Diversity IS Life

It is only in diversity that there is existence.  Contrasts create life on all levels.  If everything is the same there is nothing.  Lehi explains this concept:

For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.  (2 Nephi 2:11)

That which is all the same is "a compound in one" and can have no life.  If the entire Universe were made of one element there would be nothing.  If the "big bang" theory holds that all matter was condensed to a single dense football then there is nothing.  It is only in differences that anything exists.  There must be differences in temperature, light, sound, and every form of matter.  The differences in salt content of the blood compared to the cells allows for sensation, movement, and all the functions of life.

Energy is only energy when there are different levels, pressures, or amounts.  Water flows down from the mountains under the force of gravity.  Its power can be harvested by creating a gradient.  A dam is built to stop the flow, hold back the water, then force it out through pipes that have turbines that turn dynamos that create an "electron flow" that we can use as electricity to power our lights and machines to do our work.  Each step of the way we take advantage of pressure differences, allowing the high-pressure area to flow into the low, to do our work.  Without these differences there is no energy, no life, no sense, no existence -- nothing.

Followed to its logical conclusion, this concept means that all of existence is dependent on energy differences.  But, those differences will naturally flow together creating "sameness."  Differences between hot and cold will come together and create warm.  Electrical potentials will flow together and disappear.  Light disperses and is absorbed into nothingness.  Gravity and all of the atomic and sub-atomic "forces" will fall together and find their lowest energy state.  This is entropy -- the process of everything becoming nothing.  Eventually, all that exists will be just the same -- the same color, temperature, potential, flow, gravity -- the same energy.  At this point there is nothing because nothing moves or has existence.

Spiritual gradients
Spiritual differences are also essential to existence.  If there is no good, then there is no bad.  If there is no sadness then there is no happiness.  It is in the contrast of the spirit that God exists and creates.  Lehi further explains:

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. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.  (2 Nephi 2:13)

Diversity is right and wrong.  There are choices, these choices are like an energy gradient.  There are sentient beings that have made these choices, that represent the "high pressure" and the "low pressure" areas.  God is the "source" of all spiritual energy, whereas the Devil is the "vacuum" that sucks up all light and truth.  Moreover, there are sentient beings that make choices between the two.  They are given energy from God, for they are His children, and they decide what to do with it.  The "natural" course is to follow the gradient from the high energy to the low.  It's a downhill course that flows easily and quickly into nothingness.  The other choice is to harness the energy given, using it to improve and increase in knowledge, light, truth, wisdom, intelligence, or spiritual energy.  This takes, as all improvement in the Universe, effort -- both the effort to plan, and the effort to carry-out the plan.

As the children of God, the One who plans and builds all that is, harnessing the gradients of the Universe and forming them into clusters, galaxies, stars, and worlds, we are the pinnacle of His existence.  We are His re-creation, His reproduction.  He gave us the one thing that can allow us to reach up -- agency, or the ability to choose.  Choice is what allows that spiritual gradient, without it there is no existence because everything, and everyone, is the same.  That which is the same is not discernable, and essentially ceases to exist.

It is our diversity, our uniqueness, that makes us alive.  This is why NOTHING God creates is the same.  No two snowflakes, leaves, plants, animals, people, worlds, stars, galaxies, or anything God creates is the same.  God is not boring, nor can He get bored with the same work even though "His path is straight, and His course is one Eternal round," because each of His creations, from the smallest to the grandest, is unique.  This is life.

The power to choose
The agency we are given allows us to choose our level or type of existence.  Some will choose to be in the vacuum of Hell, always borrowing light that they cannot give back, and sucking the life out of everything by creating entropy; others will choose to become sources of light, and life and creation by organizing matter and directing the flow of energy in the Universe.  Our potential is that diverse. 

There is a plan laid out to accomplish the impossible -- to overcome entropy, go against the spiritual energy gradient, and become a director, creator, king and priest.  When our Father gave us choice, He also provided a plan for us to be able to make that choice.  To follow His plan requires that we use our energy to act, whereas the choice NOT to follow Him means we will automatically be acted-upon by the forces around us.

It's like God creates us and sets us on the side of a mountain.  He tells us to go uphill to the top to find Him.  The top is where all the potential is: light, energy, power, creation, love, hope, faith, priesthood, intelligence, and so forth.  However, it's easier to go downhill to the bottom to find Hell.  The bottom is the vacuum of nothingness into which all the energy from the top flows.

Our choice to act doesn't mean we have to find our way in the dark.  The intelligence to form the plan is provided by Him, as are the steps to get there.  He has blazed the trail, paved the road, lights the way, and provides the energy for us to go up to the peak of the mountain.  All we need to do is choose to follow it.  In a way it's hard because it requires effort, as it must to overcome entropy, or the flow of energy downhill.

Good needs bad
Both sides are needed.  There must be a top and bottom, and a right and wrong.  There must be a source of energy, and a vacuum into which it flows.  Without both there is no gradient, no flow, no change, no life, no existence -- nothing!  God must have a Devil.  Heaven must have a Hell.  There must be a choice, a difference, two ways to go.  There must be a flow of light and energy.  In order to act we must be able to choose to act, or not choose and be acted-upon.

The default is always entropy, or to be acted-upon by the forces around us.  Thus, a failure to choose to act always leads to loss.  The choice not to follow the plan of God is to follow the gradient to the lowest energy state, allowing entropy to act on us.  As in all energy gradients, there is a flow downhill from the high-pressure to the low.  It's easy, it's fun.  We can ride the wave of Gods energy to it's logical stopping point -- the bottom.  It requires no effort, neither to plan nor to build.  Most don't intend to arrive at that bottom, and when they do it is a shock and surprise to them.  Floating downstream requires no effort to arrive at the sea.  In the sea there is no current and no wind because everything has reached its lowest state.  Therefore, there is no power to act in any way, it's just nothing -- a vacuum that sucks in all the rivers of the Universe, but goes nowhere -- endlessly floating with no power to move up, and nowhere left to go down.

In contrast, Eternal Life is the ultimate power to act.  It is all power, or being at the top of the mountain.  Nobody gets there accidentally.  There is only one way to get up there, by following the road paved by Jesus Christ.  He lights the way to the top -- all the way to the top.  Each choice we make to move closer to God gives us more power until we reach the peak.  The top is to be "joint heirs with Christ."  These "shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths... and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.  Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.  (D&C 132:19-20)  They become a source of energy -- all energy.