Other Worlds and Extraterrestrial Life
Mormon cosmology teaches that the Earth is not unique, but just one of many inhabited planets, each planet created for the purpose of bringing about the immortality and "eternal life" (i.e., the highest degree of salvation) of humanity. These worlds were, according to doctrine, created by Jesus. Mormon leaders and theologians have taught that these inhabitants are similar or identical to humans, and that they are subject to the Atonement of Jesus.
The doctrine of other worlds is found in LDS scripture, in the Endowment ceremony, and in the teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr. In addition, many LDS leaders and theologians have elaborated on these principles through exegesis or speculation, and many of these ideas are widely accepted among Mormons.
Read more about this topic: Mormon Cosmology
Famous quotes containing the words worlds and/or life:
“And who in time knowes whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue, to what strange shores
This gaine of our best glorie shal be sent,
T’inrich unknowing Nations with our stores?
What worlds in th’yet unformed Occident
May come refin’d with th’accents that are ours?”
—Samuel Daniel (c. 1562–1619)
“There was a time when the average reader read a novel simply for the moral he could get out of it, and however naïve that may have been, it was a good deal less naïve than some of the limited objectives he has now. Today novels are considered to be entirely concerned with the social or economic or psychological forces that they will by necessity exhibit, or with those details of daily life that are for the good novelist only means to some deeper end.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)