Mormons: If God was once a normal man, how could he create the universe?

Question

If he was a man, he existed in a universe already which he did not create.

I didn't say "a" universe. I said "the" universe, meaning everything, everywhere including other universes. You are just saying God created this universe. I am asking who created EVERYTHING. Who created the structure in which God's universe resides?

Answer 1

LDS believe in progression meatbot. You know this, and it makes sense. Are you suggesting there is only one universe?

Assuming that you are a (hu)man. You once lived in a home that was not yours. It was created by your father and mother. And now (hopefully) that you have kids, you have progressed on and have created your own home for your children
- or do you live in your parents basement?

Answer 2

Ok.. so you say that God couldn't have created a universe if He was a man. Even an exalted, perfected man? How is that? As a man, He wouldn't have had the ability to bring matter together? What if His body was perfected and eternal, just as Christ was at His resurrection.

Let's look at this another way: You believe in the trinity, correct? Well, if you believe in the trinity, you believe that God became man through Christ, right? So, God was once a man through this process. If that is the case, then God had a human body for a time, and we are now like He was then. That would mean that after Christ's death and resurrection, He was more then man is now. Since we believe that we can be joint-heirs with Christ, and obtain all the Father has, doesn't that mean that we could also learn all the Father knows?

I don't know how having a perfected, eternal body would cause a problem with creation. If you know the laws of science and the natural laws, then a body wouldn't hinder that process.

I agree that God always was, always will be. Before He was, as we all were, He was matter. We also existed in this state before our spirits were organized. SO.. if that was the case, who created God? I know.. He's always been there, never changing. Ok.. I'll go with that, as long as you can go with the fact that we believe something different as well.

Here's a website about this. Might help explain it a little more.

Answer 3

The idea that "God was once a man" is not well established in Mormonism. Mormons, like many other Christian denominations, do believe in "theosis," the idea that man can progress to become more like God. Historically, this concept has led some Mormons to speculate that if Man can become like God, perhaps God was once a man.

While this idea is interesting, it is not well-established in Mormon theology. I would classify it as "a theological question," not an official "Mormon doctrine." Gordon B. Hinckley, the current president of the LDS Church, has been asked this very question on several occasions. Here are some of his responses (verbatim or reported):

"There was a little couplet coined, 'As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become.' Now that's more of a couplet than anything else. That gets into some pretty deep theology that we don't know very much about...Well, as God is, man may become. We believe in eternal progression. Very strongly. We believe that the glory of God is intelligence and whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the Resurrection."

"President Gordon Hinckley says the concept of God having been a man is not stressed any longer, but he does believe that human beings can become [more like God] in the afterlife."

"On whether his church still holds that God the Father was once a man, he sounded uncertain. ‘I don't know that we teach it. I don't know that we emphasize it...I understand the philosophical background behind it, but I don't know a lot about it, and I don't think others know a lot about it."

To hear two Mormon theologians with differing opinions debate this topic, visit http://mormonmisc.podbean.com/2007/08/27/theology-with-blake-ostler/

If you'd like to learn more about the Mormons, visit my site at http://www.allaboutmormons.com

Answer 4

When I get to Heaven and have all the answers I will channel someone to come onto YA and answer this pressing question - K'?.

Answer 5

The creator son was the only incarnate, not the Universal Father. The Universal Father is not a being of flesh.

Answer 6

This coming from a guy who looks like a cross between a frog and a cucumber? You are not qualified to comment on normal.

Answer 7

God is nothing; but man's one of the most advanced and intresting imaginary character.Formation of universe has a cause of series of natural activities and not god;but far more than this!

Answer 8

No normal temporal, mortal being - exalted or not - could be the creator of the universe as we know it. Time, space, height, width, depth - all are properties of this universe only. How could a flesh and bone man have created it, when outside of the universe, the conditions necessary to support such a being do not even exist?

Modern cosmology clearly falsifies this self-divinizing aspect of Mormon doctrine. We are not Gods. And we never will be.

I've always strongly opposed this remarkably unhumble and immodest doctrine... to think that flawed man deserves or could ever hope to approach the infinite dignity of God! Harumph.

Answer 9

The Son of God was once a mortal man not GOD.

Answer 10

By being exalted. Just like we have been promised by God to be one day. Through the power of the holy priesthood.