Thanks for the ping. Edward Watson, I’m a Christian and view Mormonism as a cult that became a culture because the members trekked to Utah and an open space so the cult grew without much outside pressure from day to day questioning of its founder, beliefs, etc. Ostracism, blood atonement, parceling out of wives, financial penalties and incentives and the like enforced a theocratic rule in Utah in the early years of the cult. Just setting out my view, and letting you know that I’m not friendly to Mormonism in terms of the theology or the Church. Like most, I like the Mormons I have personally known, and like most Christians I view Mormons as in danger spiritually and view them as trapped within a self-referential framework that is disconnected from the word of God and the true church. I’m not looking for a response to this, just letting you know where I stand.
The question I have is that you claim to explain evil satisfactorily (and exclusively) in Mormon theology. A glaring hole I see in your theology is the basic question - how did everything come into being? It’s the fundamental question that most children ask themselves when they begin to think about philosophy and religion. God always was, always is, and was the first mover. This answers the fundamental question, and God told prophet after prophet exactly this and put that scripture in our hands in the Bible. What do you, in your theology, think the first mover is?
You’re certainly free to believe whatever you want - no Mormon will force you to change your mind.
You know, I DID provide links that answered your questions re theodicy and cosmology. Why not just click on the links and read it?
I wrote:
“Why? Because only Mormonism resolves the problem of evil (http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/bicycleroad/21/id78.htm). Only Mormonism’s multiversal cosmology resolves the problem of a theistic-based reality (http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/bicycleroad/21/id76.htm)
Only Mormonism’s core doctrine of accepting “whatever is true and right” allows perfect resolution of science and religion.”