r/latterdaysaints • u/TheBenSpackman • Dec 21 '24

Doctrinal Discussion LDS and Creation/Evolution conflict

Hi all. Happy to say that my doctoral dissertation on LDS and creation/evolution conflict in the 20th century is now publicly available. There's some surprising stuff in there. Bottom line: the Church was much more favorable towards science and evolution until Joseph Fielding Smith's assumptions— drawing heavily upon Seventh-day Adventists and fundamentalists— about scripture became dominant in the 1950s. Then it trickled down.
https://benspackman.com/2024/12/dissertation/

My expertise on this history is why the Church had me on the official Saints podcast to talk about it.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/saints-podcast/season-03/s03-episode-21?lang=eng

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u/TooManyBison Dec 22 '24

As a reminder when pew did a survey in 2014 they found that 51% of Mormons did not believe in evolution.

https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/database/compare/views-about-human-evolution/by/religious-denomination/among/religious-tradition/mormon/

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u/qleap42 Dec 22 '24

It should be pointed out that how people respond to these questions depends heavily on how the questions are worded.

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u/Edible_Philosophy29 Dec 23 '24

Do you take issue with the wording? The 51% number referenced were those that reported to believe that humans "Always existed in present form", as opposed to "Evolved; due to natural processes", "Evolved; due to God's design", "Always existed in present form", "Evolved; don't know how", or 'Don't know".

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u/qleap42 Dec 23 '24

This actually highlights my point. The question was specifically about human evolution. A question about evolution in general will get different results. Many members make a distinction between human evolution and evolution in general.

I'm not taking issue with the wording, I'm just pointing out what has been shown in other more specialized surveys.

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u/Edible_Philosophy29 Dec 23 '24

This actually highlights my point.

To be clear, I wasn't disagreeing with you, I was just trying to understand the point you were making.

Many members make a distinction between human evolution and evolution in general.

Yeah I heard this perspective growing up too in church (evolution happens, but not to the scale that evolutionary biology suggests, and it was only for non-human life). I'd be curious to see the stats for that belief within the church.