we would never have a concept of time and scarcity. As strange as this may seem, I think it was necessary. Without an understanding of time, even basic concepts like "effort" and "work" may not make any sense. I think to progress, we had to experience this life. Also there is another possibility. Possibly due to the nature of existing in a different kind of reality entirely that all of our "spiritual" memories do not even translate into "mortal memories" at all... It is hard to describe this idea, but I can conceptualize it in my mind without using words-- describing what I am conceptualizing in my mind is difficult. Maybe consider the analogy that you had been communicating via smells and you had no language by which to communicate these smells into a spoken language. It is possible that spiritual memories function in this way with a mortal brain. 

QUESTION: Will God throw is in a fire forever if we mess up? 

ANSWER: I personally don't think so. As I stated above, I think a guilty and remorseful conscience is analogous to the pain of being burned by a fire (very unpleasant), but I think that state is a natural and necessary consequence for embracing hatred, lust, and greed. When we embrace selfishness and hate, these things cause us to suffer innately. When we embrace love and kindness, these things cause us to experience peace and joy innately. Following Jesus, helps us to overcome the negative consequences of what he have embraced previously and ascend to a higher way of being. In this way He saves us from the consequences of embracing darkness rather than light, by teaching us to walk in His light or way of living. 

QUESTION: "We are told that we will be teachers in the next life, that even the savior went to teach people until judgement day. But if the veil is lifted then what teaching would be needed? Or do we lose the memories of that eternal pre mortal version of us forever? In which case, why? And was that worth it? Was it just an eternal gamble?"

ANSWER: I do not think we lose memories. I think that this mortal experience gives us a new kind of memory that is unlike any memories that we would even have the capacity to understand prior to experiencing mortality. Just as you cannot imagine never having an end or a beginning, I think we existed in a state where we could never imagine having an end or a beginning. It is impossible to understand some things without first experiencing them. I think we mastered the things to learn in the pre-earth existence and the next stage of our eternal progression required experiencing certain things first hand that could not be comprehended in any other way.

QUESTION: Also the concept of getting Sealed. I struggle to see the purpose. So if we were all created an eternity ago by God, then we are all in essence brothers and sisters. We were all together. Why would we not all be back together when it’s over? 

ANSWER: This is a tough one to answer without revealing some things that I dont feel comfortable writing publically or even telling most people, but I will try my best. It seems that God should obviously be able to unite all of us without us doing things like performing outward symbolic ordinances. I am not certain that this is however the case. God does not remove agency from people. He does not "force" them to "become united". He rather helps them to be united with each other. Part of the way He helps us to do this is through teaching us and providing opportunities for experiences, service, and by providing ordinances-- which are kind of like a more physical form of language. Most language is done through noises that we make with our mouths or with written symbols. An ordinance is a way of communicating through physical action. It carries significance to God, but I think, more importantly, it seems to carry greater significance to us. God will not force us to become "one" with Him and each other-- so we communicate our commitment and willingness to become one with Him and each other through the language of ordinances-- to seriously communicate (to communicate in a sincere and serious way) that we are striving to become sealed or united with Him and each other. I think this ordinance is not for Him-- but for us, to help us make better use of the experiences of this life and to make more progress towards unity with God. We are sealed to a spouse-- yes that is true, but we are also sealed to ALL our families (the entire family of Adam) and to God. Hopefully we will take our marriage to our spouse seriously, but also hopefully we also take our ordinance covenant of sealing (unity) with God and our fellow mankind seriously as well. 

QUESTION: How I understand this system of kingdom placement will place us according to meritocracy and luck, if you were a good man who repented and and stayed close to Christ or were a child who dies at 4 then you are celestial bound. But if you have struggles or fall away then you will likely fall in a lower kingdom than the child who died. 

ANSWER: Many people in the church like to think that it works this way: "If you do all the things in the church you are supposed to do, then you make it to the celestial kingdom (as if it were a physical location), but if you dont do those things during your lifetime than you wont make it..." I am certain it does not operate this way. 

1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

All of the ordinances in the church are to HELP US-- not damn us. If taken seriously, then help our earthly sojourn function to be more advantageous, but all of these ordinances can be performed after life is over. Somehow they may have significance or meaning to us in the next life as well. I dont think that God stands at the doors of a physical location, forbidding people entry unless they get wet (get baptized) and visit a pretty building (the temple) and say words. Rather-- I think that becoming like Christ is a very challenging process and many people have pleaded to the Father for help. In response to these pleadings, The Father has commissioned Christ to extend help in MANY ways. One of those ways was by providing an organization with volunteers to offer support and help (sort of like a spiritual gym or support group) to help people to have some guidance and support as they strive to become more like Christ. The ordinances are ways of entering into covenants with God in which he promises to give us help (He tends not to interfere much unless we give Him permission to do so). Its like getting a flashlight on a walk through the dark forest at night. Its like getting a nice pair or shoes to help us run through the desert, it is not like a person who wont let us into the party because we dont have nice enough shoes.

QUESTION: The Catholics make it unbearable by saying that the unbaptized babies go to flames and torment, yet on the opposite, we say that those same children go to the celestial kingdom. Both of those seem unfair for separate reasons. The Catholics because of the evil of suffering children and ours because of the unfairness of the merit system that can be hacked by dying before you can be accountable for sin. If that were true then dying young would be the wisest course of action eternally. Lest you risk eternal consequences for your behavior. Also the need for a savior only arose because the veil removes our knowledge and we sin. Are our eternal pre mortal selves truly on the hook for eternity in these conditions. If it is truly a time for us to experience having a body, then the rest seems so extreme and risky.

ANSWER: I totally agree with you and I disagree with both this "Catholic" answer (though Catholics today would tell you about purgatory) and the answer given by many LDS people who say that whenever a baby dies they automatically become exactly like Jesus and ascend up to the highest level of consciousness without having to struggle and learn things the hard way. 

If a baby dying instantly exalted them to the status of perfect unity with Christ without needing to learn anything from earth, then someone might wrongfully conclude that killing babies is the best thing you can do to exalt people... yikes.

I think that some words have been said to mourning parents when their baby dies to try and comfort the baby. "Your baby goes right to the celestial kingdom" can be misleading depending by what you mean by it.  The term "Celestial Kingdom" is often referred to as a place where God dwells AND as a state of being like Christ (one with God). I think that a baby goes back with Christ when it dies-- but I do not think that it suddenly bypasses all of the necessary learning that goes on in mortality. I think that opportunities are provided for such learning to take place as it is absolutely necessary. I think this learning probably goes on for trillions of years and this mortal life is only a VERY small part of that journey. 

QUESTION: The first four chapters of Genesis seem like parables to me. Wonderful stories for us to learn from and to learn the importance of obedience to God. The flood and the animals, is such a powerful and cool parable, but is not very easy to believe. As are Adam and Eve. They are so cool and are such a great story full of lessons. 

ANSWER: It would have no impact on my faith whatsoever if that were the case. 

QUESTION: But I feel strongly that God brought us to this point through systems that we don’t understand one of which is evolution. I mean there were several branches of humanoids that fought and bred and clearly evolved from the same great ape species. It think it is so cool and doesn’t detract from the scriptures if we look at those stories as parables. But that is made more difficult when the temple really pushes that story and the identity of Adam as Michael. 

ANSWER: Depending on which apostle you asked, you might get different answers. The official church doctrine as I understand is that there is no official stance on evolution. God could have used it. I think it is also pretty well understood that most everything that happens in the temple is symbolic. All I can say is that attending the temple is very helpful for my spiritual growth. I dont claim to understand all of the symbolisms or their importance. 

My personal opinion is that whenever possible we should look to the scientific method to understand things that are not EXTREMELY clear spiritually. I dont think that every event that occurred prior to Adam is recorded in the Bible.

One idea is that Adam was the first humanoid species to step foot on the planet earth. I dont think I have to believe that in order to believe the bible (don't think I have to believe that if the bible doesn't include something that it never happened) and I also dont believe that makes sense with the archaeological evidence we have access to. 

A "story" that makes more sense to me is that God used evolution to create life on earth. To make human bodies, he may have evolved them from prior species. These species would appear human, but would not have "housed" the spirits of the children of God in them. Adam and Eve were perhaps the first humanoids on this planet to have Children of God Spirits in their mortal body. 
Maybe that isn't perfectly correct-- maybe the whole thing is an analogy-- or many this is recounting an event that happened in a different universe? who knows-- it really makes no difference to me and my faith one way or the other. I have a very difficult time believing anything that does not align with the scientific evidence in some way, so I have a hard time believing someone if they tell me that the oldest humanoid species is 6000 years old.... that just defies sound reasoning in my opinion. I personally dont believe it and I dont think that I have to, because the way that I believe does not contradict the bible and I dont actually believe that language itself is infallible and I think that since the bible is written in "language" that it is not infallible. So I am not really worried about it. I dont have to reject science in order to believe in God or visa versa.