Discussion Group Report

There are many versions of creationists, points out Duane E. Jeffery, BYU professor of zoology, in an April 1985 Sunstone magazine article, "Are Mormons Creationists?" In common American non-LDS usage, the term "creationists" refers to "persons of very ?fundamental? Christian persuasion who have banded together to promulgate certain views pertaining to the origin of the universe, earth, man, and so on. These include the tenets that God is omniscient, sovereign, absolute, and omnipotent; that he created all time, space, and matter instantaneously and out of nothing (ex nihilo) roughly 6,000-10,000 years ago. From such matter (dust), he then molded a body for man and created Eve from a rib thereof...over a period of six literal 24-hour days and ...spoke, and things came instantaneously into existence, fully developed and functioning." He is responsible to no power or laws other than his own and works by supernatural processes. Natural laws are seen as ungodly, the results of sin and wickedness. "Such concepts," says Jeffery, "are demonstrably foreign to the philosophical underpinnings of Mormon theology." He does not believe that Mormons should jump on the bandwagon with creationists, since there are important theological differences between Mormonism and creationism.

Mormon prophet Brigham Young responded directly to creationist concepts; "When you tell me that father Adam was made as we make adobies [sic] from the earth, you tell me what I deem an idle tale...There is no such thing in all the eternities where the Gods dwell." Other statements from top Mormon authorities are: John A Widtsoe, General Authority: "The statement that man was made from the dust of the earth is merely figurative...Likewise the statement that God breathed into man the breath of life is figurative." Church President Spencer W. Kimball: "The story of the rib, of course, is figurative." President Joseph F. Smith: "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." The First Presidency in 1860 and the first presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve in 1865 denounced Apostle Orson Pratt's views on this but declined to establish any Church view for exactly what method the "Creator" had employed. In 1909 the First Presidency published a treatise entitled "The Origin of Man," arguing that man's spirit derives from divine parentage but paying little attention to the origin of man's body. Curious LDS readers were answered in the church magazine, The Era, that the Lord had not revealed his methods. Readers were given three possibilities to consider: divinely directed evolution, transplantation from another sphere, or "born here in mortality, as other mortals have been." None of these agrees with the creationists. Although various views have been expressed on this subject by apostles and presidents of the Church and some of these views have conflicted with each other, through it all the First Presidency, which includes the president of the church, who is considered by Mormons to be the only one who can receive divine revelation for the whole church, has made it clear that the church as yet possesses no precise revealed information on how man's body was produced by God. In 1931 they ruled against continued discussion of the topic, silencing a running debate on the matter: "Our mission is to bear the message of the restored gospel to the people of 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." More recently President Kimball echoed such sentiments, "We don't know exactly how their [man's and woman's] coming into this world happened, and when we're able to understand it the Lord will tell us."

Finally, although Jeffery could not have known this when he wrote his article, just a few months ago the Salt Lake Tribune reported that the LDS Church public relations department had told it that the church supports the teaching of evolution in the public schools.

However, LDS spokesmen have overwhelmingly agreed that Adam and Eve were historical people, yet that their bodies were produced by some sort of biological procreation. Jeffery states, "This latter idea is thoroughly repugnant to modern creationists and serves to underscore my final point: that beyond generalities, Mormonism and modern creation are completely incompatible on issues relating to the origin of man. For Mormons it seems clear: believing in creation does not make one a creationist. Indeed Mormons would have to reject their entire philosophical framework to become such. This conclusion becomes even more vivid when one examines concepts of the nature of God, of physical law, and of ex nihilo creation."