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Prophets or
Evolution - An LDS Perspective Chapter 12 Science and
Evolution "There is no salvation in a
system of religion that rejects the doctrine of the Fall or that assumes man is
the end product of evolution and so was not subject to a fall." Bruce R. McConkie, “The Caravan Moves On,” Ensign, Nov 1984,
82 Introduction to the
Scientific Aspects of Evolution Most Christian
churches have yielded to the theory of evolution, meaning they have taught
their members that they can be "good Christians" and "good
evolutionists" at the same time. The The LDS church
took a firm stand against the doctrine of evolution in 1830, when the Book of
Mormon was first published. This was
about three decades before the theory
of evolution was first proposed by Darwin. The church has never supported in any way the
teachings of Korihor or Darwin. For
example, in 2004 the First Presidency issued a small booklet called: True to
the Faith, which represented official church doctrine. In this book are the following comments: "Under the direction of
Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ created the heavens and the earth (see
Mosiah 3:8; Moses 2:1). From scripture revealed through the Prophet Joseph
Smith, we know that in the work of the Creation, the Lord organized elements
that had already existed (see Abraham 3:24). He did not create the world
“out of nothing,” as some people believe. The scriptures also teach that Adam
was “the first man of all men” (Moses 1:34). God created Adam and Eve in
His own image and in the image of His Only Begotten (see Moses 2:26–27). The Creation is an integral part of
Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation. It gives each of us the opportunity to
come to the earth, where we receive a physical body and exercise our
agency. In the premortal Council of the Gods, the following declaration
was made: “We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of
these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; and we will
prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord
their God shall command them” (Abraham 3:24–25). You are a spirit child of God, and your body is created in His image. “Creation,” True to the Faith, (2004), 44–45 There is no
equivocation or compromise in this statement.
Any member of the church who believes in a hybrid of evolution and LDS
doctrine is in danger of weakening their faith. Note in the
above quote the reference to the fact that every human has a spirit and
furthermore that every human existed as a spirit prior to being born on this planet. Such a theory cannot be mixed with the
doctrines of the theory of evolution. Most Latter-Day
Saints who regularly attend church do not
believe in any part of the theory of evolution.
They know the claims of the scientific establishment, and they know the
claims of the Book of Mormon, the living prophets, etc. and they believe the
prophets of old and the living prophets of today. Why would
someone believe the living prophets instead of the scientific establishment? The reason
is that there have been conflicts before between prophets and the scientific
establishment of their day; and in every case, in a matter of time, the prophets were proven to be right!! The trend
is obvious. When there is a conflict
between the living prophets and the scientific community of their day, the
living prophets have eventually been proven to be correct. How long
will the members of the church have to wait until the scientific establishment
abandons the theory of evolution and admits it is a complete scientific failure? Members of
the church don't have to wait at all for the failure of the theory of
evolution. The theory of evolution has already been proven to be a
complete and utter failure. Many books
have been written to this end. The theory
of evolution is scientific nonsense and many people are well aware of that
fact. The problem
is that the scientific establishment
refuses to admit a truth which has been obvious since 1953 when DNA was first
described. In other words, from a
scientific standpoint the theory of evolution is a dead theory. For
example, in 1966, back when very little was known about human DNA,
mathematicians at the Wistar symposium, in Philadelphia, demonstrated the
theory of evolution was mathematically impossible. Several
world famous evolutionists were at that symposium and they understood the
mathematical problems with the theory of evolution. Yet, when every one of the evolutionists went
home, they continued to write books and articles that the theory of evolution
was a proven fact of science. They
totally ignored the scientific evidence (see the book: Darwin's Enigma). But many,
many books have been written which demonstrate very forcefully various errors
in the theory of evolution. Few people know
that there are many books which exist which are very, very critical of the
theory of evolution. This is because the
scientific establishment does not talk about them or even mention them. In order to have the scientific establishment
endorse your book, your book has to say very positive things about the theory
of evolution. So why does
the scientific establishment still cling to the scientifically untenable theory of evolution? That
is the real question. In other
words, the real question is not a
scientific question; but rather it is a political question or a moral question
or a religious question, depending on which perspective you are talking
about. The
scientific chapters of this book, which are the focus of the rest of this book,
were designed specifically to demonstrate the absurdity of the theory of
evolution from a scientific and mathematical
standpoint. This book
is able to go far beyond the mathematics of the Wistar symposium because much
more is now known about DNA; plus computers are much faster today. The
foundational difference between LDS doctrine and evolution doctrine is that God
created Adam and Eve and all of the animals which live today. As
mentioned in a previous chapter, the LDS church does not challenge any
scientific dating of the earth because Christ took existing materials to create the Earth!! Did these "existing
materials" include the fossils of dinosaurs and millions of other species,
which became extinct prior to
Christ getting possession of the "materials" He and his followers
used to create this earth? This is an
unknown issue, but here are some things to consider. Suppose you
were an architect and officials from the city of Chicago came to you and told
you to design a very large city park, of 1,000 acres, in Chicago. Hopefully,
you would ask the officials what kind of people would visit and use the park. For example, would it be used primarily by
senior citizens or grade school children?
You would need to know exactly which groups of people the park was going
to be used by. Likewise,
God knew exactly what kind of people would inhabit this earth because they were
all alive (or soon would be) in the preexistence. He knew what their strengths and weaknesses
would be. As a key
part of the design of this earth, God wanted His children to have the choice
between good and evil. This earth was
designed by an Architect to fulfill the purposes and goals of this earth
specifically for the people who would inhabit it. For
example, that is why the tobacco plant was put on this earth. It was not put here by evolution or by
accident. The LDS
church has not stated how many years ago Christ took possession of the
"materials" He and His followers used to create this earth. It could have been billions of years ago or
it could have been millions of years ago or it could have been thousands of
years ago. We have not
been told when He took possession of the "existing materials," though
there is an implication it was thousands of years ago. But whether this is a correct interpretation
or not, we certainly have not been told how old the "existing
materials" were which were given to Christ. They could have been billions of years old. But what we
do know is that this earth was designed for its inhabitants. Scientists
claim that this earth is over 5 billion years old. Scientists also claim that life began on this
earth roughly 3.5 billion years ago. However old
the earth really is, whether it is more or less than 5 billion years old, at
some point the Savior took over and completed the preparations for Adam and Eve
and their posterity to take over the earth. Where the
Church and the theory of evolution are irreconcilable is that the church unequivocally
claims that Adam and Eve were created by the hand of God. That is where the irreconcilable differences
between the church and the theory of evolution begin. Beginning
with Adam and Eve the differences between the theory of evolution move in
totally different directions.
Differences include the existence of spirits, the reality of the
preexistence, a Judgment Day, a spirit world after this life, and on and on. While the scientific
evidences of the age of the earth are not part of any debate between the church
and the theory of evolution, the scientific evidences regarding life are
massive. Scientifically, there is overwhelmingly
support that the theory of evolution could not possibly have created the huge
variety of life on this earth during the estimated time of the existence of complex
life on this earth. It is an
issue of time. When mathematical models
are applied to the DNA of known species and the estimated DNA of extinct
species, there is no possible way all of this DNA could have formed in 660
million years or 5 billion years or even in 5 trillion years!! The point
is that members of the LDS church do not need to wait for science to disprove
the theory of evolution. All they have
to wait for is the scientific community
and scientific establishment
to admit the theory of
evolution is a total fraud. That may
take until the next Ice Age. |