Temple Work - A Losing Proposition

[Corsair]

Will we need to also baptize neanderthals and denisovans? If not, then what about us since we're all hybrid offspring?

That depends on who is determining the potential set of eligible humans. Should it be:

• Bruce McConkie (orthodox, young earth creationist)
• Hugh Nibley (less orthodox, acknowledges older earth)
• Russell Nelson (largely opposed to evolution by natural selection)
• A BYU anthropology professor (old earth, possibly Intelligent Design proponent)
• Francis Collins (old earth, pro-evolution, definitely Intelligent Design proponent)
• Richard Dawkins (old earth, pro-evolution, atheist)

The fact that we have to think about this tends to make the whole production a little bit suspect. It look less like a process that is organically necessary within this universe, and more like something to either improve spirituality or simply waste our time depending on the state of your testimony.

[el-asherah]

Will we need to also baptize neanderthals and denisovans? If not, then what about us since we're all hybrid offspring?

That depends on who is determining the potential set of eligible humans. Should it be:

• Bruce McConkie (orthodox, young earth creationist)
• Hugh Nibley (less orthodox, acknowledges older earth)
• Russell Nelson (largely opposed to evolution by natural selection)
• A BYU anthropology professor (old earth, possibly Intelligent Design proponent)
• Francis Collins (old earth, pro-evolution, definitely Intelligent Design proponent)
• Richard Dawkins (old earth, pro-evolution, atheist)

The fact that we have to think about this tends to make the whole production a little bit suspect. It look less like a process that is organically necessary within this universe, and more like something to either improve spirituality or simply waste our time depending on the state of your testimony.

The whole theology of temple work for the dead seems to have developed when the world was perceived to be a much smaller place and time was much shorter, 7000 years to wrap up the whole history of earth. Certainly a manageable number of people from Adam to the 1900s. But as time progresses the number of souls to save is expanding exponentially; backwards expansion into the known past (100+ B people including pre-Adamites), expanding into the present day with the current population explosion of the planet (8+ B), and will expand exponentially into the future. I can easily imagine 1000 years into the future, humanity has expanded to other star systems, even beyond our ability to communicate, and there are 1+ T people who need their temple work done. At some point the problem just becomes intractable and then the problem will be redefined. I remember when I was growing up we heard constantly we were going to walk back to Jackson County any day now. At some point the concept became absurd, the problem was redefined, and it now has mostly disappeared.