That’s a phrase that I heard recently, and I think that it’s from some famous philosopher, but uhm…
I don’t know how to debunk it.
I’m doing my best to believe without thinking too much about that.
Some days it gets hard tho, so I’d like to hear you guys’ take on it.
The Mormons have “agency” (aka moral freedom) and the development of human intelligence as one of the key parts to the plan to have every one of God’s kids (you and me) return to god after this life/test.
Moral freedom is not free if there are no other options to choose from. Hence the moral agents (you and me) are enticed by evil which is allowed to roam free for a time.
Is this the excuse Joseph Smith used when trying not to get lynched for his rampant polygamy?
I am not here to debate because this is not the community to do so, but I just wanted to point out that in the philosopher’s argument OP is referencing (which I also can’t remember the name of… if someone does I’d appreciate it) also includes a part about “testing faith/character”, which is something like “If evil exists to test us, then God is not all-knowing”
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I hope you are having a great day! I probably overanswered below, but I think the context is helpful and not fully a “debate”. I can remove this if you think I am trying to be “debating” or “combative”.
I think this post is talking about the epicurian paradox: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurean_paradox
I did not say that the only purpose is to “test us”, I was stating that “development of human intelligence” was one of the key reasons for the plan to have evil available in this life. When I looked at that picture, I felt like it left out the possibility of “development of children of god” as a possible reason in that flow chart.
The other feedback loops of
These seem like they might be true as sound bytes, but I think they are wrong about the scope of the plan: To have God’s kids become Gods.
Mormons believe that God had innumerable children before the universe existed. The children had only spirit bodies and God was the only one with a spirit and physical body. God wanted them to become more like him. He presented a plan that would include a time of “probation” (aka life on earth) where we would (1) have no memory of before (2) have choice between good and evil just like God has and (3) do the steps to gain a physical body. This life has all of these. (NOTE: most people who profess to be christian try to say that these beliefs mean that mormons are not christian. When i read Romans 8:17, I see that this is exactly what was taught by Jesus Christ and his followers.)
Mormons also believe that the evil came from one of God’s children (Lucifer) offering a different plan where (1) there would be no choice and (2) all of God’s children would be choosing “Good” and (3) all would be gaining a physical body. Lucifer and those he convinced were cast out of heaven and act as “Satan and his angels”, and they never got physical bodies.
In conclusion: if God is trying to make his children joint heirs with christ (aka Gods) then including in the scope of the plan a choice of evil seems like something that he couldn’t take out of the plan without losing the point of the whole thing.