Evolution

Yeah, that word, that one word can make the hair on the back of some peoples necks start to raise.  It used to do that to me to, a long time ago. I took an evolution class in college (back in the day) for two reasons – one is a family claim that the woman I share a name with Aliceson Jane Darwin was a descendent of Charles Darwin (to which we have no verifiable facts) and two I was curious about what the whole commotion was about. Well, the truth is at the end of the course there were more questions than answers, and even the professor said, “That’s why it is called the Theory of Evolution”.

 A week or so ago I saw on several of my news sites a story of a three-hour debate about evolution and creationism between Bill Nye the Science Guy and Ken Ham. Apparently they debated for well over 3 hours, and guess what…probably no one changed their minds! This was surprisingly apropos because this week in Primary, the sharing time was about the Jesus creating the earth. Which I believe he did, although how I do not know.

 Then I thought about one of my hero’s BH Roberts who back in 1930s attempted to publish his book “The Truth, The Way, The Life”. This book discussed at length the concerns about attempting to reconcile scripture and science.  The result was a very serious conflict with Joseph Fielding Smith and Elder Roberts.  It became such a problem that the President of the Church Heber J. Grant, and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles got involved. As a result of this obvious public conflict, the Quorum of the Twelve allowed both men to present their evidence. While there is no record of exactly what was presented, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has to this day never adopted a Creationist point of view.  In fact a letter from the first presidency at the time stated, “Upon the fundamental doctrines of the Church we are all agreed. 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 scientific research, while we magnify our calling in the realm of the Church.”

In the current state of world affairs, sky rocketing debt of this nation, politicians ignoring the rule of law, the constitution being disregarded, world geo-political conflict, I can only wonder why we must continually waste precious time, resources and trust on this issue. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I love the Old Testament, I love Science, and these loves are certainly not exclusive from each other.  This is a tangled ball of string, which I for one am content to put on the shelf and not worry about.  There are enough thoughts raging in my brain vying for time and attention - I think I’ll take on more solvable issues – like world peace