Originally Posted by
Just_A_Guy
1. *We* didn’t change anything. It was other Christian sects who had to explain why a Son of God who was also a God didn’t violate the Jewish shema, leading them to invent non-Biblical fancy-schmancy words like “triune”.
2. Partly right. Mormon is pretty adamant that God created the spirits of every living person, then created the world on which we live and made it possible for those spirits to be joined to bodies and come to this world. What is a little fuzzier doctrinally—but generally accepted—is the idea that God did not create the spirits ex nihilo, but refined them from some pre-existing material called “intelligence” whose characteristics, qualities, and potential individuality are largely a matter of speculation.
3. Not really applicable to Mormonism; because in Mormonism it was God who shaped us from that earlier primitive state of “intelligence” into spiritual beings; and then made it possible for us to obtain physical bodies as well. Your approach seems rather like saying that since both you and your mom are mortals, there is no room for you to honor and respect your mom. But I daresay that you don’t love, reverence, or obey your mom any less just because you know you have a grandparent somewhere out there.
4. First, a point of order: “Christianity” says nothing of a Big Bang.
As for your actual question: Mormonism doesn’t even weigh in on whether the “Big Bang” theory is scientifically accurate. I think most Mormons who subscribe to the theory would agree that God was behind it, though I’m not aware of any Mormon theologians who have really engaged with the idea of where exactly God existsd before the universe was created. Mormons will often colloquially speak of the possibility that there exist (or, can be created) an infinite number of universes, each run by a divine being; and but that our “universe”—everything we do and can know—falls under the exclusive dominion of God.
5. You’re somewhat misunderstanding Mormon teaching. Mormonism does *not* teach that physical birth is the same as spiritual creation. The spirit was created first, eons ago. Physical birth merely represents the emergence of an ancient spirit, now newly clothed with a physical body. I am away from my copy of Mormon Doctrine at the moment, but I’d stake pretty good money* on the fact that when McConkie refers to Jesus as the Only Begotten he’s referring to Jesus’ physical birth (via Mary). God created all spirits, but physically only Jesus was His son. Or, to put it another way, only one person who ever lived got 23 of their 46 chromosomes from God Himself; and that was Jesus Christ.
*Or I would bet, if McConkie didn’t take such a dim view of gambling.
6. Why?
Do I love my dad because he’s the toughest, richest, most powerful guy in the room? Or do I love him because he’s my dad, and he loved me first?
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