Joseph Smith’s teaching that something about us (intelligence/mind/spirit) has an eternal past, and was never created nor made, is a remarkable thing with many implications on Mormon theology.  One of the obvious results of such a teaching is that it ultimately eliminates the creator/creature relationship between God and man.  But with the creator/creature relationship eliminated, what then is the relationship between God and man?

One of the spinoff thoughts from my SMPT presentation is that of ontological similarity between God and man, and how important that is to Mormon beliefs.  But does the eternal nature of our intelligence (on its own) guarantee such sameness?  I don’t think it does.

One can imagine two beings that both have an eternal past.  Does this guarantee that both beings are the same type of being?  I would say no.  They might be, but they might not be.  In fact, their eternal past may be the only thing that the two being have in common.

This is part of why I prefer a spirit birth type model.  If God is the heavenly parent of begotten spirit bodies, then this provides a firm possibility, if not guarantee, that these spirit offspring have some ontological sameness with God.  Adoption models do not provide the same thing.  If God is nothing more than the adoptive parent of the intelligence/mind/spirit then there is nothing in place to guarantee that such adopted beings are ontologically similar to God whatsoever.  They might be, or they might not be.