Customer Reviews

Evolution and Mormonism: A Quest for Understanding

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This new book by Trent D. Stephens and D. Jeffrey Meldrum will probably be a surprise to both evolutionists (Neo-Darwinists) and Mormons alike. It is no apologetic defense of Mormonism nor is it a rehash of old anti-creationist arguments. In the end, of course, the authors make their case in defense of certain Mormon doctrines; however, it is in the way that they arrive at their conclusions that makes this book fascinating. Of most surprise to this reader was their point blank debunking of traditional creationist as well as scientific-creationist arguments. Moreover, they boldly refute statements made by numerous Mormon authorities who have, in the past, made statements advocating the literal understanding of the scriptures both ancient and modern. The essence of their position is that, wherever Mormon teachings have contradicted established and demonstrable science, then science must prevail and Mormonism must be revised, reinterpreted or rejected! Regarding the evolution of humankind the authors state, "the evidence that humans are biologically connected to other animals is overwhelming and cannot be dismissed." Furthermore, they state that Adam and Eve "achieved their `human' stature through evolution". In spite of the fact that they resort to some suspiciously unscientific theological interpretations to bolster their claims, the book is an interesting treatise. Of particular value are the long quotations from "On the Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin, the discussion of recent advances in DNA research and a brief discussion of possible applications of chaos theory to the theory of evolution. Writing as one who had been a devout Mormon for nearly thirty years, I must say that this book is enlightening although not totally satisfying. It will not convince me to return to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Nevertheless, I would recommend it to students of evolution and Mormonism.

First, my only complaint. I know that the two main authors are scientists, and this may be why the third co-author was brought in; to help them actually write it, but even so it suffers a little bit from lack of unifying theme. It's more like a collection of disparate lectures than a book with chapters. Also, some LDS might be put off by the fact that it's published by Signature, which has a dicey reputation with many faithful LDS because of some of the *other* books they've published.

But that's guilt by association, and I would not hesitate to recommend this to someone who has a decent high school level grounding in the sciences (university prep 2nd year biology*). Others might not get all of the terminology, even though the authors do try to simplify these references. Perhaps another chapter on the philosophy of science versus the way religion approaches transcendent and teleological (purpose-related) questions might have helped. The first two chapters are a reasonable attempt at providing a philosophical background, but it's not until you get past that that you get into the real arguments they make.

And the arguments are solid. Many LDS, trailing clouds of right-wing literalist Protestant culture behind them, think that the LDS view on evolution is negative (and one can easily get trapped into a "my GA's quotes versus your GA's quotes" argument). But as the authors explain, the Church, (n.B. the article in Encyclopedia of Mormonism), in a variety of statements, has made it clear that a) the Church's view is neutral; and b) the Church actually has a view that is the same as that of a well-known scientist, a self-admitted agnostic secular Jew; namely Stephen Jay Gould. Prof. Gould has coined the term "non-overlapping magesteria" for the realms of science and religion. Not that the Church, like any other religion, would care per se about what Prof. Gould has to say, but it's interesting that there is true consilience here (to use the word of a famous atheist scientist ironically).

The authors make a good case that the issue isn't so much a conflict between answers as in the type of questions that are asked, and those brethren who have spoken out against evolution really oppose "scientism," or atheism cloaked in science, which is the polar opposite of "creationism," which is religion cloaked as science.

They cover the history of the issue well but even more importantly, they explain what evolution is and what it means, in laymen's language. Many of the arguments against evolution are straw man arguments made out of ignorance of what the theory actually says (and, in fact, what a "theory" is in science to begin with).

Summary: don't let the fact that this was published by Signature put anyone off who's interested in the topic. Just make sure that you (or the person you're buying it for) has at least some schooling in biology.

* e.g. Biology 30 as we call it up here in "Zion's Attic" (Alberta, Canada)

Marc A. Schindler
Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada -- Gateway to the Boreal Parkland

I received my bachelor's degree in biology and studied lots of biochemistry and molecular biology on my way to becoming an MD. As a practicing physician, I am required to stay abreast of the developments in genetics. As a lifelong member of the church, I was brought up on the typically literalist, narrow interpretation of the scriptures that most members of the church have, as a result of the traditions they have inherited from society, prior religious experience, or their family. I was never taught that the earth was created in 6 24-hour days, but I was taught that Adam was the first human being on the earth (not taught in the scriptures, considering that 'man' is not necessarily synonymous with 'human' in religious terminology--ie, God is a man, but he is not truly human) and that fossils purported to represent more primitive ancestors of humans had been misinterpreted by unenlightened scientists.

As these authors point out so well, the result of children being taught 'the philosophies of [Mormon] men mingled with scripture' is that when overwhelming scientific evidence documents the evolution of species (including our own), they may have a hard time separating the core truths found in the scriptures, and the erroneous interpretations well-meaning church members, including some general authorities, have put forth. Then the young church member may mistakenly and tragically believe that he or she must choose between science and faith, when they are truly compatible.

It is obvious to me from the beginning of this book that the authors, being scientists and experts in fields related to the study of evolution, are wholly convinced that evolution is undeniable fact, and that the efforts of previous generations of church members to refute evolution were uninformed, misguided, unenlightened and totally unnecessary. But I am impressed with the skill and tact employed by the authors to not alienate the reader that comes to this book with a strong bias against evolution. They take a very gradual approach that uses reason, historical precedent, and words of the prophets to show that even prophets and apostles can have private opinions that are not necessarily based on revelation, and that almost all of the LDS literature out there that attempts to refute evolution was written before the flood of molecular research that convincingly proves the validity of geological, paleontological and anatomical evidence for evolution. The authors make it clear from the beginning that they believe in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and one of them has even served as a bishop. They are perfect examples of the fact, that may be new to some readers, that someone can have a strong religious testimony and a strong scientific conviction of evolution at the same time.

The authors make a great comparison between the universal belief in an Earth-centered universe that existed until just a few hundred years ago, and the belief that humans were created separately from other species on earth. The same kinds of flawed logic, unjustified assumptions and constrained interpretations of scripture underly them both.

They do a good job of pointing out that the only thing objectionable about evolution is the way some atheists have attempted to use it to show that God isn't necessary for our planet to exist. As long as one considers evolution to be an eternal principle, like gravity, by which God accomplishes his purposes, evolution does not pose any kind of doctrinal threat to the gospel.

They also do well at showing that most members of the church don't believe that God personally causes us to gravitate to the ground each time we take a step, but rather that he allows the law of gravity to carry on without his micromanaging it. Then why should we be required to believe that God micromanaged the earth's creation, when all the scriptures imply is that he supervised it, having prepared all things to bring forth life? If the gospel doesn't require us to believe that God is intimately involved in each developmental step of every individual human fetus in its mother's womb, why does it require us to believe that God was so involved with the development of bodies for Adam and Eve, when prophets have told us that the scriptural account of the rib, for example, is allegorical, and that their bodies developed the same way that each of ours does (therefore indirectly answering the question of whether Adam had a navel)?

I had come to broaden my reading of the scriptures concerning the creation long before I came across this book, but I enjoyed reading it for its fleshing out of concepts I had already begun to synthesize in my head, and giving me philosophical company in a church where far too many members really don't care how the earth was created, and are content to maintain the embarrassingly outdated notions of their pre-DNA science grandparents. It would be good to have another book like this address the narrow and uninformed interpretations that have attached themselves to the biblical account of the great flood, too. After all, believing in angels and buried plates is nothing compared to believing that Noah, even with God's help, somehow managed to gather the millions of species that populate the earth onto his boat and keep them alive in captivity for months. Just a starter thought for that one: how many other times in the scriptures does it say that some event affected "the whole earth", when in reality it was just a figure of speech? Try doing a computer search for "whole earth" in the scriptures. It's interesting how it can make you reconsider the size of impact of the great flood.

I'm giving a copy of this book to my parents, since I think it will do much better job than I have done in opening my parents' minds to the marvelous process of creation that God has used to bring about his purposes.

Leaving the comforts of home to travel into the dark abyss of the forest of knowledge, discouragement sets in as you try to find light to guide your path. Jagged rocks and splintered stumps seem to jump out at you. Loneliness, frustration and fear starts to devour your sanity as sounds from the darkness fill your ears. Any ray of hope is trampled by the burden of the unknown. Just when you think you know what course to take through the darkness there is a bifurcation in the path. One path seems to take a full circle to return back to the light from which you came, the other off into the darkness.
College is often a freighting time when perceptions are challenged. Individual of the Mormon faith potentially can be faced with what appears to be a dilemma. What is right, the things that were taught to you when you were growing up or the things being taught to you in college? Trent Stephens and Jeffrey Meldrum in Evolution and Mormonism try to dispel the notion that there is a hard and fast line dividing science and religion.
This book explores in quite length what has been said by prominent individuals of the LDS Faith as well as leading scientist. In addition it examines an official statements made by the LDS church. One such scientist and member of the LDS faith was Henry Eyring. Eyring states that "Since the Gospel embraces all truth, there can never be any genuine contradiction between true science and true religion. ... I am obliged, as a Latter-day Saint, to believe whatever is true, regardless the source (pg. 15)." Truth can be found in all realms, but it is not until truth is sought after that it can be found. One need not choose between religion and science.
The information in this book is presented in such a way that individuals are able to come to there own educated decisions about what place evolution fits into the grander picture of life. Whether you find evolution, in part or full, to be truth or not it is at least worth reading this treatise to better inform your decision.

I found this book extremely helpful to give me insights into evolution in a way that is not demeaning to my religious beliefs. It has helped me explain my stance - that of a faithful member of the LDS church and biologist - to many of my friends and family in a way that they can understand and agree with. This book, in addition to my evolution college class, has not made me turn away from my religious views, but has in turn, strengthened them. As I study biology's complex laws and patterns, I find an incredible view of God unfolding before me. Reading this book has infused in me a more determined awe of the Creator.

My favorite part of the book were the last two chapters, that brought up "bounded variation" and presented ideas on how evolution could act under God's powerful hand. These last chapters sent my mind spinning to think of the possibilities that are out there! I also enjoyed the insights I gained such as, "God is in control but may not sit upon his throne dictating the activities of every atom, molecule, and cell within the universe...God, with his infinite power, can allow eternal law to work automatically, naturally in concert with matter so he can devote his attention to dealing with his children as a loving father."

The only dislike I had with the book (and thus the 4 Stars) was that it didn't seem unified in some places. There were times when I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again. There was not a progressive development that most readers are looking for in a book; instead, it was more of a compilation of chapters and ideas. This was ok, but the quality of the book would've been much higher if it had the progressive development of ideas.

OVERALL - I loved the book and would recommend it to LDS and non-LDS alike. The insights it offers to the conflict of science vs. religion are essential to understanding this heated modern issue.

I loved this book. I must admit that I was reluctant to start reading this book at first but once I started to read I couldn't put it down. This book solidifies all my beliefs as a faithful member of the LDS church. I have always been fascinated by nature and how humans came to be. As I have been studying in the biology field I have often been amazed by the complexity of the human body as well as all other forms of life but I had a problem with the thought of evolution. This book has explained to me that all by religious beliefs can coincide with my knowledge of evolution. I like what President Eyring said that "Animals seem pretty wonderful to me. I'd be content to discover that I have a common heritage with them so long as God is at the controls" (pg. 54). I totally and whole heartedly agree with this. I would like to end with a quote by President Eyring on page 54, "I am certain that the gospel, as taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. It's a better explanation of what I observe in science than any other I know about. There are still lots of things I don't know, but that doesn't bother me. I'm a happy muddler. The gospel simply asks me to find out what's true as best I can and in the meantime to live a good life. That strikes me as the formula for living there could be." I couldn't have said it any better myself.

Before I read this book my opinion of evolution was incomplete because my knowledge of church declarations and of evolutionary evidence was incomplete. This book has given me enough background to form an opinion. I agree with President Eyring that "God is behind it all whether we evolved or not". (Reflections, 62.) I accept the possibility that evolution is true but if it is true it was organized in the beginning to progress and come to fruition by producing mankind. I don't believe that the earth has to be young or that Adam and Eve had to be placed here or built on the spot, I accept the official statements of the church first in 1909, The Origin of Man; then in 1910, Origin of Man; and in 1925, `Mormon' View of Evolution. Just because we can observe natural processes which give an explanation for the origin of mankind doesn't mean that God wasn't involved. If we find ourselves doubting our faith then we need to reevaluate our knowledge and remove any improper assumptions which are not founded on doctrine. I find no revealed truth which rejects the theory of evolution. In fact, a closer look makes us acknowledge the foresight and intelligence of a God who has the power to set in motion events which would accomplish His will over millions of years. The authors made a point at the end of the book which I found very interesting. One of Darwin's postulates of evolution is that those who have the best physical characteristics survive to reproduce and get their genes into the next generation. The point that was made was that the plan of exaltation is quite similar. Those who have the best spiritual characteristics and obtain exaltation are the ones who are able to reproduce spiritually.

I will wait until revelation gives the final say to solidify my opinion but until then I accept evolution as a divine process with the intent to produce mankind to give an opportunity for the direct and lineal offspring of God to be tested and experience physical life. The principles of the gospel in my opinion remain unchanged and undamaged by this statement. Ultimately knowledge of the origin of man is not essential for salvation or else it would have been revealed a long time ago.

The authors state in the Foreword to this 2001 book, "This work should not be seen as a final synthesis of Mormonism and science, much less of science and religion in general. We Latter-day Saints have fallen too far behind the discussion to envision any such synthesis; the first thing we need to do is a lot of catching up... Knowledge of the natural laws is essential to the wise stewardship of God's creations and creatures. We must bring ourselves into a position to deal with this massive outpouring of truth... The present book is a major step in that direction." Later they add, "Every year students come to us... and ask, 'How do you reconcile your faith with the theory of evolution?' ... we have found that we cannot refer them to any good book on the subject because most are at least twenty years old... We have written this book to fill that void." (Pg. xvi)

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"It is clear that the official declarations of the First Presidency on the origin of humankind, let alone on evolution generally, are extremely circumspect, limited primarily to the SPIRITUAL heritage of mankind and the authorship of Creation... the First Presidency's counsel to 'leave geology, biology, archaeology and anthropology ... to scientific research' is reiterated in the 'Encyclopedia of Mormonism's' entry on 'Evolution.' It is with this admonition in mind that we proceed." (Pg. 57)
"We agree that Elder McConkie's is one possible interpretation (i.e., that there was no death prior to the Fall), but find it less reasonable in light of the new scientific data... and it has no explicit foundation in scripture." (Pg. 136)
"What has happened to us over the past 400 years? Why does this part of Genesis not cause major conflict between science and religion today? Unlike the people of Galileo's time, we have had 400 years to live with his data and interpretations... In light of what we have learned from science, we no longer accept the medieval interpretation of this scripture." (Pg. 170)

The authors do a fabulous job of handholding the staunchest LDS Christian - creationist through the official statements of the LDS church on through all the scientific evidence. They explain and support many of their findings through scripture and help the reader to let go of the vice grip on the "magic wand" Creation idea and see how God the Scientist did it. Ultimately our interpretation of what is recorded in Genesis is what's at fault, not the gospel. The gospel is never wrong, although fallible men always will be. The record of the history of the planet is here, it's up to us to not blind our eyes so that we cannot discern truth. Evolution does not make God obsolete nor does it displace Him in any way. Instead it shows us HOW He created the earth in all its variety, and leaves the WHY up to revelation both ancient and modern.

Well done.

TJ Petersen
Dr. Marshall
Evolution
April 25, 2008
Evolution and Mormonism
Evolution and Mormonism was written by two astound scientists, Trent D. Stephens and D. Jeffrey Meldrum, who are of the Mormon faith. Their efforts in researching the science of evolution has been dedicated to helping those of a religious background that have little or no knowledge of evolution and all that pertains to it.
For thousands of years, the Bible was the main resource for our knowledge of our history and existence here on Earth. Those that interpret the Bible in a literally way, believe that there was one single creation of every species at one time. For almost 200 years, scientists have been exploring and collecting data that supports evolution, a gradual change in allele frequency over time. Stephens and Meldrum support the idea of evolution but don't take the literal interpretation of the bible. They provide evidence and studies that support both evolution, in a small and large scale, and a creator, God creating man in His image.
The novel gives good evidence to support the author's claims. The author's refer to the scriptures on almost every account and include many references to the teachings of the later-day Prophets. Before reading the novel, I had a rather different knowledge of evolution. I felt like many others who have not had the opportunity to study the evolutionary process. Because of further enlightenment on the subject, it was easier for me to accept the theory of evolution. The first thing that caught my attention was when the author's talked about the importance of not taking the literal interpretation of the Bible. The Bible talks about a creation that occurred in seven days, while evolution supports a much longer process. In chapter eleven of their novel, Stephens and Meldrum give several examples of how the book of Genesis actually supports evolution stating, "We believe that the Genesis story is compatible with evolution" (165). It is important to know that while explaining Genesis they don't just give the reader answers, they ask question to get the reader to meditate on the scriptures. The author's go on to explain that we don't have answers to everything. It is for us to ponder and meditate on the things that we read. I believe that this helps one to know that they cannot just hear something and accept it as gospel but, like the scientific method, it needs to be questioned.
The effects that the novel has had on my general opinion about science and religion are many. Before reading the novel, I had a lot of questions about evolution. Growing up in the LDS faith I learned the scriptures, but not the depth of them. I served a LDS mission but still wasn't educated in the process of evolution and the possibilities that the scriptures and evolution actually coincide with each other. The authors helped me to realize that to understand evolution and the scriptures I must not take a literal interpretation of the scriptures, but to ponder upon the scriptures to try and understand what they really mean. I recommend this novel to anyone who has questioned evolution in accordance to the scriptures. All your questions might not get answered, but I found that it opens one up to the possibilities of further enlightenment about evolution.




Work cited
Stephens, Trent D., and D. Jeffery Meldrum. Evolution and Mormonism: A Quest for
Understanding. Salt Lake City: Signature books, 2001.