Most of my opinions go back to what I believe is the purpose of life. Which of course requires some background.....
The Nature of God
I believe that God, or Heavenly Father, is an exalted man. Meaning, he is perfect. He has a perfect understanding of all things, including universal laws. He has a perfected body that is tangible. He is the literal Father of my spirit. We are all his children. When I say that he is literally our Father, I also believe that we have a Heavenly Mother. I believe that they work together in creation. I believe that they love us and desire our joy.
Pre-Mortal Life
I believe that we lived with God before we were born on this earth. We were spirits, we looked much like we do now, however, we did not have physical bodies. We desired to be like our Heavenly Parents, however, we lacked a perfect body and the perfect understanding and experience that they had. We could not attain that while in this pre-mortal realm. Heavenly Father presented a plan by which we could come to Earth to gain a body and experience through our choices. However, our bodies would not be perfect, nor would we be perfect in our experiences or the choices we made. A Savior was chosen to Atone for us. He would be not only the Son of God in spirit but in body as well. He would then lay down his life as a sacrifice for us. This would allow us to be resurrected into a perfected body and to be forgiven for the mistakes that we made as long as we were repentant of those mistakes.
Lucifer, or Satan, opposed this plan. He wanted to take away the ability to choose so that no one could make a mistake and therefore no one would be lost. However, this plan could not work, because then we would not have gained experience and learned how to make correct choices, we would have been mindless drones. Satan was cast out, and a third part of the spirits followed him. I believe that they are on this earth in a spirit form and tempt us to make decisions that remove us from God.
Purpose of Life
With these fundamentals in mind, I believe that, as the Prophet Alma in the Book of Mormon states, "This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God." But not only meet God, but to become exalted like God. To receive a perfected body (which I believe is a free gift to all because of Christ's Atonement), and to learn how to use our body to make divine choices that will help us to become like God. After we die and have been resurrected to our perfected forms, we will stand before God to be judged of our actions. If we have repented and accepted the Savior we will be forgiven for our mistakes and will be allowed back into the presence of God where we will continue to progress to the point where the Doctrine and Covenants states, "Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them."
So, in short, I believe that the purpose of life is to become like God who has a perfect body, is perfect in understanding and experience, makes perfect choices, and is in fact married so as to create eternal creations.
Disclaimer: I can not present all of my ideas as the official doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These represent my understanding based on the doctrine of the Church and do not feel that any of them oppose any official doctrines.
If you would like to read the official information from the Church on these subjects please see the following references:
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132?lang=eng
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/76?lang=eng
http://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-4-freedom-to-choose?lang=eng
http://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-47-exaltation?lang=eng
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Purpose
My first two posts will deal with Purpose. First the purpose of this blog, followed by my beliefs on the purpose of life.
First, the purpose of this blog.
I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while. Maybe I just like to hear myself talk, but I feel like I have something to say and contribute. You can agree or disagree, but at this point at least you are still reading.
I have friends and family from diverse backgrounds, with diverse opinions and diverse lifestyles. I love all of them. However, I have been frustrated lately with so many controversial issues being debated. Gay marriage, birth control, government spending, the welfare system, etc. What I have witnessed is a lack of understanding on both sides of the issue. We take something that was said and blow it up and then call each other intolerant, stupid, hypocritical, wrong, illogical, and a myriad of other insults. One side is mad for being judged and starts judging the other side. While I do have opinions, I feel that both sides of the issues are handling things incorrectly.
In this country we are granted the right of free speech in the constitution. I would argue that more importantly, however, maybe not defined, we have the freedom of thought. I can think whatever I want and no one can change that. I'm not saying that makes everything I or anyone else thinks morally or ethically correct, however, I am free to think what I like. Now what I DO with those thoughts may be a different story. Laws may regulate our actions however they can not regulate my thoughts and opinions. A law may be passed, but that doesn't make people like it. Sorry, I digress, I will touch on this topic again in a different post. Back to the purpose of this post, which was the purpose of this blog...
We need to understand why we have certain opinions. When we understand the why and the deeper intentions behind an opinion, we still may not agree, we don't have to, but at least we can debate on with out insulting, suspecting, and judging. When we better understand why people want things the way they want it then maybe, just maybe, we will be able to serve both sides in a more adequate way. Because while I may think I am 100% right, I have to recognize that someone may think I am 100% wrong. We are all valued members of society, we all should have equal protection under the law but rarely does anyone have a solution that serves both sides.
So back to my purpose, in this blog I will be explaining my stance with the full background to my way of thinking. Sometimes my opinion may start with something that seems unrelated but I assure it is relevant. I will also attempt to propose solutions that could serve both sides, I recognize that the likelihood of the solutions being implemented are slim to none because some of them would require a great deal of change in social structures, ways of thinking, and governmental procedures.
My opinions that will be expressed herein are based primarily on the following:
1. My faith- I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My opinions and values are therefore primarily influenced by the doctrines of this faith. Please respect the fact that my testimony of this church comes after many hours of study of the words of the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Latter-day prophets, deep thinking and pondering on these words, and prayer. I recognize that some who read this blog may not recognize prayer as a valid source of information, I respect that, but please respect that I do value prayer as a source of truth.
2. My real life experience with the issues at hand and the people involved in them. This will at times include my observations of others actions and their culture. I realize that at times there will be generalizations, we shouldn't judge people based on generalizations because they might be the exception, however, not everyone is the exception, otherwise the generalization or stereotype wouldn't exist. I may not have concrete statistics to go with everything, I can only go off of my experience.
3. The Constitution and the founding fathers- I in no way, shape, or form claim to be an expert on the Constitution but I believe in it and feel that it needs to be followed more closely.
My purpose is not so much to persuade people to think the way I think but to promote understanding through a complete explanation. I don't expect you to agree, just to validate and understand. I am of course then open to explanations from others and validate their opinion.
First, the purpose of this blog.
I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while. Maybe I just like to hear myself talk, but I feel like I have something to say and contribute. You can agree or disagree, but at this point at least you are still reading.
I have friends and family from diverse backgrounds, with diverse opinions and diverse lifestyles. I love all of them. However, I have been frustrated lately with so many controversial issues being debated. Gay marriage, birth control, government spending, the welfare system, etc. What I have witnessed is a lack of understanding on both sides of the issue. We take something that was said and blow it up and then call each other intolerant, stupid, hypocritical, wrong, illogical, and a myriad of other insults. One side is mad for being judged and starts judging the other side. While I do have opinions, I feel that both sides of the issues are handling things incorrectly.
In this country we are granted the right of free speech in the constitution. I would argue that more importantly, however, maybe not defined, we have the freedom of thought. I can think whatever I want and no one can change that. I'm not saying that makes everything I or anyone else thinks morally or ethically correct, however, I am free to think what I like. Now what I DO with those thoughts may be a different story. Laws may regulate our actions however they can not regulate my thoughts and opinions. A law may be passed, but that doesn't make people like it. Sorry, I digress, I will touch on this topic again in a different post. Back to the purpose of this post, which was the purpose of this blog...
We need to understand why we have certain opinions. When we understand the why and the deeper intentions behind an opinion, we still may not agree, we don't have to, but at least we can debate on with out insulting, suspecting, and judging. When we better understand why people want things the way they want it then maybe, just maybe, we will be able to serve both sides in a more adequate way. Because while I may think I am 100% right, I have to recognize that someone may think I am 100% wrong. We are all valued members of society, we all should have equal protection under the law but rarely does anyone have a solution that serves both sides.
So back to my purpose, in this blog I will be explaining my stance with the full background to my way of thinking. Sometimes my opinion may start with something that seems unrelated but I assure it is relevant. I will also attempt to propose solutions that could serve both sides, I recognize that the likelihood of the solutions being implemented are slim to none because some of them would require a great deal of change in social structures, ways of thinking, and governmental procedures.
My opinions that will be expressed herein are based primarily on the following:
1. My faith- I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My opinions and values are therefore primarily influenced by the doctrines of this faith. Please respect the fact that my testimony of this church comes after many hours of study of the words of the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Latter-day prophets, deep thinking and pondering on these words, and prayer. I recognize that some who read this blog may not recognize prayer as a valid source of information, I respect that, but please respect that I do value prayer as a source of truth.
2. My real life experience with the issues at hand and the people involved in them. This will at times include my observations of others actions and their culture. I realize that at times there will be generalizations, we shouldn't judge people based on generalizations because they might be the exception, however, not everyone is the exception, otherwise the generalization or stereotype wouldn't exist. I may not have concrete statistics to go with everything, I can only go off of my experience.
3. The Constitution and the founding fathers- I in no way, shape, or form claim to be an expert on the Constitution but I believe in it and feel that it needs to be followed more closely.
My purpose is not so much to persuade people to think the way I think but to promote understanding through a complete explanation. I don't expect you to agree, just to validate and understand. I am of course then open to explanations from others and validate their opinion.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)