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The original was posted on /r/exmormon by /u/FaithInEvidence on 2023-12-16 20:58:17.
If I were a god and my goal was to help my children gradually level up to godhood, I would probably want to put in place some things to help my children practice common decency and love for their fellow beings, and maybe once they reached a certain level of altruism they might be ready to start to learn the really advanced physics, chemistry, biology, etc. that a god needs to master.
What I would not do is set up a system where the people who are sufficiently compliant with church teachings get to participate in a fraternal initiation where secret handshakes, gestures, and passwords are presented with a veneer of biblicality, as if to legitimize them. And what I would definitely not do is push believers to go through that meaningless process over and over again. The temple experience alone should have convinced me that the church is not true. If there were a god, he/she/it would have better things for people to do than handshakes.
But hey! Now you have a GREAT way to entertain people at bars/parties/orgies/whatever-better-thing-you’re-doing-with-your-life-now. If you’ve never taught a non-mormon the secret handshakes, I highly recommend it. People are fascinated and thrilled.