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Comment by tomrod | Hacker News Reader

Former Mormon here. I'm scratching my head at what is construed as a Spaceship?

Maybe poster is somehow confusing the Nauvoo Mormon spaceship from The Expanse with official doctrine. (understandable mistake)

Isn't there an aspect of Mormonism that intends for its saints to one day rule their own planets?

I find that kinda cool, honestly.

They ascend to become Gods which is somehow not contradicting the monotheistic aspect of Christianity.

Christianity is only monotheistic in name, for "reasons." The Trinity would just be three separate gods in any other religion. Even classifying Father, Son and Holy Spirit as "separate divine aspects of a single God" is basically what Hinduism does, and no one argues that Hinduism is monotheistic that I'm aware of. Also, the way saints and angels have traditionally been regarded in Christian practice (particularly in antiquity, prior to Protestantism) is exactly the way other religions have regarded minor and household gods, or ancestor gods.

Which, in fairness, is a reason many denominations reject the notion of saints.

I don't think adherence to a rigorous definition of "monotheism" is really necessarily a premise of Christian belief. Every mainstream Christian denomination has thought more carefully about this definitional issue than any of us here have. If it's important to you, there's a menu of mainline denominations to select from to calibrate your "monotheism" to your church's.

The LDS church is broadly considered by Christian denominations not to be Christian, because it (like the JW's, also in the same bucket) doesn't accept the Trinity doctrine. My point being, just, the LDS church is already not operating from the same premise you are about what "Christianity" means.

> In the distant future of The Expanse, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has commissioned the construction of the Nauvoo – a giant spaceship that will carry their “best and brightest” Mormons to a new planet with a new sun. This rich slice of universe-building accompanied the introduction of Fred Johnson, Director of Operations at Tycho Station and the man overseeing the construction of the Nauvoo.

https://observer.com/2015/12/the-expanse-recap-1x04-mormon-s...

AH! I love the Expanse but didn't make that connection (spaceships are not part of the current common theology). Much obliged.

Stating the obvious for those who don't follow the link: "The Expanse" is a fictional movie with no basis in reality in that church's doctrine: "In The Expanse, the story of what happens to the Mormon church (and other organized religions) will be trickled out with other back-story elements to fill the 200-year gap between the show’s setting and the present- which the showrunners seem desperate to bridge with (They have flying drones and video messaging!). The brief scene between Fred Johnson and a Mormon administrator weighs heavy on the show’s plot but is slipped in between the three main storylines of the Earth-based United Nations, Detective Miller’s case on Ceres Station and the rag-tag crew currently ship-hopping around the asteroid belt." etc etc etc

They mixed up Mormons with Scientologists

Its Heavens Gate and Raëlism that want the spaceships to land. Scientologists seem to just want them to be left buried in the mountain fortresses, unused.

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