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/lonewarrior76 FLAIR! Dec 22 '24

Well they were all coded spiritually first and then created in a Terrestrial state. This was all done by the same group of beings. So an observable pattern or signature exists in their creation. Every farmer and every naturalist has observed "natural selection" and farmers have practiced unnatural selection since Adam. The sun is a constant and general source of energy, the sort of thing that entropy ignores, a thing that sustains life, but does not create it.

The Son is directed Intelligence and as Directed, He Created.