Adam fell so we can have joy?

According to the Mormon scriptures, it is necessary for sin and evil to exist for man to be able to progress, to experience joy, to be righteous, to have free will. Even the existence of God is dependent upon sin according to the Book of Mormon. For clarity purposes read 2 Nephi 2. Is this logical? Is it good theology? Or is it nonsensical, morally revolting, and blasphemous? I choose the latter, and I’ll explain why.

First, it should be noted that 2 Nephi 2:11 affirms the necessity of opposites to all things. It says,

For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so… righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad

Verse 13 brings even more clarity when it says,

And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God.

Thus, the existence of God is dependent upon six things: law, sin, righteousness, happiness, judgment, and misery. I find this to be illogical and irrational. For example, law must exist in order for God to exist, but how could law exist prior to the Lawgiver? Punishment likewise must exist in order for God to exist; but how can punishment exist prior to the one who exercises the punishment? And if righteousness is predicated on the existence of sin, then how could one be rightly punished by the Lawgiver for sinning if it is ultimately necessary to fulfill the law? The idea that the existence of God is dependent upon the existence of sin, evil, and misery is morally revolting because it depicts a God who is not transcendant over evil, and does not ultimately have the power to eradicate it. He can't eradicate it because sin must exist for all good and righteous things to exist, and God is both.

2 Nephi 2: 22-25 demonstrates how the Book of Mormon does not correspond to reality when it says,

And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin… Adam fell that men might be; and men ^\are, that they might have joy

The Nephi passage is saying that they had to experience misery in order to experience joy, and they had to experience sin in order to experience good; all for the progression of mankind. But is this true in reality? Does one have to go through a beating to know what a loving touch is, does one have to jump into a pile of mud to know what it is to be clean? Does one have to eat a lemon to appreciate the sweetness of an apple pie, or experience darkness to see light? No, this passage is an aberration from reality, and it presents a serious moral problem. For example, if sin is an essential ingredient of human moral growth, then why would God deceptively command Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from one particular tree, but then severely punished them when they did what He really wanted them to do! What warrant would God have to do such a thing? Would you tell your child not to do something, even though you secretly wanted him to do it, and then punish him when he did what you secretly wanted him to? Of course not! That would be contradictory to your good moral character, and you'd be a moral schizophrenic, but this is precisely what the passage says God did.

This passage also creates problems for Mormon theology, for in Mormon scripture Jesus claimed to have been God even before the world was made. If the fall was necessary for men to progress, and eventually become Gods, then why is it that Jesus became God before the fall? And why is the Holy Ghost God if He didn’t benefit from the fall either? Consider what Bruce McConkie says, “Adam was to introduce mortality and all that attends it, so that the opportunity for eternal progression and perfection might be offered to all the spirit children of the Father” (Mormon Doctrine, 268; cf. Moses 5:11). This kind of inconsitency seems to be common in Mormon doctrine, and its things like this that make Christians like me think the Book of Mormon was invented by Joseph Smith, and that the Church that is founded on it is man made too.