Uniformitarianism

I have put together an illustration that helps me visualize the gospel view of the four stages of earth's existence.  This is the image in my mind when I think of the time before the fall when there was no death.  Both the beginning and the end of mortality are shown.

The current scientific view is also illustrated.  According to this view, the present order of nature extends back "approximately 20 billion years" (Big bang theory, American Heritage Dictionary, 2000) with the earth being "4.5 billion to 5 billion years old" ("Earth, in geology and astronomy," Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2004).

Many LDS scientists would agree with the gospel view (as illustrated) that mortality for the earth and man will have an end.  I'm confident they would also agree that mortality had a beginning, but the question is when was that beginning.

Missing the first act of the play

Latter-day revelation seems to suggest a gospel view that the current order of nature began abruptly six thousand years ago with the fall of Adam.  Yet, some LDS scientists, because of the concept of uniformitarianism, consider the scientific view superior to the gospel view as it applies to the past.  (Interestingly, many of these same scientists do not question the gospel view as it applies to the future.)

In some ways, this is like arriving late to a play, missing the first act (the creation), and formulating their own ideas about the first act based on what they observe in the second act (mortality) instead of first talking to those who actually saw the first act.  These individuals, for some reason, cannot believe that the scenery has been changed.

Yet Prophets have seen the creation (the first act) and have written about it.  Moses, for example, "beheld the world and the ends thereof [and] cast his eyes and beheld the earth, yea, even all of it; and there was not a particle of it which he did not behold, discerning it by the spirit of God"  (Moses 1:8, 27).

And with respect to the first act (the creation), the voice of the Church for the past thirty years has been clear and unified and continuous.  The creation was paradisiacal.  There was no mortality.  Death for all forms of life began when Adam fell.

Donald W. Parry on uniformitarianism

Donald W. Parry is an assistant professor of Hebrew at Brigham Young University and a member of the international team of translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  In a Jan. 1998 Ensign, he said this about uniformitarianism:

"The concept of uniformitarianism,... has been described simply in this way: 'The present is the key to the past.' Uniformitarianism, first postulated by James Hutton in 1795, proposes three primary concepts: (a) there were no processes (such as geologic processes) operating in the past which are not operating now; (b) there are no processes operating now which were not operating in the past; and (c) process rates have not changed.  Because modern scientists observe geologic change to be relatively slow now, many have naturally concluded that geologic processes have always been slow.  Yet uniformitarianism, a premise on which much of geologic science is based, is an idea, not a fact.  With our limited knowledge, it presently is a powerful paradigm for examining the earth, and given our ignorance of how the Lord has done things, it does help explain many things.  The science that uses the idea has found for us such things as gas, oil, and certain types of minerals.

"Yet although uniformitarianism is a powerful perspective, it is still a premise, not a fact.  Uniformitarianism cannot explain all of the oddities and anomalies about the earth.  Further, it neglects a God who can speak and have the dust of the earth obey, who can move mountains at will, and who can divide the Red Sea.  As Latter-day Saints, we have scriptural evidence that God has intervened in the affairs of the earth and modified the landscape on numerous occasions.  Among other things, he changed the earth's environment after the Fall, he gave Enoch power to move mountains and rivers before the Deluge, he caused the Flood, and he was the cause of the catastrophic events in America at the Savior's death.

"For Latter-day Saints, the Flood [as also no death before the fall] is a matter of faith and belief.  We believe in many events that today we cannot scientifically explain.  For example, in a world where change and death are the norm, the scriptures promise immortality and eternal life.  Indeed the scriptures teach that this earth will be burned (see 2 Pet. 3:10), receive a resurrection (D&C 88:26), and become a celestial kingdom (D&C 88:17–18).  Such future events will make the incident of the Flood look like child's play in comparison.

"Further, with all of the advancements of science in recent decades, we still cannot explain how angels are able to defy gravity and descend or ascend through a building's ceiling (see JS—H 1:43); how rapid interplanetary travel is possible for heavenly beings (see D&C 130:6–7); how a righteous man can raise the dead using God's power (see 1 Kgs. 17:17–23); how heavenly messengers can appear to mortals (see D&C 110:2, 11–13); or how Jesus Christ's divine sacrifice is able to atone for our sins.

"Though we cannot yet explain the physics or dynamics behind those events, we look forward to the time when the Lord will come and explain them.  In the Millennium—a time of great physical change in the earth—he will  ' reveal all things—

" ' Things which have passed, and hidden things which no man knew, things of the earth, by which it was made, and the purpose and the end thereof—

" ' Things most precious, things that are above, and things that are beneath, things that are in the earth, and upon the earth, and in heaven '  (D&C 101:32–34)."  (Donald W. Parry, "The Flood and the Tower of Babel," Ensign, Jan. 1998, 35.)

Hugh Nibley on uniformitarianism

In 1973, Hugh Nibley said this about uniformitarianism:

"We have all grown up in a world nurtured on the comfortable Victorian doctrine of uniformitarianism, the idea that what happens in this world is all just more of the same: what lies ahead is pretty much what lies behind, for the same forces that are at work on the earth today were at work in the same manner, with the same intensity and the same effects, at all times past and will go on operating inexorably and irresistibly in just the same way forever hereafter.  There is no real cause for alarm in a world where everything is under control beneath the watchful eye of science as evolution takes its undeviating forward course, steady, sure, reliable, imperceptibly slow and gentle, and gratifyingly predictable.

" ' The skies as far as the utmost star, are clear of any malignant Intelligences,'  wrote an eminent British scholar of the 1920s,  ' and even the untoward accidents of life are due to causes comfortably impersonal.... The possibility that the Unknown contains Powers deliberately hostile to him is one the ordinary modern man can hardly entertain even in imagination.'

"In such a world one needed no longer to run to God for comfort.  The matter-of-fact, no-nonsense approach of science had, since the days of the Miletian school and the ancient Atomists, banished all childish fears and consigned the horrendous and spectacular aspects of the human past and future to the realm of myth and fantasy.

"Quite recently, however, scientists have noted with a shock that in looking forward not to the distant but to the immediate future what they discern is not just more of the same but something totally different, something for which they confess themselves entirely unprepared, since it is all entirely unexpected.  The idea that what lies ahead is by no means the simple and predictable projection of our knowledge of the present has, as John Lear points out, reconditioned our minds for another look at the past as well as the future.  Since the past is wholly a construction of our own imaginations, we have always found there just what we expected to find, i.e., more of the same.  But now  ' future shock '  has prepared us for  ' past shock,'  and we find ourselves almost forced to accept a view of the past that is utterly alien to anything in the experience of modern man."  (Hugh Nibley, "The Genesis of the Written Word," New Era, Sept. 1973, 38.)

F. Kent Nielsen on uniformitarianism

F. Kent Nielsen teaches the history of science and the philosophy of science at Brigham Young University.  His thoughts about uniformitarianism were published in a 1980 Ensign article.

"The laws which maintain the natural order constitute  ' truth,'  which is  ' independent '  only  ' in that sphere in which God has placed [them] '  (D&C 93:30).  Thus, as Latter-day Saints we understand how science can discover truths about our present order.  In other words, as Latter-day Saints, we recognize that there are some limitations about the extent of uniformity in our present mortal order of nature.

"The first limitation [on uniformitarianism] is that the same order or set of laws does not necessarily extend to other  ' spheres.'  A sanctified, millennial world, or a glorified celestial world, or a pre-Fall paradisiacal world obviously functions under a different order of nature.  Its order—perfectly  ' natural '  to it—would seem  ' unnatural '  to our mortal world.  Imagine, for instance, the biology of a world in which there is no death.  Or try to fit the second law of thermodynamics (which states that all energy processes of the universe are  ' running down ' ) into a world of eternal progression.  Clearly, God has placed us in one  ' sphere,'  but there may be many other types of  ' spheres '  for us to learn about at some future time.

"The second limitation the gospel places on the concept of uniformity is that the same God  ' who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power '  has the power to perform miracles—to make what appears to us to be temporary exceptions to the order of nature as we understand it—if it is his will to do so (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel.  Joseph Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City, Deseret Book Co., 1977, p. 345).  These miracles, however, may be the result of higher laws for our  ' sphere '  that are not understood by us.  Thus, since God has promised that he will indeed exercise his power if we seek him in faith, he encourages us to seek his aid.  Mormon scolded the people of his day for thinking that miracles had ceased.  He wrote:  ' Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.

" ' For it is by faith that miracles are wrought;... wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief '  (Moro. 7:33, 37).  His son, Moroni, reinforced the message by asking his future readers:  ' And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things [events to occur at the time of the resurrection of the dead] passed, of which I have spoken?  Has the end come yet?  Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles '  (Morm. 9:15).

"To Latter-day Saints, the image of God as a master machinist, setting up an unalterable course of nature, contradicts our knowledge of him as a loving Father who wants his children to seek after him in prayerful faith for the fulfillment—even the miraculous fulfillment—of their righteous desires.

"The third clarification the gospel gives us [about uniformitarianism] is a reminder that time will change the order of nature—even in our present, mortal world.  When the earth was  ' new,'  before the Fall, it was in a paradisiacal state, and  ' if Adam had not transgressed... all things which were created must have... remained forever, and had no end '  (2 Ne. 2:22).  Both man and animals ate only plants (see Gen. 1:29–30).  Adam and Eve would have had no children (see 2 Ne. 2:23).  Apparently, the earth did not then bring forth  ' thorns... and thistles '  to vex man (Gen. 3:18).  These are just three differences between that state of the earth and our current one.  Because of the Fall,  ' the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now,'  waiting with  ' earnest expectation '  to  ' be delivered from the bondage of corruption,'  when the redemption shall bring its present condition to an end (Rom. 8:22, 19, 21).

"The present condition of the earth will end when Christ comes to reign personally upon the earth, giving it again its  ' paradisiacal glory '  (A of F 1:10).  For,  ' as God made the world in six days, and on the seventh day he finished his work, and sanctified it... even so, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years will the Lord God sanctify the earth '  (D&C 77:12).  This coming sanctification of our sphere will not result from [uniformitarianism, or] the present natural order uniformly continuing its course.  Instead, that order will change drastically because of the direct intervention of its Creator and Maintainer.  All living things and even the elements of the earth  ' shall become new, that my knowledge and glory may dwell upon all the earth '  (D&C 101:24–25)."  ("The Gospel and the Scientific View: How Earth Came to Be", Ensign, Sept. 1980, 67.)

Conclusion

As quoted above, uniformitarianism is a powerful paradigm for examining the earth and it helps explain many things, but it is an idea, not a fact.  And although uniformitarianism is a useful perspective, it cannot explain everything about the earth.  Uniformitarianism does not even contemplate a God who can speak and have the dust of the earth obey, "Yea, and if he say unto the earth—Move—it is moved" (Helaman 12:8-13), or who can move mountains at will (Matt. 17:20, Ether 12:30, and Moses 7:13).  A scientist attempting to interpret the results of events such as these that have happened in the past would be confused to say the least if uniformitarianism were the only acceptable evaluation method.