I just read on a post about cavemen that you said the theory of evolution could be God’s will. How can that be when the theory of evolution preaches that death and natural selection brought about man while the scriptures teach that man brought death to the earth?
Thank you for your time,
Jeff
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Hello Jeff,
This is a great question you ask and offer, and I believe your question stems from this post of mine:
“The matter of cavemen, or the possible evolution of mankind is not a religious matter, but a scientific one. For all the information the scriptures, and by connection the Lord himself, have given us it is entirely possible that evolution was part of the process of God creating man. We simply don’t know for sure one way or the other right now.”
As we have progressed in our understanding of the human body, and the development of all species, there are many members who accept evolution as a scientific fact. Likewise, there are members who whole heartly disagree and believe in a strict understanding of the Bible’s word as found in our scriptures, Moses 2: 26-27. As for others, we simply specify that we do not know how God created man, we only know that we are created in God’s image, and thus, as I have suggested, God could have easily used evolution as a process to create us in his image. As an LDS member we should be open to learning truth, no matter the source. Here are some quotes from two past prophets which you can ponder and do as Joseph Smith counseled, “govern yourself.”
The first quote is from President Hinckley, bottom of the page:
“I remember when I was a college student there were great discussions on the 
question of organic evolution. I took classes in geology and biology and heard the whole story of Darwinism as it was then taught. I wondered about it. I thought much about it. But I did not let it throw me, for I read what the scriptures said about our origins and our relationship to God.” —President Gordon B. Hinckley, “God Hath Not Given Us the Spirit of Fear,” Ensign, Oct. 1984, 5.
The second quote was given first in 1909 by President Joseph F. Smith, and then reintroduced to the members via Ensign article in 2002.
“It is held by some that Adam was not the first man upon this earth and that the original human being was a development from lower orders of the animal creation. These, however, are the theories of men. The word of the Lord declared that Adam was “the first man of all men” (Moses 1:34), and we are therefore in duty bound to regard him as the primal parent of our race. It was shown to the brother of Jared that all men were created in the beginning after the image of God; whether we take this to mean the spirit or the body, or both, it commits us to the same conclusion: Man began life as a human being, in the likeness of our Heavenly Father.
True it is that the body of man enters upon its career as a tiny germ embryo, which becomes an infant, quickened at a certain stage by the spirit whose tabernacle it is, and the child, after being born, develops into a man. There is nothing in this, however, to indicate that the original man, the first of our race, began life as anything less than a man, or less than the human germ or embryo that becomes a man.”
Joseph F. Smith
John R. Winder
Anthon H. Lund
First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
November 1909
And if God did use evolution as a means to create us in his image, would this hurt our faith? It doesn’t hurt mine.
Gramps
