New Church web site and March Ensign both affirm the divine, as opposed to evolutionary, origin of man (part two)

In the March 2008 Ensign and on the new Church web site, Elder Russell M. Nelson expresses admiration for the complexity of the human body and its divine creation:

"My long road to become a doctor of medicine was only the beginning.  After that came years of hospital work, research, specialty training, and certifying examinations.  Then followed many years of teaching, service, and the challenges of the newly emerging field of open-heart surgery, all of which brought me to a profound reverence for the structure and function of the human body.  I was convinced that its creation was divine."  ("Faith in Jesus Christ," Ensign, Mar 2008, pp.24–30; see also the Church's new Web site about Jesus Christ.)

Elder Nelson's current article is reminiscent of a speech he gave 21 years ago.  ("The Magnificence of Man," BYU Speeches, March 29, 1987; published in New Era, Oct 1987, p.44 and Ensign, Jan 1988, p.64.)

Both the current article and the 1987 speech review briefly what happens at conception and both talk about early child development.  Both discuss the formation of a tiny heart at 22 days, blood circulation at 26 days, and the formation of eyes, ears, and fingers.  Both examine several distinctive features of the eyes, ears, and heart.  Both emphasize the protection provided by paired organs and the two routes of blood supply that protect single organs.  Both point out that pain protects against injury and antibodies protect against infection.  Both highlight the body's ability to repair and renew itself.  Both cite the body's ability to regulate temperature and control the level of essential elements and constituents.

All of this leads Elder Nelson (then and now) to the conclusion that the body was created by God in the image of God and he cites scripture to support this conclusion.  In the earlier talk, Elder Nelson expressed the following as a natural corollary to his belief in man's divine origin:

"I believe all of those scriptures that pertain to the creation of man.  But the decision to believe is a spiritual one, not made solely by an understanding of things physical, for we read that  ' the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.'  (1 Cor. 2:14.)

"It is incumbent upon each informed and spiritually attuned person to help overcome such foolishness of men who would deny divine creation or think that man simply evolved.  By the Spirit, we perceive the truer and more believable wisdom of God.

"With great conviction, I add my testimony to that of my fellow Apostle Paul, who said,  ' Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? ' "

Throughout his service in the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Nelson's views on creation and evolution have not varied.  During a press interview less than a year ago, he said:

"We believe that God is our creator and that he has created other forms of life.  It's interesting to me, drawing on my 40 years experience as a medical doctor, how similar those species are.  We developed open-heart surgery, for example, experimenting on lower animals simply because the same creator made the human being.  We owe a lot to those lower species.  But to think that man evolved from one species to another is, to me, incomprehensible....  Man has always been man.  Dogs have always been dogs.  Monkeys have always been monkeys.  It's just the way genetics works.  ("In Focus: Mormonism in Modern America," May 16, 2007, Pew Forum interview.)

Because of Elder Nelson's intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the human body, he is "convinced that its creation was divine."  Thus, for him it is "foolishness [to] deny divine creation or think that man simply evolved."

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Times and Seasons puzzled by President Packer on evolution

On Monday of this week, Marc Bohn at Times and Seasons didn't seem too sure about how to take President Boyd K. Packer's recent comments on evolution.  So, he attached several statements by past Church leaders about Mormons and Evolution.

Several commenters who think the Church should be neutral or affirmative toward evolution were enthusiastic about Marc's post.  A couple of Marc's commenters seemed not to understand that President Packer himself is neither affirmative or neutral about evolution, especially when it comes the evolution of man.[1]

In an apparent effort to show that President Packer is out of harmony with the First Presidency's 1909 statement on "The Origin of Man," Marc used the specious argument that a certain April 1910 Improvement Era paragraph was "edited by the First Presidency." [2]

The Evenson assertion Marc quoted that "in 1931 ... there was intense discussion on the issue of organic evolution" is completely and utterly false.[3]

The short quote from the William Lee Stokes letter is unrelated to the matter being considered (the position of the Church on evolution) because Church policy is not announced in private letters, which means the Stokes letter does not establish the non-position of the Church on anything.[4]

The leave-science-to-science meaning Marc attaches to the 1931 quote about geology and biology etc. is simply off the mark.[5]

By the way, one of the less important problems with Marc's article is the fact that William E. Evenson did NOT write the Encyclopedia of Mormonism entry on the Origin of Man.

Well, I'm leaving later this morning for a very long road trip.  I'll have my computer with me and hope to have internet access along the way, but please forgive me if comments don't get through moderation right way for the next ten days.

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Notes:

1.  Over the years, President Packer has consistently denounced "those who equate humankind with animals," explaining that " ' Children are an heritage of the Lord '  (Psalms 127:3).  Each is a child of God.  He is not a monkey; neither were his ancestors."  ("Children of God,"  BYU Women's Conference, May 5, 2006, p.5.)

In earlier comments about evolution, President Packer has clearly stated his opinion that organic evolution as an explanation for the origin of man is not only a problem, it is "the problem" ("The Law and the Light," The Book of Mormon: Jacob through Words of Mormon, to Learn with Joy, Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, BYU, 1990, p.6, italics in the original.)

He has pointed out that "fundamental doctrines" (i.e. the Creation, Fall, and Atonement) "cannot co-exist" with the belief that man's body evolved from lower forms of animal life.  (Ibid., p.7.)  He has declared that if the theory of evolution applies to man, "there was no Fall and therefore no need for an atonement, nor a gospel of redemption, nor a redeemer."  (Ibid., p.22.)

President Packer has warned members not to mortgage their testimonies "for an unproved theory" on how man's body was created and admonishes members to have faith "in the revelations" leaving man where the revelations have put him.  (Ibid., p.10.)  He has warned, "Do not mortgage your soul for unproved theories." (Ibid., p.26.)

President Packer has said that man is not the product of evolution.  This idea, he has said, "is false!"  (Ibid., p.21.)  And, he has also said, theistic evolution "is equally false."  (Ibid.)

President Packer has explained that evolution as a possibility for the origin of man's body is incompatible with "an understanding of the sealing authority," which (he said twice for emphasis) "cannot admit to ancestral blood lines to beasts."  (Ibid., p.22; italics in the original.)

2.  This was discussed here in 2006 in a lengthy review of the April 1910 Era comment as published in William E. Evenson and Duane E. Jeffery, Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements, (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2005).

3.  A lengthy discussion of this is found here.  A short summary follows.

The 1931 First Presidency memo from which the excerpt is taken quotes Elder B. H. Roberts saying that

"the points questioned and the paper in defense of them [have] suspended the publication of my book — now in manuscript — ' The Truth, The Way, The Life'."

Elder Roberts wrote the book in 1927-1928 as a Melchizedek Priesthood study guide.  Five members of the Quorum of the Twelve were assigned to review the manuscript.  They found problems.  But Elder Roberts was unwilling to make certain requested changes.  Hence the increasing intensity of the discussions which continued for three and a half years until the First Presidency said on April 7, 1931:

"We can see no advantage to be gained by a continuation of the discussion to which reference is here made, but on the contrary are certain that it would lead to confusion, division, and misunderstanding if carried further."

The erroneous sentence Marc quoted was written by William E. Evenson and published in 1992.  Two years later, in 1994, the Roberts book (at issue in 1931) was finally published.  As part of that publication project, BYU Studies invited thirteen BYU scholars to prepare critical essays discussing and analyzing various aspects of the book.

One of those essays was written by William Evenson.  In his 1994 essay, Evenson acknowledged that the opinions of B. H. Roberts were "not those of an evolutionist" and that the 1931 discussions "were not centered on the scientific theories of origins of life forms."  (William E. Evenson, "Science: The Universe, Creation, and Evolution," in The Truth, The Way, The Life [2nd edition, Provo: BYU Studies, 1996], p.645; emphasis added.)

Let me repeat that for emphasis:  The opinions of B. H. Roberts were "not those of an evolutionist" and the discussions "were not centered on the scientific theories of origins of life forms."  (Ibid.)  Evenson thus reversed his position from two years earlier about the topic of the 1931 discussions.

4.  It is ironic that Marc's article is anchored to President Packer's recent comments about evolution, yet he neglects to tell his readers what President Packer has published about the Stokes letter:

"Letters to individuals are not the channel for announcing the policy of the Church.  For several important reasons, this letter itself is not a declaration of the position of the Church, as some have interpreted it to be.  Do not anchor your position on this major issue to that one sentence!  It is in conflict with the two official declarations [1909 and 1925], each signed by all members of the First Presidency.  Remember the revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants,  ' Every decision made by ... [the First Presidency] must be by the unanimous voice of the same; that is, every member ... must be agreed to its decisions.... Unless this is the case, their decisions are not entitled to the same blessings which the decisions of a quorum of three presidents were anciently, who were ordained after the order of Melchizedek, and were righteous and holy men'  (D&C 107:27, 29). ("The Law and the Light," op. cit., p.23; italics in the original.)

The Church has never published a statement such as Marc quotes from the Stokes letter.

5.  President Thomas S. Monson has a very different understanding of the statement as was discussed here.  And four months ago, President Monson emphasized again that "My faith did not come to me through science, and I will not permit so-called science to destroy it."  ("Guideposts for Life's Journey," pdf p.4.)

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New Church web site and March Ensign both affirm the divine, as opposed to evolutionary, origin of man (part one)

It is claimed by some that "humans are closely related to all life on this planet" and that "our species, Homo sapiens, which has inhabited this earth for nearly 200 millennia" is descended from hominid species such as "Australopithecus ramidis [which] dates to about 4.4 million years ago."  (Trent D. Stephens and D. Jeffrey Meldrum, Evolution and Mormonism: A Quest for Understanding, Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2001, pp.29, 158, & 163).

But that isn't what the Church teaches.  The passage below, for example, is found in this month's Ensign magazine and also posted on the Church's new web site about Jesus Christ.  In it, President Boyd K. Packer talks about the origin of man's mortal body and explicitely dismisses fossil evidence for the evolution of man, proclaiming instead that man's creation in the image of God was a "separate" creation:

"Created in His Image

"We are taught in Genesis, in Moses, in Abraham, in the Book of Mormon, and in the endowment that man's mortal body was made in the image of God in a separate creation.  Had the Creation come in a different way, there could have been no Fall.

"If men were merely animals, then logic favors freedom without accountability.

"How well I know that among learned men are those who look down at animals and stones to find the origin of man.  They do not look inside themselves to find the spirit there.  They train themselves to measure things by time, by thousands and by millions, and say these animals called men all came by chance.  And this they are free to do, for agency is theirs.

"But agency is ours as well.  We look up, and in the universe we see the handiwork of God and measure things by epochs, by aeons, by dispensations, by eternities.  The many things we do not know, we take on faith.

"But this we know!  It was all planned  ' before the world was '  (D&C 38:1; see also D&C 49:17; 76:13, 39; 93:7; Abraham 3:22—25).  Events from the Creation to the final, winding-up scene are not based on chance; they are based on choice!  It was planned that way.

"This we know!  This simple truth!  Had there been no Creation and no Fall, there should have been no need for any Atonement, neither a Redeemer to mediate for us.  Then Christ need not have been."  (President Boyd K. Packer, "Who Is Jesus Christ," Ensign, Mar 2008, p.19; see also the Church's new Web site about Jesus Christ.)

Lest anyone is tempted to misinterpret President Packer's words, let me point out a few things he has stated elsewhere on this subject.  First, he has said that organic evolution as an explanation for the origin of man is not only a problem, it is "the problem" ("The Law and the Light," The Book of Mormon: Jacob through Words of Mormon, to Learn with Joy, Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, BYU, 1990, p.6, italics in the original.)

He has pointed out that "fundamental doctrines" (i.e. the Creation, Fall, and Atonement) "cannot co-exist" with the belief that man's body evolved from lower forms of animal life.  (Ibid., p.7.)  He has declared that if the theory of evolution applies to man, "there was no Fall and therefore no need for an atonement, nor a gospel of redemption, nor a redeemer."  (Ibid.,p.22.)

President Packer has warned members not to mortgage their testimonies "for an unproved theory" on how man's body was created and admonishes members to have faith "in the revelations" leaving man where the revelations have put him.  (Ibid., p.10.)  He has warned, "Do not mortgage your soul for unproved theories." (Ibid., p.26.)

President Packer has said that man is not the product of evolution.  This idea, he has said, "is false!"  (Ibid., p.21.)  And, he has also said, theistic evolution "is equally false."  (Ibid.)

President Packer has explained that evolution as a possibility for the origin of man's body is incompatible with "an understanding of the sealing authority," which (he said twice for emphasis) "cannot admit to ancestral blood lines to beasts."  (Ibid., p.22; italics in the original.)

More recently, President Packer has said: " ' Children are an heritage of the Lord '  (Psalms 127:3).  Each is a child of God.  He is not a monkey; neither were his ancestors."  ("Children of God,"  BYU Women's Conference, May 5, 2006, p.5.)

Clearly, the new Church web site and the March Ensign both affirm the divine, as opposed to evolutionary, origin of man.

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New Church web site and March Ensign both affirm: The condition of mortality did not exist on this earth before the Fall of Adam

It is claimed by some that the condition of mortality has existed on this earth for many millions of years.  Because mortality was already the condition outside the Garden of Eden, it is also claimed that Adam's Fall brought mortality only to himself and his family.

But that isn't what the Church teaches.  The paragraph below, for example, is found in this month's Ensign magazine and also posted on the Church's new web site about Jesus Christ.  In it, President Boyd K. Packer talks about Adam and Eve and mortality.  But he doesn't call it their mortality, he calls it the condition of mortality:

"Adam and Eve ventured forth to multiply and replenish the earth as they had been commanded to do.  The creation of their bodies in the image of God, as a separate creation, was crucial to the plan.  Their subsequent Fall was essential if the condition of mortality was to exist and the plan to proceed."  (President Boyd K. Packer, "Who Is Jesus Christ," Ensign, Mar 2008, pp.16-17; see also the Church's new web site about Jesus Christ.)

If the condition of mortality could not exist without the Fall, then it clearly did not exist before the Fall.

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