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Prophets or
Evolution - An LDS Perspective Chapter 1 An Overview
of LDS Doctrine Compared to
the Theory of Evolution The time is coming and facing you
right now ... when except you have that testimony of certainty that these
things [the gospel, the Church, and so on] are true you will not be able to
weather the storms that are going to beat upon you and try to tear you from
your moorings today. But if you know with all your soul that these things
are true ... you will know who Jesus your Savior is and who God your Father is;
you will know what the influence of the Holy Ghost is. If you know those things
you will stand as an anchor against all the storms that shall beat upon your
house ... [Matthew 7:26-27] Harold B. Lee (2002 Priesthood/R.S. Manual - page 44-45) Note The www.ProphetsOrEvolution.com
website is the official home of this book and will always
contain the most up-to-date version; but other websites are allowed to
host this book as long as they stay within the copyright restrictions found on
the title page. The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS): The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as
the "Latter-Day Saint" church or LDS church, is a Christian church,
as its name implies. Many of its
teachings are similar to the teachings of the majority of the Christian
churches today. The LDS church
officially endorses the King James Version of the Bible, as far as it is
translated correctly. The
foundational differences between the beliefs of the LDS church and other
Christian churches begins with its belief that other scriptures exist, other
than the Bible; and that the authority and calling of living prophets and
living apostles has been restored to the earth; prior to the Second Coming of
the Savior; as prophesied in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The first
book of scriptures published by the church (actually it was published shortly
before the formal organization of the church) was the Book of Mormon, which is more than 500 pages long.
Many of the quotes in this book come from the Book of Mormon and will
thus reference books which are not familiar to most Christians. Examples of these books are: 1 Nephi, 2
Nephi, Mosiah, Alma, Ether, Mormon, Moroni, etc. The Book of
Mormon was published in 1830, but it covers a period of time in the earth's
history between 600 B.C. and 400 A.D., a period of about a thousand years. Most of the Book of Mormon was written by
prophets of God in the One special
book in the Book of Mormon, the Book of Ether, actually covers a period of time
between the Another
official book of the LDS church is the Doctrine and Covenants or D&C, which
were revelations given primarily to the prophet Joseph Smith. Several
small books are bound together and are called the Pearl of Great Price. This small book includes the Book of Moses,
the Book of Abraham, an inspired version of Matthew chapter 24, a history of
the prophet Joseph Smith, and a summary of official church doctrine. The Official LDS Position
on the Theory of Evolution Most
Christian churches have adopted a position that the theory of evolution is a
scientific fact and that the doctrines of evolution can be made compatible with
the teachings of their church. The LDS
church has NOT taken a position that there is any truth to the theory of evolution! The LDS
church, which was organized about three decades prior to Darwin’s famous book on evolution was published,
has always taken a position
that this earth; and all life on this earth; were planned, organized and created by God, meaning by
Heavenly Father and/or Jesus Christ. The
LDS church has always stated that all people have spirits and that our spirits
are literally the children of God. While the
officers of the LDS church have generally ignored the theory of evolution, there
have been times when officers of the church have discussed the theory of
evolution, such as an official statement of the First Presidency in 1909. More will be said about the official position
of the church in a future chapter. Here is a
recent example of an apostle of the church speaking on the theory of evolution. Elder Russell M. Nelson, of the Quorum of
Twelve Apostles, said this:
Through the ages, some without scriptural understanding have tried to explain
our existence by pretentious words such as ex nihilo
(out of nothing). Others have deduced that, because of certain similarities
between different forms of life, there has been a natural selection of the
species, or organic evolution from one form to another. Many of these people
have concluded that the universe began as a “big bang” that eventually resulted
in the creation of our planet and life upon it.
To me, such theories are unbelievable! Could an explosion in a printing
shop produce a dictionary? It is unthinkable! Even if it could be argued to be
within a remote realm of possibility, such a dictionary could certainly not
heal its own torn pages or renew its own worn corners or reproduce its own
subsequent editions!
We are children of God, created by him and formed in his image. Recently
I studied the scriptures to find how many times they testify of the divine
creation of man. Looking up references that referred to create, form (or their
derivatives), with either man, men, male, or female in the same verse, I found
that there are at least fifty-five verses of scripture that attest to our
divine creation. Russell M. Nelson, “The Magnificence of Man,” Ensign, Jan.
1988, 64 As Elder
Nelson states, the scriptures of the LDS church are purely aligned with a
designed creation of this earth and all life on this earth. The Theory of Evolution
in the Book of Mormon The theory
of evolution was described in the Book of Mormon and was taught by the
anti-Christ, Korihor, who lived about 74 B.C. in The
difference is that Korihor was honest enough to admit that his version of the
theory of evolution was a result of his strong belief in atheism. The modern
scientific establishment knows that the theory of evolution is a magnet for
atheism, but they instead claim that their support for the theory of evolution
is because of their belief in "naturalism," not atheism. It is a play on words to attract more
converts to their theory (or technically to repel fewer people away from the
theory of evolution). The theory of
evolution is clearly atheistic (i.e. it is opposed to "supernatural"
beings and "supernatural" events). But even
this does not fully explain why the theory of evolution is so intensely driven
by the scientific establishment. 45 And yet do ye go
about, leading away the hearts
of this people, testifying unto them there is no God? ... This verse
explains why the theory of
evolution is strongly pushed by many people.
A belief in the theory of evolution implies there is no God, thus the
followers of this theory believe it allows them to do (or believe) whatever
they want to (i.e. they believe there is no God, thus they believe there is no Judgment
Day and thus they believe there are no consequences to what they do). In their hearts,
they want to believe in the theory of evolution. A person's heart frequently drives what a person believes. More will be said about Korihor in the next chapter. The Theory of Evolution The
"theory of evolution," or simply "evolution," is a theory
postulated in 1859 by Charles Darwin.
Prior to the first edition of his famous book: The Origin of Species,
which is the book which started the public evolution debate, there were already
those who supported the concept of evolution. In fact,
scholars in evolution history were surprised and disappointed that In Those
religions which additionally believed in the New Testament, and not just the
Old Testament, refined the details of the creation into saying that it was
Jesus Christ who was the God who created the earth and Adam and Eve (e.g. see
John 1:1-4 in the New Testament). The LDS
church takes this one step further and states that it was Jesus Christ who
created the earth from previously existing materials, and that He took others with
Him to create this earth (see Abraham 3:24-25 in the Pearl of Great Price). When The
Origin of Species was published in The theory
of evolution of Darwin was essentially trying to replace the commonly believed
supernatural events of Christian doctrine, and the doctrine of other religions,
with "naturalistic" events that did not include any God. It would be fair to say that evolution was an
attempt to replace a belief in God with a belief in nature. Many people
in However, even
from a scientific viewpoint, not all scientists in Perhaps
foremost among these scientists was Louis Agassiz.1 He was acknowledged as the greatest
naturalist in his time and was known as the "Father of the Ice Age." Yet Though
world-famous in his own day, Agassiz is not well known today because the flood
of Darwinism (in the later stages of the career of Agassiz), largely caused
Agassiz to be written out of science textbooks because he openly challenged Darwin
himself said to the famous poet Henry W. Longfellow: "What set of men you
have in Agassiz
said of Here is
another quote of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints In 1859,
the LDS church was 29 years old. The
Book of Mormon, the flagship book of the church (along with the Bible) had been
published in 1830, shortly before the organization of the church. As with
other Christian churches, Since almost
all of the current "standard works" (i.e. scriptures) of the LDS
church were published long before Charles Darwin became famous; it is
impossible for the church to hide the fact that its own scriptures speak
volumes on the subject of the creation by Christ, the literal existence of Adam
and Eve, the flood of Noah, etc. Before comparing
church doctrine with pure evolution, it should be understood by the reader that
many scientists of all faiths today do not
believe in the theory of evolution. Many
scientists today consider that the scientific evidence strongly favors the
doctrine of "creation," meaning the doctrine that life is so complex
that it could not have been created by many, many random and directionless accidents
and that only God could have created life as found on this planet. Thus, it
would not be accurate to say that
the following discussion is about the differences between the LDS church and
scientists; but rather it would be accurate to say that the following
discussion is about the differences between LDS church doctrine and the theory
of evolution doctrine. Prophets or Evolution - Overview
of the Differences Church
doctrine, mostly from the scriptures and an official statement of the First
Presidency in 1909, make it very clear that the doctrines of the church are mutually
exclusive with the theory of evolution. The LDS
church clearly teaches that human beings are a combination of two entities: a
spirit body and a physical body. The LDS
church teaches that our spirits are literally the spirit children of our Father
in Heaven and that Christ is our eldest brother, meaning He was the first-born
of all spirits. The LDS
church teaches that we lived as spirits (and were sentient) before we came to
this earth to gain a physical body. This
is called the preexistence or premortal world. The theory
of evolution teaches that human beings do not have a spirit body. A note regarding
the spirit of man is important. While
the theory of evolution does not overtly claim a human being does not have a
spirit (just like they claim they are not atheistic); should a person be
totally indoctrinated in the theory of evolution, and should this person
totally reject all religions; this person would believe that human beings do not have a spirit. The human spirit is a doctrine that comes
from religion, not science. With this
in mind, consider this quote by author Douglas Noel Adams: "If it looks like a duck, and
quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a
small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our
hands." Douglas Noel In other
words, it if walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims like a duck, flies
like a duck, and most importantly, lays duck eggs (i.e. its offspring are
ducks), then it is a duck; in spite of the fact that some may claim it is an
eagle. Thus, by "extension"
(i.e. by what a person would believe if they were exclusively the offspring of
the theory of evolution), the theory of evolution teaches that humans do not
have a spirit because it is a key issue and the theory of evolution does not
talk about it for political reasons (i.e. they want to attract a wider audience
of followers). Also
consider that the theory of evolution teaches that we descended from
prehistoric primates. This, by itself,
implies we did not exist prior to birth (it is a claim we did not exist in a
preexistent world). And it implies, by
extension, that we will not exist after death. Thus, even
though the scientific establishment (which is the caretaker of the theory of
evolution) carefully avoids controversial issues, the reality is that the theory
of evolution cannot escape being attached to certain beliefs. "Missing doctrine" caused by
politics, cannot be used to avoid obviously
implied teachings. (Side Note:
What is interesting about this is that the evolution establishment; in actual
court cases attacking creation science; has made great efforts to get creation
scientists to admit that "intelligent design" implies a belief in God. Yet they avoid admitting that the claim that
humans descended from extinct primates does not imply a belief in atheism or a
belief that humans and other species do not have a spirit, etc. It is the typical double-standard of atheists.) Thus, we
can say that the theory of evolution teaches that human existence begins at
conception or birth; which is another way of saying that the theory of
evolution teaches that humans have no spirit which will live on after we die
physically. Time after
time church doctrine attributes our human intelligence primarily to our spirits, not to our physical bodies (i.e.
not to our DNA). For example, Christ
created the heavens and the earth while He was still a spirit (see Ether 3:9
and Abraham 3). This could not have happened
if His intelligence was primarily from his physical body. He also had others with him who also had not
yet been born with a physical body. The theory
of evolution has no choice but to teach that our intelligence comes exclusively
from our DNA, meaning our brains, because it does not teach that humans have a
spirit. Furthermore,
in the preexistence, when we were still spirits, there were debates and we had
our free agency to side with the leaders of the different sides of the debates. This could not have happened if we were not
sentient and did not have intelligence before we were born. We also "cast our vote," in some
manner, for who we supported. The LDS church
teaches that a prominent man in the preexistence, named Lucifer, a "Son of
the Morning," campaigned to become the Savior of the world. How much of his campaign was secret and how
much was public is unknown. Lucifer
literally tried to overthrow the position of Christ and the Father in the
preexistence; and as a result of this conspiracy, Lucifer was cast out of
heaven and became the devil, meaning satan (see
Doctrine and Covenants Section 76). Satan, and
his followers from the preexistence, do not have physical bodies, and were cast
down to the earth after a battle with the forces of Michael (i.e. Adam, see
Revelations 12:7-9). In fact, satan and his followers from the preexistence still do not
have bodies, which is another evidence that our intelligence comes primarily
from our spirits. God would
not be a just God if He punished satan and his
followers during a time they did not have very keen intelligences with which to
make very critical decisions. Since Adam
was the head of the forces of Christ in the premortal world, this implies Adam
and his forces had intelligences and were sentient prior to their birth. Because the
theory of evolution does not claim there are such things as spirits, they also
must claim there is no such being as satan and that
there is no such thing as outside temptation from satan and his followers. The church teaches
that the physical bodies of Adam and Eve, who lived in the preexistence, were
created directly by God and that all humans are the literal descendents of Adam
and Eve, our “first parents.” Adam was
the head prophet of the first dispensation and the chief prophet of all of the
dispensation heads. This is in stark
contrast to the theory of evolution which claims that Adam and Eve were not
real people, and that all of mankind descended from ape-like creatures which
lived many tens of thousands of years ago. The church
also emphasizes the literalness of Noah and the flood. Noah also headed a dispensation and is second
only to Adam in priesthood authority (of course Adam reports to Christ). Noah is also known as Gabriel. Adam is also known as Michael, as mentioned
above. The literal existence of both Adam
and Noah are confirmed in the Book of Mormon several times. Furthermore,
when people die, their spirits continue to live. Their spirits go to the "spirit world." The preexistence was before our birth, and
the "spirit world" is after our death. In both cases we were or will be sentient and
did or will have only a spirit. The spirits
of those who die do not suddenly become stupid, which is what would happen if
our intelligence primarily came from our DNA.
There are numerous events in LDS literature which document people in the
spirit world appearing to living members of the church, primarily (at least the
publicly documented appearances) with regards to genealogy and temple work. Also, the
church teaches that there is missionary work going on in the spirit world,
which obviously requires intelligence on the part of the missionaries and the
listeners (see: I Peter 4:6). Our
physical bodies can inhibit (i.e. interfere with) our spirit intelligence. As two examples: first, when we are born our spirit
intelligence is immediately suppressed by our physical bodies. It takes time for our physical body to
develop to the point our spiritual intelligence starts to become effective again. A second
example is that children with Down Syndrome (called Down's
Syndrome in It is not
know how much, if any, our physical brain contributes to our overall
intelligence or how the brain and our spiritual intelligence interact; beyond
the fact our physical brain can interfere with our spirit intelligence. The theory
of evolution claims that when we die that is the end of our existence because
our intelligence comes only from our DNA and we have no spirit. In the
statement of the First Presidency in November of 1909; it clearly states that
every species which has lived on this earth, and is living on the earth, was
created spiritually before it was created physically. Both the Book of Moses and the Book of
Abraham say the same thing. This
excludes the possibility, according to church doctrine, that any species on
this earth came to exist by a series of accidental mutations, called evolution. This doctrine
separates the LDS church from the theory of evolution completely. There can be no overlap because the prime
focus of the theory of evolution is the claim that all life on earth came to
exist by a series of accidents, coupled with "natural selection"
(this is the foundation of “neo-Darwinism”).
Thus, there can be no compromise between the theory of evolution and the
teachings of the prophets. While many
religious people, of many faiths, claim that a person can believe both in the theory
of evolution and in Christian doctrine, such a scenario makes no sense for a
member of the LDS church. Even a
superficial belief in the theory of evolution would severely undermine the
faith of a member of the LDS church. The
scientific establishment welcomes religious people into their fold. This is no doubt one reason the scientific
establishment is very careful about their claims regarding the theory of
evolution being atheistic. But LDS
doctrine is diametrically opposed to the theory of evolution. The church
teaches us that there is "right" and "wrong" and that we
will someday be judged by a Supreme Being on the basis of our choices. The theory of evolution claims there is no
"right" or "wrong" and that there is no Judgment Day
because we cease to exist after death. The LDS church
also teaches that there must be an atonement made or all mankind would be lost
forever as soon as they died. In other
words, the church teaches that without an atonement: we would not be
resurrected; and we would not return to God for Judgment; and our spirits would
be eternally subject to satan and his angels as soon as we died; and we would eventually
become like satan (see: 2 Nephi 9:7-9 and Helaman 14:16-18). Since the theory
of evolution does not teach life after death, it teaches that no atonement was necessary
and that whatever we do is "right."
According to evolution, we do not prosper on the basis of following the
commandments of God; but instead we prosper on the basis of how smart, fast and
strong we are. The church
also teaches that Jesus Christ, who lived in mortality in the meridian of time,
was and is the one and only Savior of the world. The theory of evolution teaches that there is
no need for a Savior and that all mankind survives on his or her own genius. To members
of the church, Christ was the greatest of those who have lived on this
earth. He was not just a prophet, but was
literally the Son of God and was a God before He created this earth and the
heavens thereof. He did not just raise
the dead; but his sacrifice is the sole reason all of the descendants of Adam
and Eve will be resurrected and have the opportunity (based on their choices) to
return to live with God. To the theory
of evolution, Christ may have been an impressive leader and teacher; but to
evolution there was no need for Him to atone for anyone's sins because humans
are just animals. The LDS
church teaches that both Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to the
prophet Joseph Smith in the spring of 1820 in Evolution
teaches that Christ died many years ago and no longer exists; because evolution
does not teach the existence of spirits or the resurrection. Thus, the theory of evolution directly
conflicts with the "First Vision" given to the first prophet of the
LDS church, Joseph Smith. To the LDS
church, Christ is not only living today, but He stands as the literal Head of
the LDS church and it is He who directs the living prophets today. In other words, the LDS church teaches that
there is a living prophet at the head of the LDS church today, under the
direction of the Savior, and has been continuously since the prophet Joseph
Smith. The theory
of evolution does not teach there is a God or Judgment Day, thus the theory has
no interest in revelation or in prophets; living or otherwise. As far as
the creation of the earth is concerned, the LDS church teaches that the earth
was created for a very clear purpose and that mankind is here to learn and to
be given a choice between good and evil. The theory
of evolution claims that the creation of the earth was a total accident and
there is no purpose to our existence. As far as
the purpose of life is concerned, the LDS church teaches that as children of
God our purpose in life is to learn good from evil and to learn to choose the
good and to eventually become like God (because we are the literal children of
God, this is our opportunity). The core
reason for the creation of the earth, and in fact the reason for God's
involvement in our lives, is that our spirits are literally the children of God. However,
because no unclean thing can inherit the Since the
theory of evolution does not teach the existence of spirits, the theory of
evolution must conclude that we humans (meaning our spirits) are not the
children of God. The theory
of evolution explains that the purpose of life (i.e. the driving force of a
species) is to reproduce and have more offspring than other species so the
species will survive. While
technically the theory of evolution does not claim to be atheistic
(technically, it claims to be "naturalistic"), when a theory claims
that Christ did not have a spirit, and died forever on the cross, and thus
could not have been resurrected; then for all practical purposes the theory of
evolution is in direct opposition to the teachings of the prophets of this, and
all prior, dispensations. Thus, by
using the duck example above, the theory of evolution is indeed atheistic and
anti-Christ (i.e. they do not believe Christ was the Savior and redeemer of
mankind), by extension. The
scientific establishment claims they do not infringe on anyone's religious
beliefs and that the only things they claim are that humans descended from
primates due to accidental mutations of DNA.
But this alone implies humans are nothing but animals. If we were nothing but animals, God would have
no interest in humans any more than He would have an interest in turtles or
mosquitoes or roses, which simply followed a different evolutionary path
according to the theory of evolution. The most
basic beliefs of the theory of evolution imply Adam and Eve were not real
people and thus, without the fall of Adam, there would be no need for a Savior. But above
and beyond all the false doctrines of the theory of evolution, the basic
doctrine that our spirits are literally the children of God and that we can
someday become like God (our literal parent), and live in joy beyond
comprehension with Him in the eternities; is reason alone for members of the
church to totally be repulsed by the theory of evolution. It is nothing but false doctrine designed by
the evil one (see the discussion of Korihor in the next chapter) to distract us
and dissuade us from our Eternal opportunities. But isn't
the theory of evolution a scientific fact?
As this book will demonstrate the theory of evolution is scientific
nonsense. Evolution's
mixture of false doctrine with false science should not derail us from pursuing
our Eternal potential. In summary,
there is no way to reconcile LDS doctrine with the theory of evolution. There is simply no way to find a
"hybrid" of LDS doctrine and the theory of evolution. This is no
way to marry true religion
with false religion and false science. Footnote 1: Louis Agassiz was one of the prominent men who
appeared to Elder Wilford Woodruff in 1877 in the Note:
It should be clearly understood that this book is not an official publication of the LDS church. The author takes full responsibility for the
content of this book. |