I know this is a very sensitive and controversial topic, but feel it is also one about which many people has questions about, and many youth have asked me how they can conciliate what they are taught at school with what they generally hear from Church members. The topic is Evolution and all that it entails.
I feel that at this point I need to have a "disclaimer", so
here it goes. I know there is a God in Heaven who is the Father of our spirits, who sent His Son to redeem us from death and sin. I know that He, through His Son, is the Creator of life and of Men. I am in no way saying that there was evolution, but I am also not saying there wasn't. The purpose of this post is to start a discussion of open minds, in which the Gospel is the ultimate standard and truth.
First, what is this Evolution Theory (and I stress the word Theory) about? Do the evolutionists claim that Men descends from monkeys? I guess this is the first false notion about evolution and I would like to remove this obstacle straight away. Evolutionists believe that Men and Apes have a common ancestor, way back in the Earth's history. They believe that Men's line evolved in a different way from the apes' line, to the point they are absolutely distinct and have been so for the period of known history and pre-history.
Creationists, on the other hand, believe that both Men and all other species have been created the way they are now and that this occurred at a much more recent past.
The different life and Earth sciences have found evidence that point to the first group, Evolutionists, as the most likely to be right.
The Church has not made an official declaration denying the possibility of Evolution, unlike most people believe, and there have been General Authorities with very strong opinions both in favour and against this theory. I guess those against it have been more vocal, but there is a host of authorities who have advocated the possibility of God having used Evolution as a tool to create life on Earth. Among these there are those who believe Evolution was used to create animal and vegetal life, with the Creation of Men being a separate act, others who believe the same process was used to create Men.
The main obstacles to accepting Evolution as a possibility in the creation of life and Men are probably the following:
1. The Scriptures tell us about the creation of life as we know it, including Adam.
2. Adam is an individual not just a symbol of mankind, since he visited Joseph Smith and we have an account of his life.
3. The Atonement was made necessary by the Fall of Adam. If there was life and death before Adam, there would have been no Fall and therefore no need for an Atonement.
My proposal is that you share your thoughts as a comment to this post putting forward ideas, scriptures, quotes or evidence supporting either Evolution or denying it. I have my own ideas on that matter but would love to hear yours before I share mine.
Looking forward to your comments!
Hi Bishop,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post. I don't believe that evolution is a subject we should shy away from.
The fact is that the church holds to only two firm points in this area:
1. That Adam was the first man, created in the image of God and father of us all
2. That Jesus Christ was the creator of the earth.
Everything else is often
There are clearly some basic truths that scientists have discovered. But they don't know it all and speculate on the rest extrapolating far beyond the facts. We do the same in the Church, pronouncing far beyond the truths that the brethren have fixed for us.
I really enjoyed reading the First Presidency statement made in 1909 in response to questions arising from the publication of Darwin's "Origin of the Species. It's too long to publish here but it can be read here:
http://lds.org/ensign/2002/02/the-origin-of-man?lang=eng&noLang=true&path=/ensign/2002/02/the-origin-of-man