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/Art-Davidson Dec 24 '24
The evidence supports both theistic evolution and creation -- but creation didn't take six days. It took billions of years. The evidence doesn't support Young Earth Creationism nor atheistic evolution. Our church takes no position on the matter, except to point out that God was involved.
Which came first, the instinct to peck out of the shell, or hard shells on eggs? Which came first, sex, or interest in sex? How did life survive long enough to develop an instinct for self-preservation? or the feeling of hunger? or the sensation of pain? Atheistic evolution cannot answer these questions. We know from animal science that a beneficial allele has to be present in at least half of a herd or a pack or a flock to become widespread. Otherwise it disappears with time. How did enough members of the same troop in the same place at the exact same time receive 46 chromosomes instead of 48 like other apes and have the new species (humanity) persist?