Why are we here?

[mikbone]

I attempted to produce an inclusive list...  Any insight would be appreciated.

 

The Purpose of Life – Mortal Probation – Why we lost our premortal memories

1)  We are here to learn via experience that God is benevolent and wise and as such, He deserves our faith. (loyalty, trust, and obedience)

2) Our thoughts, words, and actions (or inaction) all have consequences. (Mosiah 4:30)

3) Evil and chaos are relentless forces that require constant opposition. (2 Nephi 2:11)

4) We should recognize that following God’s plan is the only way to obtain true happiness and Joy. Therefore, we should not need a of fear of punishment nor a promise of reward to motivate us to do good. Choosing the right in and of itself is a self-rewarding activity.  (2 Nephi 2:25)

5) Mortality is designed to prepare us for future challenges by strengthening us, and forever conditioning us against sin and temptation. (D&C 122:7-8)

6) We are here to work, to prepare to meet God. (Alma 34:32)

7) We are here to receive a body, and begin our education about matter. To learn how the physical elements can be manipulated and controlled.  (2 Nephi 2:14)

8 ) God wants us to understand what it is like to have a spouse, children, and family.  To experience love, and all the benefits and challenges associated with marriage and parenting. (The Family: A Proclamation to the World)

9) We are here to grow in knowledge, and develop talents and gifts. (D&C 130:19)

10) We are here to partake of ordinances and witness the Atonement of Jesus Christ. (D&C 20:77-79)

11) This probationary state was designed to test which spirits are worthy to continue progressing toward greater power and authority. (Abraham 3:25)

Edited December 5, 2018 by mikbone

[Fether]

I’m here for the food

[anatess2]

2 Nephi 2

[Emmanuel Goldstein]

Men are that they might have joy.

[Rob Osborn]

Every action God does for us is to further our developing into becoming who he is. 

[Guest]

15 hours ago, Fether said:

I’m here for the food

It must, of course, include kim chee.

[LePeel]

A spirit, by it's very nature, has a limit to what it can experience. It has emotions, love, anger, pride, etc. But a spirit cannot truely comprend itself until it it's allowed to personally experience suffering, pain, hardship, discomfort, etc. And by experiencing one, it can comprehend and know the other; happiness, joy, peace, wholesome satisfaction, etc. 

We are sent into the world for the purpose of learning good from evil, to learn the difference between joy and misery. That we may have our agency and a real choice. And by having a real choice, we are able to receive the Law and are therefore eligible to receive the blessings affixed to the Law. 

The great and coveted prize of this life is the body. The body allows spirits to interact with the eternal reality of matter they find themselves in. They now have senses with which to experience this world which was prepared for them, and the worlds in the life to come.

But this isn't all. The crowning glory of the human body is that it has been blessed with desires and feelings and powers, that when properly exercised in accordance with Divine law, brings a man and a woman together in the creation of a family.

And this is God's glory, that He has labored to provide his children meaning and the ever lasting fulfillment of this meaning. The body is the instrument by which this is done. And we are forever indebted to our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ for making these things so.

 

[Klaymen]

From Philippians 1

Quote

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.

 

[MrShorty]

I will agree with most of them, but add these comments to a few of these points:

2) The difficulty with this "action-consequence" "law of the harvest" is that, as the Ecclesiast observes, it is easy to observe wicked who prosper and righteous who struggle. Part of this purpose is to develop faith that, in spite of these seeming contradictions to the law of the harvest, point 4 will eventually be true -- righteousness leads to eternal happiness and wickedness to eternal misery.

8 ) If this is a true -- important -- purpose to this life, I still don't understand why we believe that God wants homosexuals to be celibate throughout their life. It seems like a monogamous, homosexual marriage would provide an equivalent laboratory to "experience love, and all the benefits and challenges associated with marriage". Through adoption or, as is evident in many cases of previously failed heterosexual marriages/relationships, natural, biological children, they can also experience parenting as well.

11) I would note that according to Abraham 3:25, obedience to God's commandments seems to be a big part of this test (which is the only explanation I can understand for the exceptions to purpose 8).

 

[Emmanuel Goldstein]

On 12/3/2018 at 8:14 PM, Fether said:

I’m here for the food

Both to eat food and become food.

[Guest]

On 12/3/2018 at 9:14 PM, Fether said:

I’m here for the food

On 12/4/2018 at 12:15 PM, Carborendum said:

It must, of course, include kim chee.

On 12/4/2018 at 11:24 AM, Emmanuel Goldstein said:

Men are that they might have joy.

I rest my case.

[Lost Boy]

Forget about why we are here.  What is for dinner?

[let’s roll]

To learn to love God and our brothers and sisters.

To develop a mind that understands the work of God and a spirit/heart willing to accept His invitation to join Him in that work, both in mortality and thereafter.