Last Sunday, I listened to someone discuss how much comfort they received from the fact they believe in a God and therefore didn't have to believe the idea of Evolution. This in and of it self is a long battle God vs. Evolution. But as the discussion ensued it was brought up again my this individual how corrupt the idea of Evolution is and how we as LDS don't have to believe in that. I dodn't say anything then, I didn't want to offend this person.
I just want to get some other peoples idea's on this subject. I personally am LDS, I fully believe in God and that he is the creator of all things, but I also believe in Evolution. I believe that God took time to plan out a way to get from no life on earth to intelligent beings. I have said it before, but I believe in "God the Ultimate Scientist."
What are your thoughts on this idea?
Friday, January 25, 2008
God's Evolution?
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6 comments:
The biggest problems with evolution have to do with "no death before the fall." Pretty much the only way to harmonize evolution with this doctrine is by way of a somewhat non-literal or non-terrestrial fall of sorts.
That said, most people would concede that there is no logical contradiction between a belief in evolution and Mormonism. Lot's of faithful and well-informed Mormons believe in both.
The problem with most attempts at criticizing evolution from a religious perspective is that the most offensive ideas associated with evolution are by far the best confirmed ideas. For instance, a long earth and a common ancestry between man and ape is about as well-confirmed as anybody could ever hope a scientific theory to be.
People can bicker about whether God intelligently designed life or not all they want, but once they have given into a long earth and common ancestry, I'm not sure what it is that they are really fighting for. Of course God could have played some role in the process. It's hard to imagine how science could ever find evidence against such a hypothesis.
If you are interested, I did a post on how evolution and NDBF could work together here.
I have no problem with evolution--I find the idea of it to be beautiful in conception and fulfillment. Let the waters bring forth life!
I think I would have to agree with Jeff G. I don’t think that Evolution and Creation have to be contradictory and exclusive, though I’m not sure I’ve heard a theory that balances both, that I’m completely satisfied with. I’m wondering about the “no death before the fall” issue. I know I’ve been taught that. But after a quick initial search, I can’t find a good scripture that states this. Here is one scripture that I found, but I don’t think it is necessarily definitive.
“And he said unto them: Because that Adam fell, we are; and by his fall came death; and we are made partakers of misery and woe.” – Moses 6:48
This doesn’t necessarily say that there wasn’t death before the fall. There could be several interpretations to this scripture. One might be that the death spoken of here is simply the spiritual death so often talked about in the church. If we want to take the verse literally, then another interpretation could be that since the fall is the reason for “us” (because that Adam fell, we are) then the fall is why “man” dies (and by his fall came death). If we take this literally in the context of the verse then it is specifically talking about man (“we are”), and doesn’t mention anything about the death of other species.
I’m not saying that the “no death before the fall” idea is not true, but is there other scriptural evidence of this. Did Joseph Smith weigh in on this?
To My Friends of Faith,
Recently a friend at our church brought this "film" to my attention.
Her son apparently was sent this web link from someone.
It's a movie clip (that has been recently released, or is about to,,, I'm not sure),,
anyway, it depicts Mormons as flesh eating ghouls, and it is just awful. www.thebookofzombie.com
On behalf of myself and my husband, and our Mormon friends,
I would like to make sure that young people are NOT subjected to this terrible conception of our faith.
please let me know if you are able to help.
regards, Betty Toms
Betty, Thanks for your comment. As this was a discussion of a God based Evolution. I am glad you brought up the concept of Zombies. This seems just like the next logical step to evolution... I mean some missionaries who have been out in the field for awhile already turn some what mindless. They know the whole routine, what to say when, what videos to show as follow up discussions, the whole nine yards. Thank you so much for the link to the documentary that the people up in Seattle are about to produce. I think it shows us a warning how evolution might just go too far.
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