What About Evolution?¶
by Brad Porter, Aug. 2, 2020
Doesn’t evolution prove God does not exist? When I was in High School, I brought a Reader’s Digest article to my science teacher which supported the creation theory, attempting to convince her. I don’t remember if she was simply in favor of evolution or if she was using the theory of evolution to imply atheism. Probably the former. Either way, it did not take too many years before I had changed my view of evolution. But even quite recently, I noticed a book by creationists attempting to prove their position, as if somehow the existence of God depended on it. I’m fine with scientists studying creationism along side evolution. I don’t hold to a doctrine which could not include some or a lot of divine intervention in the process of evolution, but neither do I hold to a doctrine which requires it. I think we have to be very careful in attempting to prove creationism as a requirement for the existence of God. I see no such requirement. If through science it were proven that no divine intervention was necessary in the process of evolution, would it prove the absence of God? Certainly not. Shall we dictate to God how He creates life? Would it not be a beautiful thing if all that is necessary is to spin up a universe under certain conditions and life results? Is any intervention even necessary to assure life eventually takes human form, at least in a significant fraction of the trillions of worlds in a universe? For our earth, this will eventually be revealed with perfect certainty whether by science, or by God, or some combination. However, as may be inferred from a previous section Existence of God is a Statistical Certainty, it is logical that somewhere, sometime, long ago, perhaps an infinity of universes ago, it happened without divine intervention.
Is there an organization which teaches such things? Not exactly. All the details have not been revealed. The closest thing I am aware of is a phrase unique to a hymn book of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
Do you think that you could ever, Through all eternity,Find out the generation Where Gods began to be?Or see the grand beginning, Where space did not extend?Or view the last creation, Where Gods and matter end?Me thinks the Spirit whispers, “No man has found ‘pure space,’Nor seen the outside curtains, Where nothing has a place.”The works of God continue, And worlds and lives abound;Improvement and progression Have one eternal round.There is no end to matter; There is no end to space;There is no end to spirit; There is no end to race.[#hie2Kolob]_
The hymn was published in the Deseret News in 1856, and penned by William W. Phelps in 1842, 12 years after the Church was organized, and represent Phelps reflections on doctrines of the Church, but not necessarily canonized official doctrines. Statements in the above hymn which appear in the Church’s official canon of scripture are:
Hymn: “one eternal round”:
Scripture: “For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.” (1 Ne. 10:19).Hymn: “The works of God continue, And worlds and lives abound … There is no end to matter; There is no end to space:”
Scripture: “And worlds without number have I created …” (Moses 1:33).
Scripture: “And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations;” (Moses 7:30).
Scripture: “but unto myself my works have no end, neither beginning;” (D&C 29:33).
The hymn has been a favorite among many members of the Church, including myself, perhaps due to it’s ability to inspire thoughts of creation and eternity. Although a member of the quorum of the twelve apostles once said “The singing of hymns is one of the best ways to learn the doctrine of the restored gospel”[2], I would not take that as an official endorsement of every detail in the hymn. If it were removed from the hymnbook, there would be some disappointment among some, but no great outcry, and I would not take the removal alone as an assertion there was an error in the hymn, only that the church did not wish to make or imply assertions on every detail.
When someone tells me they are an atheist, I think to myself, now there is an imaginative person, but they need to carry their imagination a little farther. Admittedly, it’s not a completely fair generalization. Sometimes, it’s a matter of perspective on what the nature of God is. See Intelligent Universe Design.
| [1] | `William W. Phelps, "If You Could Hie To Kolob", Deseret News, 1856. (Kolob is understood to be a planet, or star, nearest to where God dwells.)`_ |
| [2] | Dallin H. Oaks, 1994 |