Better Being Born Good or To Overcome Evil?

Tuesday, July 8, 2014; 7:33 pm:

I was playing a game and one of the characters in that game said something to the effect of whether it is better to be born good or to overcome the natural tendencies of being evil through constant study, prayer, and application. This is an excellent question. I think that this is truly the whole question of life, the universe, and everything though!

In the pre-mortal world, we were presented with two plans: God The Father and Christ's Plan, and an alternate by Lucifer (later Satan, of course). Lucifer suggested that everyone be saved, no matter what so that not one would be lost. This of course would erase our agency. We would not be able to choose what we do, we would be "born good", and there would be nothing we could do about it.

With Christ's plan (the original, unchanging, and eternal plan in the first place), we would be given the ability to choose. This would bring with it great blessings of knowledge and understanding. One of my favorite quotes from the scriptures comes from Mother Eve:

     10 And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.

     11 And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our   transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.

        --Moses 5:10-11

I discovered one day what it meant to have an atonement. It was through my struggles with the addiction and all of its effects that I realized how important a Savior really is. As it turns out, there are sins we can commit which we cannot, in this life, fully make recompense for. Only Christ can overcome those for us. No matter how much I try, no matter what I do, there is no way for me to travel back in time and undo my addiction from the beginning. It is done, it was committed. I can only repent, abstain, overcome, and rely on The Savior to take it away. That is the meaning of the atonement.

Had we been given Lucifer's plan, we would not be able to be "at one" with God at all. We would be miserable, or worse: eternally ignorant of the joy that comes from living a righteous life in contrast to what is evil.

So is it better to be born good or overcome evil? As painful, difficult, hard, annoying, and strenuous as it may seem, I choose to overcome evil.