Becoming God

There is a teaching in Mormonism that a man may become a God if he is lives the way he is supposed to during his time here on the earth.

I believe it originated with a comment made by the initial President of the LDS Church, one Joseph Smith, who said,

"As man is, God once was, as God is, man may become."

It's not a very prominent teaching now, and I believe the previous President, when asked about it was heard to say... "I don't know if we even teach that."

I got to thinking about it last week while watching a comedy sketch by Ricky Gervais on YouTube. He quoted a scripture from the Old Testament, which I will quote in just a minute.

I don't intend this to be a blanket statement applying to all Mormons, but I have met a fair number who really take to the "A man can become a God" philosophy, and the reason they seem to take to it is primarily due to the fact that they can create their own worlds and have control over them. It really seems to all be about mass control.

Here's the verse which got me thinking about this though...

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Genesis 3:5

So what exactly does it mean to be a God - if you believe in a form of deity of course...

It would almost seem to me that perhaps to become a God is to understand that we have the ability to choose, rather than the ability to exercise control over another being.

Perhaps being a God is the ability to exercise freedom of choice, rather than taking that freedom of choice from another.

I'm of the opinion that God cares very little about choices we make. I tend to think that this time here on earth is a time for us to gain experience and a time to grow.

Perhaps once we understand that and understand that we have freedom to choose for ourselves, we become in effect, the god of our own universe.