Oh I’ve puzzled through that too until my head hurt!
Here’s another one:
Once you become god over your own planet, do you have to reenact the way Mormons describe events here on earth? You must give birth to a son, name him jesus, then another son and name him lucifer. And then events unfold...but what if they don’t? What if your lucifer doesn’t rebel and your jesus does. Or neither? Or both?
And do you have to spawn a new Joseph Smith to write a new BOM to explain how it works on your planet?
Meanwhile the same scenario is working out all over the universe as all the thousands, then millions, then billions of other gods deal with their own planets.
(that last reminds me of the gallon jar filled with little beans sitting on the desk at the animal shelter to illustrate how many offspring one set of un-neutered cats can be responsible for in a few years time)
And do you have to spawn a new Joseph Smith to write a new BOM to explain how it works on your planet?
Meanwhile the same scenario is working out all over the universe as all the thousands, then millions, then billions of other gods deal with their own planets.
What a great illustration! Mormon cognitive dissonance in a nutshell.
Research on cognitive dissonance:
Festinger first developed this theory in the 1950s to explain how members of a cult who were persuaded by their leader, a certain Mrs Keech, that the earth was going to be destroyed on 21st December and that they alone were going to be rescued by aliens, actually increased their commitment to the cult when this did not happen (Festinger himself had infiltrated the cult, and would have been very surprised to meet little green men).
The dissonance of the thought of being so stupid was so great that instead they revised their beliefs to meet with obvious facts: that the aliens had, through their concern for the cult, saved the world instead.
1978, anyone?