Mormon views on evolution

Did You Know?

• In 1895, Nels L. Nelson published a series of six articles, 'Theosophy and Mormonism', using evolution to support LDS doctrine, later collected in Scientific Aspects of Mormonism (1904).
• In a 1973 survey of over 1,000 students at Brigham Young University, 81% denied that the creation involved evolution.
• Mormon philosopher William Henry Chamberlin's Essay on Nature (1915) and Frederick J. Pack's Science and Belief in God (1924) defended the theory of evolution and attempted to reconcile religion and evolution.

Official doctrine

The LDS Church has no official position on the theory of evolution or the details of what happened on earth before Adam and Eve, including how their bodies were created. Some church general authorities have stated that evolution opposes scriptural teaching, while others have said it does not. The First Presidency has issued three authoritative public statements (1909, 1910, and 1925) and one private statement (1931) on the origin of mankind. The 1909 and 1925 statements have been subsequently endorsed by church leaders such as apostle Boyd K. Packer in 1988. In February 2002, the entire 1909 First Presidency message was reprinted in the church's Ensign magazine. A church-approved encyclopedia entry states that scriptures tell why man was created but not how, though the Lord has promised to reveal that when he comes again.

Official church publications

The LDS Church has discussed evolution in various official materials. In an October 1984 general conference talk, apostle Boyd K. Packer said that a person with reverence for God could not believe humans evolved from slime or reptiles, and that evolution supporters tend to lack enthusiasm for genealogical work. During the April 2012 conference, apostle Russell M. Nelson remarked that some people wrongly think the human body resulted from chance or a big bang, comparing that idea to a printing shop explosion producing a dictionary.

The Church Educational System’s Old Testament Student Manual (2003 edition) includes quotes from general authorities and other scholars on organic evolution and earth’s origins. It states the church has no official position on the earth’s age, but notes that evidence for a lengthy process is strong and few believe creation happened in a single week. The manual also quotes Joseph Fielding Smith, who said organic evolution contradicts God’s revelations and accepting it means rejecting the plan of salvation.

The Doctrine and Covenants mentions “the seven thousand years of [the earth’s] continuance, or its temporal existence.” Joseph Fielding Smith and Bruce R. McConkie interpreted this to mean the earth is roughly six thousand years old, with the seventh millennium being the future millennium. However, the seminary teacher manual explains that the 7,000 years refers to the time since Adam and Eve’s Fall, not the earth’s full age including the creation periods.

Statements from church presidents

Brigham Young, the church's second president, stated that the LDS Church does not seek to clash its ideas with scientific theory, and that whether God made the earth in six days or millions of years will remain a mystery unless God reveals something about it. He also wrote to his son that he created Brigham Young Academy in part because of his opposition to the theory of evolution, and was resolutely and uncompromisingly opposed to the theories of Darwin.

John Taylor, in his 1882 book Mediation and Atonement, stated that nature and creation are governed by laws and organisms exist in the same form since creation, as contradicted by the ideas of evolutionists, and that man did not originate from chaos of matter but from the faculties and powers of a God. Soon after the First Presidency's 1909 statement, Joseph F. Smith professed in an editorial that the church itself has no philosophy about the modus operandi employed by the Lord in His creation of the world.

However, in the same month, Smith published and signed a statement citing the 1911 Brigham Young University modernism controversy, stating that evolution is in conflict with scriptures and modern revelation.

Statements from apostles

In the early twentieth century, several LDS general authorities who had scientific training accepted an ancient Earth, but most opposed Darwinian evolution. Joseph Fielding Smith and others rejected both an old Earth and evolutionary theory. In 1930, B. H. Roberts, a senior leader, was asked by the First Presidency to write a study guide for priesthood holders. His draft claimed death had existed on Earth for millions of years before Adam’s fall and that human-like beings lived before Adam.

On April 5, 1930, Joseph Fielding Smith publicly countered this, declaring as official teaching that no death occurred before the Fall and that no pre-Adamites existed. The following year, both men presented their positions to the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. After hearing them, the First Presidency sent a memo to church leaders. It affirmed that Adam is the original parent of humanity but stated there was no benefit in continuing the debate.

The memo advised focusing on sharing the restored gospel and noted that scientific questions were irrelevant to human salvation, warning that further discussion would cause confusion and division.