A Latter-day Saint understanding of pre- and postmortality may be the answer to centuries of philosophical debate.
Each year, more than a million people willingly sign up to run a marathon. They know the race won’t be easy, but they trust the effort will be worth it once they cross the finish line. Associate Professor Nathan Rockwood (Early Modern Philosophy, Religious Epistemology) suggested that this same logic may help answer some of philosophy’s oldest questions. His Humanities Center Colloquium on January 29, 2026, titled “Premortality, Postmortality, and the Goodness of God,” explored how a Latter-day Saint perspective provides a unique and compelling view on the purpose of life.
The Existence of Evil
Rockwood began by outlining the first of philosophy’s long-standing dilemmas: the existence of evil. “It can be difficult to understand why a maximally good and powerful God would allow evil to exist,” he said. If God were able to prevent evil, but not willing, that would contradict His goodness. At the same time, if God were willing to prevent evil, but not able, that would contradict His power. The issue here stems from the Christian belief that God is both able and willing to prevent evil. So why, then, does evil still exist?
Rockwood suggested that the plan of salvation provides unique clarification on this dilemma. Latter-day Saints believe that a central part of God’s plan is for His children to learn by experience through life on earth, a plan agreed upon by all who now live. With this understanding, one can view God’s allowance of evil as “a deliberate feature of the plan that we freely chose.” Without the existence of evil, mortal life would not allow for learning. “This is the kind of world we wanted Him to create,” said Rockwood.
To illustrate this concept, Rockwood used the analogy of a marathon. Marathon runners are aware of the challenges that lie ahead when they sign up for a race, yet they freely choose to run, trusting that the cost will be worth the reward. Similarly, those who freely chose God’s plan accepted its conditions in the premortal existence, trusting that their experiences would be worth it. With this perspective, Rockwood said, “The existence of evil is not so much a problem as it is a choice.”
The Existence of Hell
The second philosophical dilemma Rockwood posed was the existence of hell. Traditional Christianity believes in the assignment of individuals to either heaven or hell, two distinct final destinations. Rockwood explained that this assignment may seem unjust, as it could give “two relevantly similar individuals two vastly different outcomes.” Someone who just barely falls short of reaching heaven could be placed in hell while someone similar could be sent to heaven. Additionally, Rockwood explained that two very different individuals could be given the same outcome. An individual who just barely meets the threshold for reaching heaven would receive the same reward as someone who far exceeds heaven’s threshold.
This widely accepted understanding of hell, like the dilemma of evil, creates a challenge for the Christian belief in a God who is perfectly just, because “if God were perfectly just, then the afterlife ought to be just also,” said Rockwood. However, he noted that a unique belief of the Latter-day Saint faith is that there is no distinct heaven or hell. Rather, there are varying degrees of glory that all individuals can qualify for, removing the injustice of a fixed heaven or hell assignment.
Additionally, Latter-day Saints believe that no individual should be punished eternally for their choices during a finite lifetime. They believe all individuals have a chance to hear and accept the gospel, either in this life or the next. Rockwood suggested that these two principles of postmortality offer a view of the afterlife that “is much more consistent with the demands of justice and the goodness of God.”
The Goodness of God
While philosophers have pondered questions about evil and hell for centuries, the Latter-day Saint belief in a plan of salvation provides a response that brings greater understanding to life. By inserting this unique perspective into the conversation, Rockwood demonstrated how faith can contribute meaningfully to philosophical debate. Like the mindset of marathon runners who find the race worthwhile, Rockwood’s approach framed life as an experience worth living, rather than a dilemma to be solved.
Learn more about Rockwood’s work here.