Philosophy, Christianity, Mormonism & Evolution

From a big-picture, philosophical point of view, Mormon (Latter-day Saint) theology faces some serious challenges when it comes to explaining where everything comes from and what grounds reality itself. These problems show up especially in its ideas about God and eternal progression.

The Infinite Chain of Gods

Mormon teachings, based on Joseph Smith’s sermons (like the King Follett Discourse), say that God the Father was once a man who became a god. Before Him, there was another God who did the same thing — and before that God, another one, and so on, forever backward in time.

This creates an infinite regress — an endless chain of gods, each one depending on a previous god to exist and become divine.

The big question is: How did the very first God in this chain get started? If every god needs a prior god (plus eternal matter, intelligences, and laws) to progress and become exalted, then there is no true beginning. The explanation just keeps pushing the question further back without ever answering it.

Philosophers point out that an actual infinite series of dependent beings doesn’t explain why anything exists at all. It just delays the answer forever. This is similar to problems raised in arguments like the Kalam Cosmological Argument: you can’t cross an infinite past to reach today, and you still need to explain how the whole process ever got going.

The Problem of Space, Time, and the Rules of Reality

Another issue is even more basic: What provided the “stage” for all of this to happen?

• Who created the space for these gods to live in?
• Who set up time so that progression from mortal life to godhood could occur?
• Where did the natural laws and the ability to organize matter come from?

In Mormon cosmology, matter and intelligences are said to be eternal — God organizes them but doesn’t create them from nothing. This means the basic framework of reality (space, time, laws) has always existed as a kind of unexplained backdrop. But then those things themselves need explaining.

It’s like trying to explain life by saying it evolved from simpler forms — that still assumes a universe with space, time, matter, and laws already in place. The Mormon view moves the mystery back one step but doesn’t solve the foundation problem.

How Traditional Christianity Answers This

Classical Christianity offers a much simpler and cleaner foundation. It teaches that God created everything out of nothing (creation ex nihilo).

The Bible puts it this way in John 1:1, 3:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

In this view:

• God (the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is eternal and self-existent. He didn’t “become” God — He has always been God.
• He is not part of a chain. He is the ultimate starting point.
• Space, time, matter, and the laws of nature are not eternal. God created them all.
• There is no infinite regress because God is the uncaused cause — a necessary Being whose existence doesn’t depend on anything else.

This idea is called aseity — God exists “from Himself.”

Why the Christian View Has a Logical Edge

Mormonism’s picture is inspiring in its emphasis on human potential and eternal families. However, it leaves the most important questions unanswered or circular:

• Why does this chain of gods and laws exist instead of nothing?
• What holds the whole system together?

An infinite chain of contingent (dependent) gods never reaches a final explanation.

Christianity, by contrast, stops the chain of “why” questions at a single, self-sufficient God who freely creates everything else. It is simpler, more complete, and avoids the philosophical problems of an infinite regress.

In Summary

While both faiths deal with deep mysteries, traditional Christianity provides a stronger philosophical foundation for reality. It starts with a God who is the ultimate source of everything — self-existent, creative, and needing no predecessor. Mormon cosmology, with its eternal progression of gods, risks leaving the ultimate origin of existence unexplained.

72 Perpetual Virgins or Easter

 72 perpetual virgins with rose petal lips are the marital highlight of Islam. This is a heavily AI picture of NY Mayor Mamdani enjoying his religion’s benefits. Easter is the highlight of Christianity! Here is the difference: the 72 heavenly, perpetual virgins with rose petal lips do not exist. Christ’s death, burial and resurrection are a historical fact! Jesus (not Mohammed) said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

New Mexico Burns

Many people still claim that Nero fiddled while Rome burned—yet he famously blamed the Christians for the fire. Today, we see a similar pattern: politicians often create or ignore massive problems, then shift blame onto convenient scapegoats instead of taking responsibility.

In New Mexico, lenient laws and policies have left criminals and pedophiles facing weak consequences, while offering far too little protection for women and children. Our state fails to truly value innocent life. Lawmakers have proudly expanded abortion access, turning New Mexico into a destination for the procedure with few restrictions. Meanwhile, despite our persistently high crime rates, officials repeatedly point the finger at law-abiding gun owners rather than addressing the real sources of violence.

Even as these failures mount, New Mexico recently won a landmark $375 million lawsuit against Meta, holding the company accountable for misleading the public and endangering children on its platforms. New Mexico blames others for the problems its own government have created.

                     Wonderful Flat Tire!

     Our car tire was quickly going flat!  My wife Karen travels a lot for her work.  I always worry about her car breaking down on the side of the road somewhere.  This trip to Albuquerque was a rare time where we were traveling together.  Thankfully, we were by a gas station which had a half-working air machine, because our spare was also flat.  We changed the tire, aired up the spare and drove to a nearby tire shop.  We drove home safely on some new tires.   I am thankful that my wife wasn’t by herself, stranded out in the middle of nowhere.  She was thankful that we were not driving on the interstate highway when the tire went completely flat!  Were our circumstances a lucky coincidence?  I thought it was a miracle, flat tire!  God is good!

King James Only Problems

       The King James only viewpoint has a few problems.  First of all, the King James Bible simply has more words and verses than the early Hebrew and Greek manuscripts.  It doesn’t have additional doctrine but it does have more words.  This is why King James only preachers do not unusually refer to Greek and Hebrew manuscripts.  Modern translations rely on the early Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, which simply     have fewer words than the KJV.  When preachers say that the KJV is the only correct version, they are saying that God failed to keep his word from being corrupted through the centuries and that the KJV had to be written to save the day.   If God cannot keep His promises , this is a big problem!  If God could not preserve His word in the early Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, how can we know that God will able to preserve the KJV today?   On the contrary, I believe God keeps His promises.  The thousands of early Hebrew and Greek manuscripts demonstrate God’s ability to preserve his WORD - the Bible’s eternal doctrines.   God is good and He keeps His promises!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

The Great Charlie Kirk vs Me

 One difference between the great Charlie Kirk and me is with women’s reproductive rights. I usually view it as a racial issue.  The abortion industry targets minority groups to lessen their numbers.  Therefore, the Hispanic baby has been twice as likely to be killed as the white baby.  The black baby has been 4 times as likely to be killed as the white baby.  It has long been about eugenics.  The white child has always been favored over the minority child.  

     Kirk said the issue is mostly about narcissism.  Most babies are killed because they are just not convenient. A mother may not want to alter her lifestyle.  She may want to just focus on college and her career without her child in the picture.  It is all about her and her own convenience.  It is not about anyone but her.

     Charlie was a great voice for the unborn!  He was one of their greatest and loudest defenders! He loved God and he loved others.  Now he wears the martyr’s crown!  

Spiritual Ignorance

Growing up in a Pentecostal church, we often focused heavily on spiritual experiences. We felt that signs and wonders, healings, and emotional highs placed us on a higher spiritual level. Occasionally, a prophet would stand and deliver a prophecy. Those who accepted the prophecy immediately were viewed as more spiritual, while anyone who hesitated or questioned it was considered less spiritual. The mind—thinking, evaluating, taking thought—was seen almost as an obstacle to faith.

What we failed to realize is that Scripture actually commands us to test spiritual claims.

1 John 4:1–3 instructs believers not to “believe every spirit,” but to “try the spirits whether they are of God,” precisely because false prophets exist. This passage does not tell us to seek a subjective feeling but rather to evaluate claims using sober judgment.

Similarly, Deuteronomy 13:1–3 teaches that even if a sign or wonder comes to pass, we must consider whether the message aligns with God’s truth. The standard is not emotional confirmation but objective discernment rooted in God’s Word.

In Deuteronomy 18:20–22, God gives a clear test for a true prophet: if the prophecy does not come to pass, it is not from Him. The text warns us not to fear such a prophet, emphasizing again the importance of critical evaluation.

Paul makes the same point in Galatians 1:8–9, warning believers to reject any message—even from an angel—that contradicts the gospel already received. The standard is the truth of the message, not the intensity of the spiritual experience surrounding it.

From Scripture, it is clear that God does not expect us to base our faith or eternal destiny on feelings or emotional experiences. He does not want us to be deceived. Instead, He calls us to examine, discern, and test all things. As 1 Thessalonians 5:21 states, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”