There are a couple of common ideas in Mormonism (and many religions) that seem to be contradicting to me.  The first idea is that mortal life is, among other things, a test.  The second idea is that mortal life is radically different from either our premortal life, or our after life.  To be fair, I would say that most Mormons would feel that there is more in common between mortal life and ‘heaven’ than most Christian religions would, yet my sense is that most of us believe the differences are substantial.  But do such perceived differences make sense if we look at mortal life as a test, with premortal life as preparation, and mortal life as an evaluation for a future after life?

Mortal life is what we know the most about – we are living it right now.  Mortal life has its joys and sorrows, its pleasures and pains, its triumphs and tragedies.  We have our struggles for food and shelter, our battles of good and evil, and our evident vulnerability and ultimate death.  There are many opportunities for testing during our time here, and it is easy to see why the idea that mortal life is a test appeals to us.  So if life is a test, does that tell us anything about premortal life as a preparation for this test, or about the afterlife if mortal life is an adequate evaluation of our fitness for it?

For mortal life to be a test, it seems that there ought to be a time of preparation – which would be our premortal life.  Yet it seems to me that much of what we go through during mortality bears little resemblance to my perceptions of premortal life.  For example, mortal life is filled with things like money concerns, health issues, etc. which I perceive to be absent in our premortal life (or afterlife).  Why should certain things seem to dominate much of our mortal life as part of some test, if such things are of no concern either before of after mortal life?

It appears to me that something has to give here.  Either my ideas about what is really going on during mortality is pretty warped sometimes, or my gleaming white perceptions of premortal and afterlife are not accurate.  Or both.