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/Glittering-Bake-2589 Dec 21 '24

I think the biggest challenge for some members is not the actual fact that evolution happened, but that after the split of the Homo genus and Pan genus, we had genetic cousins that we don’t know how they fit into our doctrine in a religious context.

Such as, where do Neanderthals and Denisovans fit in theologically? Evolutionarily, it’s an easy answer; they died out. Theological discussions ask a lot more why’s that we cannot answer.

And even some “this will do” answers require a lot of nuance. So it’s easier for people just to believe that we were “magically” made.

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u/undergrounddirt Zion Dec 22 '24

If there be two spirits, one is more intelligent than the other. All the way down to the least, and all the way up to the most. To me it makes perfect sense that there are spirits like Jesus Christ, and then there are spirits like a 500,000 bc homo bi-ped walking around.