A few remarks on woman. She is the glory of the man, but she is not at the head in all the creations of God. Pertaining to his children on this earth, she is not accountable for the sins that are in the world. God requires obedience for man, he is Lord of creation, and at his hand the sins of the world will be required. Could the female portions of the human family fully understand this, they would see that they are objects of tender mercy, and greatly blessed. This no doubt on a casual view appears to my sisters a glorious doctrine for them; and some might be tempted in their ignorance to take unwarrantable liberties, corrupt themselves with sin, and then take shelter under the doctrine that man alone is culpable for the sins they commit.

There are, however, restrictions placed upon woman. I will quote a passage of scripture to illustrate this. “And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” When the crime was thus atoned for, then was she free, and prepared to receive in full the blessings she otherwise would have received had she not committed sin. Women must atone for sins committed by the volition of her own choice, but she will never become an angel to the Devil, and sin so far as to place herself beyond the reach of mercy. She will suffer all that she has strength to suffer according to the venality of her sins.

I mean, there’s only so much creativity I can muster while teaching my children to pray over their food.

We had a blessing for the food that was pretty much the same every time. Later I decided to do something else that I liked better.

Does it mean we always existed as individuals? Was Brigham all wrong about the sop losing their individual identities and being recycled? And if we always existed as individuals, did we exist as independent facts (independent of any Supreme being)?

Yes, yes, and yes. That is my current leaning at least.

I now am partial to the idea that the One God is the eternal union of all eternal beings like us. I called that basic idea “radical universalism” in a previous post.

The way I am leaning now may change in the future but as for now that model fits the evidence I am aware of best.

Do you still feel that way?

And, if so, what relationship would our core selves have to this supreme God?

Does it mean we always existed as individuals?

Was Brigham all wrong about the sop losing their individual identities and being recycled?

And if we always existed as individuals, did we exist as independent facts (independent of any Supreme being)?

I have actually come around to the idea that our core self really is irreducible and eternal. That is contrary to the position I argued for in this post.

But in answer to your question — I think if there were a finite universe and eternal time it would require recycling of both good and bad. I used the “one eternal round” idea to defend that position in later posts that can be found in the eternal progression category.

If I understand your view here, you believe in a finite number of uncreated particles of spirit-matter, eternal progression, and that those too disposed to evil to progress will be stripped down to component particles and recycled into new individuals.

Most of that makes sense to me, but what happens when all the good souls have been exalted, and all the bad apples recycled?

Don’t you still run out of material (and doesn’t this still put an end to eternal progression)?