Looking Back on the LDS Religion as a Theistic Isolationist

[Arnox]

Ever since I split from my former religion, I've come to view numerous deities as egregores. For those who don't know, egregores are thoughtforms that come into existence and gain power through group attention and focus on it. My current understanding is that God as we traditionally know him is such an egregore. I also think though that the LDS God is also an egregore. No, my main question instead wouldn't be if either of these Gods existed, but rather, are they really all-powerful, and less significantly, but still very importantly, are they selfish or malicious at all? Well, I don't think they are all-powerful at all due to very weird irregularities around both deities, but it's clear that they are definitely some very heavyweight spiritual beings. But are they selfish or malicious? Well, that's one of the million dollar questions, isn't it.

From here, even more than usual, I am really going to go into the weeds here. These are just my current thoughts and speculations, so take them with a pound of salt.

I think the LDS God arose as a direct response to the building unrest and dissatisfaction with regular Christianity. People wanted... More. Still though, while such fervor would form a big egregore, it would also require two other things, at least if the egregore formed at that time. One thing that cannot be disputed is the Brass Plates which seemed to have either been actually created in ancient times, in which case, we are dealing with a much older spirit/egregore, or the Brass Plates were created out of nothing through sheer spiritual power and intellect both. Even if the latter is true though, the actual text for the plates is... Incredibly convincing. One thing is for sure, it's not possible whatsoever that some New York farm boy wrote it. A major spiritual third-party was involved here.

Now, let's talk about Satan/Lucifer/etc. for a bit. :) Specifically, I want to talk about him in the pagan/magickal sense. If you talk to ACTUAL practitioners who have dealings with this being (and not the "church" that arose to troll Christian soccer moms), most will say that there's a ton of misunderstanding about who he actually is. It's actually quite simple. Satan stands for divergent thinking, personal power, individuality, and, if needed, rebellion. The other famous demons out there such as Asmodeus and Lilith reflect this main idea as well, but with their own individual spins. With God, the whole is greater than the individual. With Satan, the individual is greater than the whole.

So, it is a theory of mine that the LDS religion is actually, in reality, commandeered by demons in order to give a more palatable way to coax early and now modern Christians into accepting ideas and concepts that were and are to this day seen as basically heretical to orthodox Christianity. It introduces to them the concept that there is more than just the single word of the Bible. It introduces concepts like a (comparatively) very lenient afterlife. If you die and aren't baptized or anything, you get a huge second chance. There are different heavens for people that can follow varying levels of law instead of just the usual of God's one-way-only heaven (though in fairness, Jesus Christ is still seen as incredibly important to salvation). The canon is kept open so that the doctrine can shift to dynamically accomodate changing times, environments, and attitudes. (For example, the Sabbath day in the LDS religion is openly kept on different days depending on the country you're in.) And the religion was started specifically in the US and espouses traditional US beliefs of freedom and personal defense heavily.

Now, you may say that if that is really the case, how come there are still many orthodox Christian ideas in the faith? Well, we need to remember, again, that this isn't the full version of the Left-Hand Path. This is just a watered down version of it. And the Christian edition of it too. It is what would happen if the traditional God was taken and somewhat "corrupted" with Luciferian ideals and concepts. The thinking is, if Christians are going to persist in following such ideas, then they should follow our version of that idea until they're ready to embrace an entirely different view. It's all actually quite beautifully engineered if you think about it all. What is ironic though is, for those I consider to be true LDS, they are actually super nice. And intelligent. Some of the best people I've met. Of course though, I've also seen that in orthodox Christianity, but by and large, the ones I seemed to fit in with the most by far and who I find has this to a greater degree is the LDS peoples.

So, does that mean I'm going into the LHP now? Ehhhh... I don't think so. Perhaps the LDS religion is the "best" official religion I've found so far BECAUSE it's on the border, and not because it's more Christian or Luciferian. Because it bridges the gap between the importance of the group and the importance of the individual. Now, I do tend to lean more towards the importance of the individual over the group, but the group is still important I believe. I think one can swing too far one way or the other.

 

[Houseman]

One thing that cannot be disputed is the Brass Plates which seemed to have either been actually created in ancient times, in which case, we are dealing with a much older spirit/egregore, or the Brass Plates were created out of nothing through sheer spiritual power and intellect both. Even if the latter is true though, the actual text for the plates is... Incredibly convincing.

The brass plates, or the gold plates?
The brass plates are supposedly the ancient ones, the gold plates are the ones that Joseph Smith allegedly dug up and translated with the help of an angel.

And as far as I know, it's not possible to lay eyes on either.

 

[Arnox]

The brass plates, or the gold plates?
The brass plates are supposedly the ancient ones, the gold plates are the ones that Joseph Smith allegedly dug up and translated with the help of an angel.

And as far as I know, it's not possible to lay eyes on either.

Whoops. I apologize. Yes, the gold plates. Well, that AND the brass plates. I'm referring to the plates JS had in general.

As to the plates themselves, there is the testimony of the three and eight witnesses, none of whom denied what they saw upon all of their deaths. It is also a famous fact that JS sent a small sample of the writing over to an expert to be examined, and while the expert did indeed say the writing itself seemed incredibly genuine, he still pulled his support last minute when he found out where the writing came from.

Of course, this doesn't NECESSARILY mean that the plates actually were written by ancient peoples. It could have just been an extremely well-written but made up piece of literature from demons as well.

 

[Houseman]

It is also a famous fact that JS sent a small sample of the writing over to an expert to be examined, and while the expert did indeed say the writing itself seemed incredibly genuine, he still pulled his support last minute when he found out where the writing came from.

If only Joseph Smith had the ability to translate the writing from the gold plates with the use of special glasses and a seer stone, how could this expert possibly say that the writing was genuine?

Were the special items just a shortcut because JS didn't know the language, but this other guy did?

 

[Arnox]

Were the special items just a shortcut because JS didn't know the language, but this other guy did?

Well, in the LDS religion, JS was entrusted with the plates, and he was given very explicit instructions that he was not to let just anyone have access to them. Here's the basic story here though from Wikipedia.

Smith said that when this sample was presented by Smith's colleague Martin Harris to Columbia College professor Charles Anthon, a noted classical scholar, that Anthon had attested to the characters' authenticity in writing but had then ripped up his certification after hearing that the plates had been revealed by an angel. Anthon wrote, to the contrary, that he had believed from the first that Harris was the victim of fraud.

Make of that what you will.

 

[Houseman]

I don't think that answers the question, but if this is the extent of the information we have about this event, it seems to me that it's contradictory and just a lie.