Thursday, September 29, 2005

A Thought on Evolution

I don't have any problem with the idea that the human form resulted from an evolutionary process, with earlier forms meeting the definition of "animal" until finally the cake was finished, ready for actual spirit children of God to start inhabiting the bodies.

In other words, I can at the same time buy the ideas that it took humans millions of years to evolve into their present form and that spirit children of God have been inhabiting bodies on this earth for only about 6,000 years. Before that, I think animal spirits must have piloted the pre-human bodies around.

Now, as to why God would use an evolutionary creative process rather than just forming a ready-made human body is a question I can't answer. I'm just saying that I'm open to the idea of human physical evolution, but not spiritual.

Darn, I should have put this into "Mormonism For Dummies" . . .

6 comments:

Abel Keogh said...

nice to see that you're back on the blogging bandwagon! enjoy your writing

Map Maker said...

Evolution is kind of hard to believe in if you believe in the Fall of Adam. Don't we believe that death did not enter into the world until Adam and Eve fell? How do you reconcile that belief with millions of years of evolving?

Christopher Bigelow said...

I read an interesting LDS book that says, if I understand and remember correctly, that after all the pre-human evolutionary activity to prepare the earth, God sanctified and perfected the earth for the arrival of Adam and Eve, but then they fell and brought death back again. It's a REALLY fascinating book called "Earth: In the Beginning" by Eric N. Skousen.

Map Maker said...

I have a great book to recommend to you. It is called:
Man, his origin and destiny - by Joseph Fielding Smith
It's a great book. Just talking about it makes me want to read it again.

It is interesting that I should get involved in a discussion about this on this weekend. I will be teaching the gospel principles lesson on the creation in church tomorrow.

Her are my problems with the Skousen theory.

Did God create the world with death, which death he later stopped by "sanctifying and perfecting" the earth. If he created it with death, why take it away and then re-introduce it through Adam? If it took the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ to overcome the bonds of death after Adam reintroduced it, how did God stop death this supposed first time around? If God can stop death without the sacrifice of Jesus, why did Jesus have to die and be resurrected to overcome death this supposed second time? If God didn't create the world with death, how was death brought into the world this so called first time? If death had been brought into the world and taken out of the world all before Adam even came on the scene, what is so special about Adam bringing death into the world, and what is so special about Jesus overcoming death? If God can sanctify the earth for the arrival of Adam and Eve, what is the point of going through the the whole second coming and sanctification of the earth when Jesus comes again. God can just sanctify it like he did before.

Does Skousen use any scriptural evidence to support his claims or is it just an attempt to reconcile the gospel with evolution that he made up?

The book I mentioned earlier had some good arguments against evolution. Good enough that I don't bother trying to force the gospel to fit with evolution.

Be careful in supporting ideas and theories that in the end don't support the Atonement as supremely important and necessary.

Christopher Bigelow said...

Hmm, I'll have to go back to the Skousen book and see how he supports this idea. I'm sure I don't remember it well enough to do it justice. He uses a lot of scripture and prophetic quotes, so I'm sure he has a good case too.

And Skousen does, just to clarify, argue AGAINST evolution from one species into another. God brought successive waves of life to the earth in its preparatory phase; he didn't somehow turn one kind of life form into another through a process of evolution.

Anonymous said...

Yeah. Perhaps we needed all those dead bodies to get the ground fertile enough for man to farm with. Fertilizer and all that.