Thanks for the excerpt, CA.
Would that make Mormonism at least unofficially polytheistic?
Technically, yes. Mormons believe that there are an infinite number of gods, and the number is always going up (since that is the great promise of the religion – you too can have your own Jamba Juice god franchise!). However, as a practical matter, Original Recipe God is the only one they worship and there is no contact with the other universes and gods.
Unfortunately, it gets complicated because, setting aside the multiple universe thing, Mormons reject the doctrine of the Trinity and believe Jesus and God to be two distinct beings.
Anyway, “polytheistic” is a common charge against Mormonism by evangelicals. It doesn’t help that in one of the new scriptures that Joseph Smith “translated” he basically retells Genesis only with “In the beginning, the Gods created…”
Kinda… sorta… maybe? I would call it more Henotheistic than Polytheistic. The other gods may exist, but they are either exalted humans who work under the Father’s direct control, or they exist as his equals but in separate universes and don’t impinge on this one at all. So the Mormons still only worship one god.
They do veer a bit into polytheism in their view of the Trinity, which sees the members as more distinct beings than classic Christianity. But any form of Trinitarianism has always had a dubious claim to Monotheism in my opinion.
Or on review what Erdosain said.
Thank you for this.
Thanks, Erdosain and Bartman. Much appreciated.
Pardon the slight tangent, but is there anything in the Mormon faith-- or heck, ANY faith-- that explicitly says what one CAN’T do in the offered afterlife?
To the best of my knowledge, all religions like to advertise their afterlife as the Old Country Buffet to end all Old Country Buffets, where all wishes and whims are satisfied.
Meaning, joking about the perks of the Mormon afterlife strikes me as a lazy joke; all faiths have their own peculiar perks, all of which are culturally influenced.
Of course, Maher isn’t friendly to any faith, but that’s kind of my point: once you accept the supernatural, there’s no rational limit to the rules. I don’t understand why anyone can deride Mormonism as being uniquely strange in comparison to the rest of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and all the rest.
Because Mormons believe that an angel came down from heaven and talked to a human. 
I’ve heard it in relation to other spiritual based faiths, mainly Native American and pagan and I also see it in scriptures, where one becomes a higher level being (or angel) and the planet can be take as the womb. Mother earth is sometimes depicted as a such being as in this image:
The higher level couple will raise there children, though it is more of a parent/child then a ruler/subject relationship. And sometimes actually the opposite, the child is the ruler and the parent is the provider, with the child’s wants somewhat limited by the world that is created for him/her.
It would seem that Mormon may have some Native American influence due to their starting location.
I’ve wondered about this for a long time: suppose there’s a devout LDS couple whose marriage was duly sealed in a temple for eternity who don’t WANT to rule a realm or planet or whatever in the afterlife? I know I sure wouldn’t. Is it just assumed that everyone would? Or is the belief more like, “Once you get there, you’ll really like this whole get-to-be-a-god thing?”
I’ve learned a lot from this thread. Thanks, everyone!
Yes, if you’re good enough to become a god in the afterlife, it’s taken for granted that you’d want to continue the divinely ordered pattern: creating new worlds and spirits etc. If you really don’t want to, then maybe you’re just not god material.
As for whether Mormonism’s afterlife is particularly wacky, I’d submit that it IS a bit more space opera than a bunch of angels strumming harps. Honestly, this part of Mormonism was one of the few parts that appealed to me. It has a certain logic and appeal. Joseph Smith was at the top of his game when he gave the King Follett discourse. Not so much when he was talking about white Indians and diddling the maid.
As do mainline Christians. Two examples, off the top of my head:
An angel appeared to Mary, announcing that she would bear Jesus:
(For that matter, the Qu’ran has a reference to the Annunciation, as well: Annunciation - Wikipedia )
An angel appeared to Zechariah, announcing that his wife would bear John the Baptist:
Maybe you and your spouse could jointly abdicate when your eternal crowns are presented to you, and simply retire.
A question: As I understand it, and correct me if I’m wrong, at the day of Judgement 144,000 of the best Mormons will be converted into gods and sent on their way to found their own universes. All fine and dandy. So what, at that point, happens to God? God-God, our God, the Original Recipe God. ORG has created his own universe, ended it, filled his quota of new members for the God Club, then what?
Does he keep creating universes for all eternity? That’d get samey after a while. And the same for you, when you’re done being the ORG of your own universe: do you die again, do you start over, do you go into a celestial retirement with ORG One, what?
You are confusing Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons in the first part. The 144,000 is a peculiarly Jehovah’s Witness obsession. As for Mormons, there is no indication how many couples will become gods or a cap on the number. However, it does appear to be fairly difficult to achieve.
Your question about God’s retirement is excellent, though. I’m not sure it has ever been addressed by any Mormon thinkers. Does Original Recipe God become a spiritual advisor to his new generation of gods? Kind of a God Emeritus status? Or does he have to hang around with all the people who didn’t quite make it?
Details about the Mormon afterlife are pretty vague at best (the King Follett discourse is pretty much the only official source) so there is no definitive answer to your question, only speculation.
Brigham Young didn’t seem to think so:
“God himself is increasing and progressing in knowledge, power, and dominion, and will do so, worlds without end,” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 120).
But as you well know many of Brigham Young’s statements are studiously ignored by modern mormons. Maybe eternally creating stuff is cool enough, it doesn’t ever start to feel samey.
They explode.
Yeah, good point – I’m gonna go with a faith that has a lazier Heaven.
(Let’s see… hey, there’s a Lutheran church nearby that has a service in half an hour. Martin Luther brewed beer; I’m thinkin’ that’d be less work, and tastier, than having to run a planet)