Thanks for posting. According to the LDS professors in the article, there is no substance to some of the beliefs that Church leaders & Prophets clearly taught and continue to teach. What is particularly disturbing to me is the attempt by current LDS leaders and professors to publicly distort and deny their own teachings while attacking others who simply document those teachings. In a lot of ways it is similar to how Muslims apologists react when one points out the truth about Islam not being the “religion of peace” they maintain it is. Instead of acknowledging Islam's record both in the past and present, they accuse others of being “Islamophobes”. Likewise, those who tell the facts about Mormon teachings are “anti-Mormons”. Never-mind what the truth is.
No doubt what I just wrote will put me in the Mormon hater category. But that could not be farther from the truth. I have close Mormon friends whose friendships I treasure.
There is no religion more consistant than Mormonism. The doctrine comes from the Bible and other standard works and from prophets when they are speaking propheticly. However, some of what some Mormons believe comes from intepretations of the standard works, and we try to differentiate between doctrine and interpretation. That man may become like God is doctrine, well established by the Bible and the Doctrine and Covenents. The questions of planets and who rules over what are interpretations, not doctrine.