Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!apple!sun-barr!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: hall@vice.ico.tek.com (Hal Lillywhite) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Extra-terrestrial worlds Message-ID: Date: 7 Oct 90 03:23:21 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Tektronx Inc., Beaverton, Or. Lines: 36 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article [Lynn]David.Anderson@cs.cmu.edu writes: >Lynn, here. >I believe it is lds doctrine that the fall of Adam was a *universal* >fall, affecting all of humanity on all worlds for all times, and that >likewise the atonement of Christ is universal in its scope. I don't think this is true, at least as far as Adam's fall affecting other worlds goes. Some have probably speculated to that effect but others have speculated that each world has an "Adam" of its own. While not contrary to any official doctrine, I don't believe we can say that LDS doctrine includes any belief in "our" Adam affecting other worlds. The idea that Jesus' atonement affects other worlds is on somewhat firmer ground as indicated in the D&C quote Lynn included. This quote seems to indicate that all worlds are made by his power and redeemed by him ("The inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God."). I've heard people try to explain this away and claim that each "earth" must have its own redeemer but I don't find their arguments very convincing. > (This idea >of other worlds and the universality of Christ's work is by no means a >new or exclusively lds idea. There are some interesting gnostic writings >on the subject, including the notion that our world has been >"quarantined"--that other worlds are allowed to communicate with each >other, but because our planet is the "staging area" for God's eternal >plan, as it were--we are isolated.) Well, I don't know about the Gnostic writings mentioned but the idea of a quarantined earth certainly shows up in C.S. Lewis' _Out of the Silent Planet_. Earth is portrayed as the silent planet because of such a quarantine although the reasons for that quarantine are different from what Lynn mentions. (I wonder if Lewis may have read some of the Gnostic writings and got the idea from them.)