In 1930, President Heber J. Grant announced that the church was neutral in regards to evolution. Church members have been arguing ever since that statement as to what the Church really feels about evolution. In my discussions, I have come to conclude that many members reject evolution because they think that the Church rejects evolution. I propose that this conclusion is wrong. I don’t want to try to guess what church leaders really believe, Yet… I would like to venture a conclusion about what the Church organization believes. I received an email from the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum on BYU Campus. The subject was "Celebrating 50 Years of Evolution at BYU". BYU has taught evolutionary biology for 50 years now, meaning it has spent millions of dollars on the program. It has taught evolution to more than 7500 undergraduates. It has accepted $25 million in outside funding. This is a significant investment. If church leadership did not believe in evolution but has still allowed it to be taught at BYU, it would truly be a rather devious deception. The Creation story you believe even affects your perception of God. A creation that took either six days or four billion years describe two completely different Gods.
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S3E4 – Evolution and what it Tells us About God
This is the podcast Science and Scriptures - Discerning Truth from Error, Season 3, Episode 4, or “Evolution and what it Tells us About God”
Hello everyone. This is Scott Frazer of the podcast Science and Scriptures. With this podcast, I realize that I am running the risk that my listeners are going to think I am obsessed by evolution. However… something happened a few months ago that I need to report.You see, I am on the email distribution list of the Bean Life Science Museum based at Brigham Young University.It’s a fascinating place to visit, and I highly recommend it. They have great displays, programs for kids, classes, and tours. The Bean Museum has a couple of displays on evolution. They are “careful” displays, not wanting to offend members who still believe the creation took six days. Yet, the displays make it clear that the museum believes in the evolution of mankind. Really, if you haven’t been there, it’s worth a visit.
A few months ago, I received an email notice of an important milestone in the history of teaching evolution at BYU. Let me read it to you.
Celebrating 50 Years of Evolution at BYU |
| In fall semester 1971, BYU Biology Professors Duane Jeffery and Clayton White received permission from the BYU Board of Trustees to teach the first formal course in evolution at BYU. With this permission came a charge to teach a rigorous course in evolutionary biology that remained true to the science. This was during a time when evolutionary biology was largely mistrusted and feared across BYU campus. Now we stand fifty years later and can ask what has been accomplished by the teaching of evolution at BYU. Data compiled over the past 25 years demonstrates the scholarly productivity of eight core faculty whose research focuses on evolution. As a group, we have mentored more than 1,000 undergraduate students in our labs. We have awarded 43 Master of Science degrees, 54 Doctoral degrees, and mentored 53 Postdoctoral researchers. We have received 150 externally funded grants worth a combined total of $25 million. More than 7500 undergraduates have taken the senior capstone class in evolution. Data from standardized national tests demonstrate that BYU seniors have a better understanding of evolution than their peers at most universities. Most importantly, we have found a pathway to help students reconcile perceived conflicts between their faith and evolution, by teaching the science of evolution in the light of the gospel. BYU now has an internationally recognized program of excellence in evolutionary biology. In short, evolutionary biology as a discipline is one of the great success stories at BYU. |
Some impressive accomplishments, wouldn’t you agree? Think about that a moment - BYU has been teaching evolution for 50 years now. One would think that the Latter-day Saint population, realizing the message behind that fact, might have come to believe that evolutionary biology, as taught at our Church’s university, is correct and believable. However, that does not seem to be the case. According to a 2014 Pew Research Study report, 35% of Protestants do not believe that man evolved. However, according to the same poll, 59% of Latter-day Saints don’t believe that man evolved. In a 2016 poll taken by Jana Riess and reported in her book, The Next Mormons, 62% of Latter-day Saints don’t believe that man evolved. Those numbers are really close and rather confirm one another.
As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as a scientist, those numbers still disappoint me. In 1930, President Heber J. Grant announced that the church was neutral in regards to evolution. He stated:
“Our mission is to bear the message of the restored gospel to the people of the world. Leave Geology, Biology, Archeology, and Anthropology, no one of which has to do with the salvation of the souls of mankind to, to scientific research . . .
However, church members have been arguing ever since that statement as to what the Church really feels about evolution. In my discussions, I have come to conclude that many members reject evolution because they think that the Church rejects evolution. I propose that this conclusion is wrong. I don’t want to try to guess what church leaders really believe, Yet… I would like to venture a conclusion about what the Church organization believes.
BYU has taught evolutionary biology for 50 years now, meaning it has spent millions of dollars on the program. It has taught evolution to more than 7500 undergraduates. It has accepted $25 million in outside funding. This is a significant investment. If church leadership did not believe in evolution but has still allowed it to be taught at BYU, it would truly be a rather devious deception. Those members who are still in denial that their church believes in evolution and a 4-billion-year-old Earth may need to consider this reality.
A belief in Evolution comes only with time and understanding, as pieces of knowledge fit together in your mind. It took me years to get there myself. Like most, the last aspect of Evolution that I could accept was the evolution of man.Yet, eventually I came to realize the scientific evidence was too strong. Both fossil evidence and DNA sequencing data confirm evolution beyond any reasonable doubt. Even though many still call it the Theory of Evolution, evolution is no longer a theory.Anyone who is willing to read a book about evolution will find the evidence is overwhelming.
Now, many of my listeners may be exasperated, thinking, “Why is Scott discussing evolution yet again? Evolution versus Genesis was a major debate a century ago, but it is not important anymore!”
I don’t blame you for thinking that. So, please allow me tell you why I think it important for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to understand how evolution fits into religious beliefs.Our church, like most others, is struggling to give its members reasons to remain active in the Church. People are facing too much stress, too many arguments in the media, too much uncertainty in their employment and a weakening economy. Present-day pressures are simply too much for many members, especially our younger adult generations. People want to find the comfort the Church can offer about the future. Yet, there are too many criticisms of religious life – too many voices claiming that religion is severely outdated and has nothing to offer present generations.
The teachings of religion have always been focused on living a good and sinless life. While such instruction is still true – it is not really enough any longer. Religious teachings need to encompass a wider part of life. Many people and religions have denied realities such as the age of the earth and evolution for a couple of centuries now. Religions even once insisted that youth not listen to rock-and-roll music, claiming it (among many other things) was of the devil.Such arguments have given religion the reputation of being old-fashioned, stodgy, restrictive, and something to avoid. It is time to change that opinion.
Our youth needs to learn things in church that will help them make sense of the world. Religion does fit into our lives on earth if we let it.It should mesh with other realities of science, politics, and social media to explain our present day lives and dilemmas. We need to stop teaching religion as if were a completely separate – and optional - way to live and understand the world.
I have stated before how combining the reality of evolution with its direction by a Higher Intelligence is the easiest model to defend as to how the universe was created.It far surpasses trying to teach that God carried out the Creation in six days. It also far surpasses an attempt to explain the creation of the universe and earth as a long series of freakishly fortunate, random-chance accidents that created a universe that sustains life. A few weeks ago, we discussed the Anthropic Principle – the belief that the Universe was created for mankind. The data is stacking up that supports the proposition that God and Evolution form the best team for creating worlds.
So, we have a beautiful explanation to share with our youth and disenchanted members about the creation. Believing in a God who directed the creation rather demands that God had a purpose in putting humans on His newly created Earth. We were put here to accomplish something. The full story we can tell pulls everything together. Unfortunately, many teachers in the Church will not teach that story because it includes evolution. So, we teach only part of the truth to our youth, trying to separate religion from the science our youth learn at school. And everyone knows that partial truth is not really truth at all.
I do worry about our youth. What do you tell your children and grandchildren when they ask you why the Creation taught in Sunday School differs from the one taught in their science classes? There is much dissonance between a six-day creation and a million years of evolution. This dissonance is dangerous to testimonies of our youth – and it is totally unnecessary.
Here in Utah, we are surrounded by evidence of an old earth that was once the home of dinosaurs and other ancient, but now extinct, creatures. Utah is the site of so many paleontology finds. We also have excellent dinosaur fossil displays at the Natural History Museum of Utah, the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, and, as mentioned, the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum on the BYU campus.
Back to the Beginning – How to Teach
There is another reason that I wanted to review evolution in this podcast. I want to discuss the concept of “going back to the beginning”, as you seek to understand the universe and your place in it. Going back to the Beginning is a proven way to teach and understand.Explanations must create a hope that maybe the world does make sense and maybe the Gospel does pull everything together. For many people, such truth (if they could come to believe it) would be a tremendous blessing.
When the Savior first taught His doctrine in the Sermon on the Mount, He began with the Beatitudes, or the “Blessed be’s”, which introduced the very basics of His doctrine. Then the Lord reviewed certain aspects of the Mosaic Law. He went “back to the beginning” to lay out the history of the commandments to the Children of Israel. As we read in Matthew 5: 21:
“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:”
He then explains how His law is different – no, not different, but better. He gives a few more such examples, explaining how His Gospel is a higher law with higher expectations. He goes back to the beginning – in this case, the Mosaic Law – and explains how to understand His higher law.
There are a number of other teachings in the Church that go “back to the beginning”. The temple endowment uses the creation of the world and of man as a vehicle for making its required covenants. We go all the way back to the time when Adam and Eve represented humanity. Adam and Eve’s choice that they, and their children, would live a mortal life resulted in their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.Our covenant to obey the commandments – and God’s covenant to provide a Savior – started there. The temple endowment takes us back to the creation to understand from where our covenants originated.
When Joseph Smith restored the Church of Jesus Christ, he went “back to the beginning” to explain many aspects of the Gospel. He gave us the book of Moses and the book of Abraham. He gave us the Book of Mormon, to provide a historical explanation of the dealings of God with a separated branch of the Children of Israel.
The best teachers often go back to the beginning to give us the history of their topic. Students can come to see how new instruction bevels into world history.They can comprehend how present-day situations developed because of events in recent history and how events in recent history came to pass because of the events of ancient history.
If we want to understand the personality of God and how He directs the universe, we must go back to the very Beginning. The Bible certainly did. Its first verse reads, “In the Beginning,” and then it teaches us about the Creation.
The Creation story you believe even affects your perception of God. If you believe that the Creation took place in six days, then the inescapable conclusion is that God is a Being who wants to get things done right now. A lot of power would have been required to create an Earth in six days. As you may know, rush orders are much more expensive than standard orders. Maybe that is not a good analogy, but I hope you see the point.
I, however, am a Theist. I believe that God directed Evolution by natural means, including evolution. A Being who would take four billion years to create our world is a very patient God.By working within the framework of natural laws, He wouldn’t have to had to expend much power. He directed the evolution of the universe, our solar system, and earth to occur according to the laws of astrophysics. He directed the evolution of life within the biological laws of nature. A creation that took either six days or four billion years describe two completely different Gods.
One of my favorite metaphors in considering the Creation is to consider the two ways for a God to make a flowering plant. One way is to use significant priesthood power to create the plant from the ground in a few seconds. Another is to take a flower seed, plant it in the ground, water it, and wait for a few months. In both cases you get a flowering plant. How do you think that God would choose to create plants – or planets?
The fact that the universe took 14 billion years to create, and the earth took 4 billion of those years, indicates that God is on a timeline much longer than we could ever comprehend. It also indicates that God probably has many similar creation projects in progress throughout the galaxy. Though we might like to think that we are God’s favorite planet, He really needed to check in our planet’s progress every, what?... million years or so?He had time to manage other creations that were going on as well as ours. Granted, our planet required much more attention when Adam and Eve became adults. But God is a patient God. He allowed mankind to follow a path of evolution until it could provide bodies that were advanced enough to be worthy vehicles for our spirits during earth life.
My point is that, to understand the flow of life in general (or of your life specifically), you often must go back to the beginning for understanding. You get to choose the beginning to which you return.
For me, going all the way back through the millions of years of Evolution is fascinating. God had to have had a hand in that evolution. To see how He gave direction to the massive project, but still allowed the forces of nature to create the creation, is not only satisfying, but it’s a beautiful concept. It sets the precedent for our earth lives in which God insists that we follow the laws established in the Preexistence. There are reasons for the difficulties we face in life – and God will not overrule those reasons – but He will encourage us in meeting those difficulties if we ask.
In conclusion, please forgive me if I spend a lot of time discussing evolution in this podcast. It’s the beginning to which I most like to return, because I learn so much when I take in the whole story of the Creation. I am not trying to start a revolution or anything, but I hope my listeners can see the advantages of having a truly universal understanding of the Creation and our reasons for being on earth. Those who have the ever-so restricted view of Religion as just going to church on Sunday will find worship rather boring after a while. The Gospel is so much vaster than our present-day lives. To emphasize my point, let me give you a numeric comparison.Planet Earth is about 4 billion years old. The Bible only describes about 6000 years, or 0.00015%, of that time. We miss so many miracles if we confine our religious study to that small window.
So, that is all I have for you today. As always, thanks for listening to my podcast. I would like to believe that opinions are changing in the church, based on the overwhelming evidence I have touched on. So please share this episode with those you know who are still trying to form their opinion. This is Scott Frazer from the podcast Science and Scriptures. Take care, have a good week, and may God bless.