It's a common question when discussing the reality of God --
Joe: Which God, of which religion? There are thousands of religions.
Bob: Uhh,
Joe: There are so many. Why is the Mormon God the only true God?
Jean: Well, for one thing, there is no Mormon God. The Book of Mormon teaches about Jesus Christ, His Father, and the Holy Ghost. We are Christian.
Joe: Then why the Christian God? What's wrong with, for instance, the Japanese or Greek Gods?
Carrie: Every religion feels just as strongly about their God.
Bob: Can I quote one of our Articles of Faith?
Joe: Why?
Bob: It just might help.
Carrie: I guess I don't mind.
Joe: Will it explain why the Mormon God is the one true God?
Jean: Number Eleven?
Bob: That's the one I have in mind.
Jean: It's definitely relevant.
Joe: Okay, if you insist, let's hear it.
Bob: It goes like this:
We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
Joe: I don't get it. All that says is that you want to worship the God of your own invention.
Jean: I think you missed the last clause.
... let them worship how, where, or what they may.
Carrie: You don't mean that.
Bob: No?
Carrie: You don't. Millie was telling me all about how all the other religions are wrong and just leading everyone to hell.
Jean: Unfortunately, some members of our Church don't seem to mean it, or don't seem to understand it.
Carrie: Millie said she wasn't sure you, in particular, understood God.
Bob: Unfortunately, some of our members are particularly unwilling to apply this to fellow members of the same Church.
Jean: But this is an Article of Faith. It's official, published by the Church.
Let them worship how, where, or what they may.
Bob: Not limited to people who aren't members of the Church. All men. All human beings. Even in the Church. It says
We ... allow all men the same privilege, ...
Carrie: Privilege?
Jean:
... the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience ...
Bob: And it's for everyone, so -- according to their conscience, according to your conscience.
Joe: But your Almighty God.
Jean:
... how, where, or what they may.Carrie: "Almighty God". That's your God.
Bob: You'd rather worship a weak God?
Jean: It's a description.
Carrie: Maybe I would prefer a weak God, that wouldn't be always sending me to hell.
Jean: That's not what God does.
Joe: And you say there is only one God.
Carrie: Why do you send all those missionaries out?
Bob: There is only one God, but there are thousands of ways to view that God.
Jean: More like billions. One for every person on the planet.
Bob: And considering that our understandings evolve, I guess, more than billions.
Jean: Every one of us. It's what we do most of our lives.
Bob: It's probably the most human thing we do.
Carrie: What's the most human thing we do?
Bob: Try to understand God.
Jean: Try to figure out what our own highest priorities should be.
Joe: What does figuring out priorities have to do with God?
Carrie: Isn't it bad enough you're trying to tell us we have to worship the God you made up? And now you're talking about priorities?
Bob: A person's set of priorities is what that person thinks is most important, right?
Carrie: Well, yeah. You don't get to tell me what I should think is most important.
Bob: Right. That's not my business.
Jean: ... let them worship how, where, or what they may. It's your job to set your own priorities.
Bob: You have to choose what's important to you, what is, in effect, the God that rules your life.
Joe: I ain't letting no God run my life.
Jean: But you choose what you think is important.
Joe: Damn sure.
Bob: Of course. What we're saying is that asserting all people's privilege of following their own conscience, as individuals, is the same thing as asserting all people's privilege of worshiping the God of their own choice. And that's the same thing as asserting the privilege that we all have of setting our own priorities, of choosing what's most important to us.
Joe: Then why do you have to call it God?
Bob: Because what you believe about how you and the world around were created, and about who is running things, is probably the biggest factor in how you set your priorities.
Jean: Although what you think is important also depends a lot on how you think you and the world came to be, and who is in charge.
Joe: Pretty soon, you're going to be saying the same thing Millie says, that evolution is my religion.
Jean: Isn't it a big part of what you have instead of religion?
Carrie: I don't have anything instead of religion.
Bob: Don't you have a philosophy about life?
Joe: Sure, but that's not a religion. I don't believe in any God.
Bob: There are religions that do not claim a God, you know.
Carrie: Such as?
Jean: Most branches of Buddhism claim not to have a God.
Joe: That's different.
Jean: Yes it is. But it's also the same. There was somebody in Japan that told me the short piece of really thick rope over his door was his Shintō Kami -- his God. It showed him how to be persistent.
Carrie: And you told him that would lead him to hell, right?
Jean: No, I thought it seemed like a good metaphor and a good ideal, and I told him so.
Joe: But calling it God?
Jean: I felt an impression that it was his high priority, and Shintō allows changing Kami, changing priorities.
Bob: And when we claim the privilege of worshiping according to our own consciences, we also claim that everyone who doesn't call it worshiping or God or religion has the right to claim their own philosophies and priorities and stuff, according to what they believe is right.
Jean: I don't trust you. You send out missionaries.
Bob: I think the biggest failures of our missionary program is when a missionary hasn't figured out that each person has to follow his or her own conscience, I mean, ...
Carrie: His or her, I heard that. Pronouns are important!
Bob: So is grammar. It's hard for me to mix plural and singular forms without getting confused, and the only true neutrals for people in English are plurals. You're changing the subject.
Carrie: My privilege. I don't want to talk about this any more.
Jean: Okay, let's talk about something else.
Joe: But why do you send missionaries out?
Jean: Well, our missionaries are supposed to be inviting people.
Bob: And why do certain people publish books and lecture about how their version of God doesn't exist? People like to share what they think.
Joe: But it's irrational!
Jean: Humans are all a little crazy. It's okay. Sharing what we think about helps us all keep sane.
