In these respects we differ from the Christian world, for our religion will not clash with or contradict the facts of science in any particular.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 14, p. 116
There is no harmony between the truths of revealed religion and the theories of organic evolution.
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 185
Evolutionary theories assume that hundreds of millions of years were involved, first in the creation of the earth as a habitable globe, and again in the evolution of spontaneously generated, single celled forms of life into the complex and multitudinous forms of life now found on its face. We have rather specific scriptural indications that the creative period was of relatively short duration.
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 184
There were no pre-Adamites. Any assumption to the contrary runs counter to the whole plan and scheme of the Almighty in creating and peopling this earth.
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 184
Adam and Eve and all forms of life, both animal and plant, were created in immortality; that is, when first placed on this earth, all forms of life were in a state of immortality. There was no death in the world; death entered after the fall.
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 183
Of course, I think those people who hold to the view that man has come up through all these ages from the scum of the sea through billions of years do not believe in Adam. Honestly I do not know how they can, and I am going to show you that they do not. There are some who attempt to do it but they are inconsistent - absolutely inconsistent, because that doctrine is so incompatible, so utterly out of harmony, with the revelations of the Lord that a man just cannot believe in both.
Old Testament Student Manual – Genesis-2nd Samuel, Church Educational System, p. 34, 1980
…I say most emphatically, you cannot believe in this theory [of evolution] of the origin of man, and at the same time accept the plan of salvation as set forth by the Lord our God. You must choose the one and reject the other, for they are in direct conflict and there is a gulf separating them which is so great that it cannot be bridged, no matter how much one may try to do so....
... Then Adam, and by that I mean the first man, was not capable of sin. He could not transgress, and by doing so bring death into the world; for, according to this theory [of evolution], death had always been in the world. If, therefore, there was no fall, there was no need of an atonement, hence the coming into the world of the Son of God as the Savior of the world is a contradiction, a thing impossible. Are you prepared to believe such a thing as that?
Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, v. 1, pp. 141-42
The dividing of the earth [Genesis 10:25] was not an act of division by the inhabitants of the earth by tribes and peoples, but a breaking asunder of the continents, thus dividing the land surface and creating the Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere. By looking at a wall map of the world, you will discover how the land surface along the northern and southern coast of the American Hemisphere and Europe and Africa has the appearance of having been together at one time. Of course, there have been many changes on the earth's surface since the beginning. We are informed by revelation that the time will come when this condition will be changed and that the land surface of the earth will come back again as it was in the beginning and all be in one place. This is definitely stated in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Prophet Joseph F. Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, v. 5, pp. 73-74
It is held by some that Adam was not the first man upon this earth, and that the original human being was a development from lower orders of the animal creation. These, however, are the theories of men. The word of the Lord declares that Adam was 'the first man of all men' (Moses 1:34), and we are therefore in duty bound to regard him as the primal parent of our race. It was shown to the brother of Jared that all men were created in the beginning after the image of God; and whether we take this to mean the spirit or the body, or both, it commits us to the same conclusion: Man began life as a human being, in the likeness of our heavenly Father.
First Presidency (Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, Anthon H. Lund), as cited in Clark, Messages of the First Presidency, v. 4 p. 205
Any theory that leaves out God as a personal, purposeful Being, and accepts chance as a first cause, cannot be accepted by Latter-day Saints…That man and the whole of creation came by chance is unthinkable. It is equally unthinkable that if man came into being by the will and power of God, the divine creative power is limited to one process dimly sensed by mortal man.
Apostle John A. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, v. 1, p. 155
I am grateful that in the midst of the confusion of our Father's children there has been given to the members of this great organization a sure knowledge of the origin of man, that we came from the spirit world where our spirits were begotten by our Father in heaven, that he formed our first parents from the dust of the earth, and that their spirits were placed in their bodies, and that man came, not as some have believed, not as some have preferred to believe, from some of the lower walks of life, but our ancestors were those beings who lived in the courts of heaven. We came not from some menial order of life, but our ancestor is God our heavenly Father.
Apostle George Albert Smith, Conference Report, Oct. 1925, p. 33
Of course, I think those people who hold to the view that man has come up through all these ages from the scum of the sea through billions of years do not believe in Adam. Honestly I do not know how they can, and I am going to show you that they do not. There are some who attempt to do it but they are inconsistent - absolutely inconsistent, because that doctrine is so incompatible, so utterly out of harmony, with the revelations of the Lord that a man just cannot believe in both.
... I say most emphatically, you cannot believe in this theory of the origin of man, and at the same time accept the plan of salvation as set forth by the Lord our God. You must choose the one and reject the other, for they are in direct conflict and there is a gulf separating them which is so great that it cannot be bridged, no matter how much one may try to do so....
... Then Adam, and by that I mean the first man, was not capable of sin. He could not transgress, and by doing so bring death into the world; for according to this theory, death had always been in the world. If, therefore, there was no fall, there was no need of an atonement, hence the coming into the world of the Son of God as the Savior of the world is a contradiction, a thing impossible. Are you prepared to believe such a thing as that?
Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, v. 1, pp. 141-42
These principles do not change, as represented by evolutionists of the Darwinian school, but the primitive organism of all living beings exist in the same form as when they first received their impress from their Maker. There are, indeed, some very slight exceptions, as for instance, the ass may mix with the mare and produce the mule; but there it ends, the violation of the laws of procreation receives a check, and its operations can go no further.
Prophet John Taylor, Meditation and the Atonement
Now, we have not been using the Book of Mormon as we should. Our homes are not as strong unless we are using it to bring our children to Christ. Our families may be corrupted by worldly trends and teachings unless we know how to use the book to expose and combat the falsehoods in socialism, organic evolution, rationalism, humanism, etc.
Prophet Ezra Taft Benson, "The Book of Mormon Is the Word of God," General Conference, April 1975.
What is a man in this boundless setting of sublime splendor? I answer you… he is greater and grander, more precious in the arithmetic of God than all the planets and suns of space. For him they were created. They are the handiwork of God. Man is his son. In this world man is given dominion over many things…. Incomprehensibly grand as are the physical creations of the earth and space, they have been brought into existence as a means to an end.
Apostle James E. Talmage, quoted in Brown, LDS Conference Reports, p. 50
Whether the mortal bodies of man evolved in natural processes to present perfection, through the direction and power of God; whether the first parents of our generations, Adam and Eve, were transplanted from another sphere, with immortal tabernacles...; whether they were born here in mortality, as other mortals have been, are questions not fully answered in the revealed word of God.
Official LDS statement on evolution, Improvement Era, v. 13, p. 570, "Priesthood Quorum's Table, April 1910
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, basing its belief on divine revelation, ancient and modern, proclaims man to be the direct and lineal offspring of Diety. By his Almighty power God organized the earth, and all that it contains, from spirit and element, which exist co-eternally with himself. Man is the child of God, formed in the divine image and endowed with divine attributes, and even as the infant son of an earthly father and mother is capable in due time of becoming man, so that undeveloped offspring of celestial parentage is capable, by experience through ages and aeons, of evolving into a God.
First Presidency (Heber J. Grant, Anthony W. Ivins, Charles W. Nibley), " 'Mormon' View of Evolution," Improvement Era, v. 11, pp. 1090-1091, September 1925; also see Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Appendix 5
Adam, our progenitor, 'the first man,' was, like Christ, a pre-existent spirit, and like Christ he took upon him an appropriate body, the body of a man…. The doctrine of the pre-existence… pours a wonderful light upon the otherwise mysterious problem of man's origin. It shows that man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents… prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal body.
It is held by some that Adam was not the first man upon this earth, and that the original human being was a development from lower orders of the animal creation. These, however, are the theories of men. The word of the Lord declares that Adam was 'the first man of all men'… and we are therefore in duty bound to regard him as the primal parent of our race. It was shown to the brother of Jared that all men were created in the beginning after the image of God; and whether we take this to mean in the spirit or the body, or both, it commits us to the same conclusion: Man began life as a human being, in the likeness of our Heavenly Father.
True it is that the body of man enters upon its career as a tiny germ embryo, which becomes an infant, quickened at a certain stage by the spirit whose tabernacle it is…. There is nothing in this, however, to indicate that the original man, the first of our race, began life as anything less than a man, or less than the human germ or embryo that becomes a man.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, basing its belief on divine revelation… proclaims man to be the direct and lineal offspring of Deity….
Man is the child of God, formed in the divine image and endowed with divine attributes, and even as the infant son of an earthly father and mother is capable in due time of becoming a man, so the undeveloped offspring of celestial parentage is capable, by experience through ages and aeons, of evolving into a God.
First Presidency (Joseph F. Smith, et al., 1909), "The Origin of Man," quoted in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, v. 4, pp. 1665-1669
Upon the fundamental doctrines of the Church we are all agreed. Our mission is to bear the message of the restored gospel to the world. Leave geology, biology, archaeology, 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….
Upon one thing we should all be able to agree, namely, that Presidents Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund were right when they said: 'Adam is the primal parent of our race.'
[First Presidency Minutes, Apr. 7, 1931]
WILLIAM E. EVENSON
BYU Daily Universe, November 12, 1991
While most Utah biologists are Strong Mormons, we found [almost] none who believe in Special Creation as against evolution….
[The belief among Mormon scientists that evolution was] apparently God's method of creating species… was close to 100 percent true of those in the fields that study the earth and its creatures, it was also true of many Mormon scientists, no matter what their fields.
Richard T. Wootton, Saints and Scientists, 1992
As for the Bible account of the creation we may say that the Lord gave it to Moses, or that Moses obtained the history and traditions of the fathers, and from them picked out what he considered necessary, and that account has been handed down from age to age, and we have got it, no matter whether it is correct or not, and whether the Lord found the earth empty or void, or whether he made it out of nothing or out of the rude elements; or whether he made it in six years or in as many millions of years, it will remain a matter of speculation in the minds of men unless he give revelation on the subject.
Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 14, pp. 115-117
We therefore learn that periods of time may have lasted 24 hours each, 1,000 years each, or even millions of years. The periods of time are indeterminate in length; as one phase of the creation was finished, the next began. Therefore the age of the earth before Adam and Eve could have been very great indeed.
Robert Woodward, "In the Beginning: A Latter-day Perspective," Ensign, pp. 12-19
Where was there ever a father without being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor? And everything comes in this way.
Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., History of the Church, v. 6, p. 476
[Brigham Young] unmistakably declare[d] man's origin to be altogether of a celestial character – that not only is his spirit of heavenly descent, but his bodily organization too, - that the latter is not taken from the lower animals, but from the originally celestial body of the great Father of Humanity…. 'Look at this picture' – Man, the offspring of ape! 'An on this' – Man, the image of God, his Father.
Apostle George Q. Cannon, Millennial Star, October 1861, p. 654
Adam was no gorilla, no squalid savage of doubtful humanity, but a perfect man in the image of God. When placed on the earth, he was immortal. Eve was no degraded loathsome creature, but a lovely admirable being – a suitable partner for an immortal man…. The most perfect men and women on earth today are physically far beneath their great progenitors, Adam and Eve. We are not the offspring of monkeys, but are the children of God, and Jesus is our brother.
Apostle George Q. Cannon, Juvenile Instructor, quoted in Bankhead, The Fall of Adam, p. 30
We have the general characteristics of the human form, and we do not look like the original of man according to Darwin's idea; we do not look like the monkey or baboon from which Darwin said we originated.
Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, v. 17, p. 32
The theory of evolution, that man in our present state upon the earth is but a sequence and outgrowth of steady advancement from the lowest order of creation till the present type of man… [is] in short that our great-grandfathers were apes and monkeys. And how much satisfaction these philosophers have in the contemplation of their grandfather monkeys, we are left to conjecture…. But we find nothing on the earth, or in the earth, nor under the earth, that indicates that any of these monkeys or apes… ever accomplished any great exploits. So far as the history of the earth is known, whether written or unwritten… or whether found impressed in the rocks, neither geologist nor any other scientists have ever been able to show us any great exploits of any of these inferior grades of being… as to develop in their future progress the present order of beings we call man.
Apostle Erastus Snow, Journal of Discourses, v. 19, pp. 270-271
Doubt has been thrown upon the Mosaic account of the creation, the whole religious world has been agitated and in many instances faith in the scriptures has been destroyed by this theory of the eminent philosopher [not scientist], Charles Darwin.
Apostle George Q. Cannon, Collected Discourses, p. 5
There are speculations which touch the origin of life and the relationship of God to his children. In a very limited degree that relationship has been defined by revelation, and until we receive more light upon the subject we deem it best to refrain from the discussion of certain philosophical [not scientific] theories…. Some of our teachers are anxious to explain how much of the theory of evolution… is true, and what is false, but that only leaves their students in an unsettled frame of mind. They are not old enough and learned enough to discriminate, or put proper limitations upon a theory which we believe is more or less a fallacy. In reaching the conclusion that evolution would be best left out of discussions in our Church schools we are deciding a question of propriety and are not undertaking to say how much of evolution is true, or how much is false…. The Church itself has no philosophy about the modus operandi employed by the Lord in His creation of the world, and much of the talk therefore about the philosophy of Mormonism is altogether misleading.
Joseph F. Smith, Juvenile Instructor, v. 46, pp. 208-209
First, the fossil remains of prehistoric life on earth show that in the oldest rocks are remains of the simplest forms of life; and as the rocks become younger, more complex or more advanced life forms seem to appear. The scale of life seems to ascend from amoeba to man, as the age of the particular part of the earth's crust diminishes.
Second, each group of living things has much the same bodily organization. In the case of mammals, all, including man, have similar skeletons, muscular arrangements, nervous systems, sense organizations, etc. In some species the organs are rudimentary – but they are there."
Third, the embryos of man and the higher animals, in earlier stages, are identical, as far as the microscope can reveal. This is held to mena that embryonic development summarizes or recapitulates the stages of man's development through the ages past."
Fourth, all organic creatures may be so grouped, according to structure and chemical nature, as to show gradually increasing relationships from the lowest to the highest forms of life. Similarities in blood composition are held to indicate nearness of kinship. The blood of the great apes is very similar to the blood of man."
Fifth, it has been possible, within historic times, to domesticate many animals, often with real changes in bodily form, as the various breeds of cattle, sheep, or dogs. Besides, isolated animals, as on the islands of the sea, have become unique forms, differing from those on connected continents.
Apostle John A. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, p. 159
The decision reached by the First Presidency, and announced to this morning's assembly, was in answer to a specific question that obviously the doctrine of the existence of races of human beings upon the earth prior to the Fall of Adam was not a doctrine of the Church; and, further, that the conception embodied in the belief of many to the effect that there were no such Pre-Adamite races, and that there was no death upon the Earth prior to Adam's fall is likewise declared to be no doctrine of the Church.
Apostle James E. Talmage, who worked with the First Presidency on the 1909 official doctrine statement opposing evolution, April 7, 1930, as quoted in Stephens and Meldrum, Evolution and Mormonism, p. 45
... I'd not regard Adam as related to – certainly not as descended from – the Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, the Peking, or the Piltdown man. Adam came as divinely directed, created and empowered, and stands as the patriarchal head of his posterity…. He is born in the lineage of Deity, not in the posterity of the brute creation.
Apostle James E. Talmage, Deseret News, November 21, 1931, pp. 7-8
It has been truthfully said that organic evolution is Satan's chief weapon in this dispensation in his attempt to destroy the divine mission of Jesus Christ.
Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, Man: His Origin and Destiny, p. 184
There is no harmony between the truths of revealed religion and the theories of organic evolution.
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 256
I somewhat sorrowed recently to hear someone, a sister who comes from a church family, ask, 'What about pre-Adamic people?... Aren't there evidences that people preceded the Adamic period on the earth?' I said, 'Have you forgotten the scripture that says, 'And I, the Lord God, formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul, the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also…' (Moses 3:7)… She wondered about the creation because she had read the theories of the scientists, and the question that she was really asking was: How do you reconcile science with religion? The answer must be, If science is not true, you cannot reconcile truth with error.
Prophet Harold B. Lee, "First Presidency Message," Ensign, December 1972
Heresy #2… There are those who say that revealed religion and organic evolution can be harmonized. This is both false and devilish.
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, June 1, 1980, BYU fireside address; quoted in Stephens and Meldrum, Evolution and Mormonism, p. 52
The Lord has revealed enough about the creation so that we can understand the Fall and he has revealed enough about the Fall so that we can understand the Atonement. Beyond this, we don't know. We do know that Adam was the first man upon this earth and that he was created by God and is the image of God, he did not descend from an inferior being.
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, "Elder McConkie Addresses BYU Stakes," 7th East Press
If man is but an animal, then logic favors freedom without accountability or consequence. Had man evolved from animals, there could have been no fall, no law broken, no penalty, no need for a mediator. The ordinance of baptism would be an empty gesture since it is for the remission of sins. Many who perceive organic evolution to be a law rather than theory do not realize they forsake the atonement in the process.
And, I am sorry to say, the so-called theistic evolution, the theory that God used an evolutionary process to prepare a physical body for the spirit of man, is equally false. I say I am sorry because I know it is a view commonly held by good and thoughtful people who search for an acceptable resolution to an apparent conflict between the theory of evolution and the doctrines of the gospel. An understanding of the sealing authority with its binding of the generations into eternal families cannot admit to ancestral bloodlines to beasts.
Apostle Boyd K. Packer, The Book of Mormon: Jacob Through Words of Mormon, p. 1-31
Some people object to the slightest hint of being related to the rest of the animal kingdom, particularly the hairy apes…. I've kind of enjoyed what little I've seen of them…. Animals seems pretty wonderful to me. I'd be content to discover that I share a common heritage with them, so long as God is at the controls.
Elder Henry Eyring, Reflections of a Scientist, p. 60
Accepting this statement of Joseph Smith relative to our planet in its present state being created or formed from the fragments of a planet which previously existed, one may readily understand how the supposed differences between scientists and believers in revelation have arisen. Scientists have been talking of the earth's strata that were formed in a previously existing planet; they have considered the fossilized flora and fauna imbedded in those strata…. If scientists shall claim that the fossilized remains in the different strata of the earth's crust reveal the fact that in the earlier periods of the earth's existence only the simpler forms of vegetation and animal life are to be found, both forms of life becoming more complex and of a higher type as the earth becomes older, until it is crowned with the presence of man – all that may be allowed. But that this gradation of animal life owes its existence to the processes of evolution is denied…. The claims of evolution as explained by the philosophers [not scientists] of the Darwin school, are contrary to all experience so far as man's knowledge extends.
LDS Historian B.H. Roberts, The Gospel and Man's Relationship to Deity, pp. 281-282
The animal and vegetable creation are governed by certain laws and are composed of certain elements peculiar to themselves… each one possessing its own distinctive features, each one requiring a specific sustenance, each having an organism and faculties governed by prescribed laws to perpetuate its own kind…. These principles do not change, as represented by evolutionists of the Darwin school, but the primitive organism of all living beings exist in the same form as when they first received their impress from their Maker.
Prophet John Taylor, Mediation and Atonement, pp. 160-161
One of the leading doctrines of the Church resembles the spirit of the law of universal growth so nearly that one is forced to believe that the great truth embodied by this doctrine [eternal progression] is the truth shadowed forth by the law of evolution….. Joseph Smith taught [with regard to humans] a doctrine of evolution which in grandeur and in extent surpasses the wildest speculations of scientific evolutionists.
Apostle John A. Widtsoe, Joseph Smith as Scientist
[E]ven a four-year-old knows that a chick will not be a dog, nor a horse, nor even a turkey. It will be a chicken. It will follow the pattern of its parentage. She knew that without having had a course in genetics, without a lesson or a lecture.
A bird will not become an animal nor a fish. A mammal will not beget reptiles, nor "do men gather figs of thistles." (Matt. 7:16.)
In the countless billions of opportunities in the reproduction of living things, one kind does not beget another. If a species ever does cross, the offspring cannot reproduce.
This is demonstrated in so many obvious ways, even an ordinary mind should understand it. Surely no one with reverence for God could believe that His children evolved from slime or from reptiles.
Elder Boyd K. Packer, "The Pattern of Our Parentage," General Conference, October 1984.
I remember when I was a college student there were great discussions on the question of organic evolution. I took classes in geology and biology and heard the whole story of Darwinism as it was then taught. I wondered about it. I thought much about it. But I did not let it throw me, for I read what the scriptures said about our origins and our relationship to God.
President Gordon B. Hinckley, "God Hath Not Given Us the Spirit of Fear," First Presidency Message, Ensign, October 1984.
Others have deduced that, because of certain similarities between different forms of life, there has been a natural selection of the species, or organic evolution from one form to another. Many of these people have concluded that the universe began as a "big bang" that eventually resulted in the creation of our planet and life upon it.
To me, such theories are unbelievable! Could an explosion in a printing shop produce a dictionary? It is unthinkable! Even if it could be argued to be within a remote realm of possibility, such a dictionary could certainly not heal its own torn pages or renew its own worn corners or reproduce its own subsequent editions!
We are children of God, created by him and formed in his image.
Elder Russell M. Nelson, "The Magnificence of Man," Ensign, January 1988.
This same knowledge is contained in the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon. For aught we know the two sealed books are one and the same. Of this much we are quite certain: When, during the Millennium, the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon is translated, it will give an account of life in the premortal existence; of the creation of all things; of the Fall and the Atonement and the Second Coming; of temple ordinances, in their fulness; of the ministry and mission of translated beings; of life in the spirit world, in both paradise and hell; of the kingdoms of glory to be inhabited by resurrected beings; and many such like things.
As of now, the world is not ready to receive these truths. For one thing, these added doctrines will completely destroy the whole theory of organic evolution as it is now almost universally taught in the halls of academia. For another, they will set forth an entirely different concept and time frame of the creation, both of this earth and all forms of life and of the sidereal heavens themselves, than is postulated in all the theories of men. And sadly, there are those who, if forced to make a choice at this time, would select Darwin over Deity.
"The Bible, a Sealed Book," Teaching Seminary Preservice Readings Religion 370, 471, and 475, (2004), 123-32. Elder Bruce R. McConkie, Supplement, A Symposium on the New Testament, 1984?(1984), 1-7.
1. Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund, "The Origin of Man," Improvement Era, v. 13, pp. 75-81, November 1909; reprinted in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Appendix 4; also Messages of the First Presidency, v. 4, pp. 199-206; also Ensign, February 2002.
2. "Origin of Man," from the Priesthood Quorum's Table," Improvement Era, v. 13, April 1910, p. 570.
3. "'Mormon' View on Evolution," Improvement Era, v. 11, September 1925, pp. 1090-1091; also Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Appendix 5
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