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Trent Stephens on Evolution
FAIR has posted the transcript of a presentation Trent Stephens made at the 2003 FAIR conference. It is basically a highly condensed version of the book he co-authored, Evolution and Mormonism. I'll highlight just a couple of things here.
He says:
Now the official position can be obtained in a number of ways. When Jeff [Meldrum] and I, and Forrest Peterson who was a student who worked with us on this project, first began writing our book a few years ago we went to my bishop and then to our stake president and obtained permission for the bishop to write to the First Presidency to obtain the official statement of the Church. They then sent us a cover letter and a xeroxed copy of the section on evolution in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism.Their book was a little confusing on whether they received the EofM article from the First Presidency. While chapter two of their book does not specifically mention receiving the article, page 56 suggests that they did--so I'm glad to have that clarified.
Also, 2 Nephi 2:22 has recently been brought up elsewhere in the bloggernacle, and you can read Stephens' take on it in the transcript.
5 comments:
I just got done reading that link to Stephens talk. I do not agree with his statements and ideas, especially how he equates the father of Adam to a chimpanzee instead of God himself. He contradicts himself several times throughout the talk by stating that although we shouldn;t discount the scriptures, it is ok to discount what prophets say because they are mere opinions. The problem here is that the lineage of Moses can be traced back literally to God and not a monkey- he sets himself up for failure. His ability to refernce the Human race to the animal kingdom is quite humerous indeed. If one did not know better, they would think of this guy as an anti-christian.
As far as I am concerned, Stephens can go on believing his great grandaddy to the tenth power was a monkey. I on the other hand come from good stock- from God, and yes I can trace my lineage back to Adam and from him directly to God our father.
Rob,
In light of your comments, you might be interested in this previous post of mine.
I should add that you might consider the possibility that the two scenarios are not mutally exclusive.
After reading that link I though of another thing that might be of importance.
A reading and understanding of Genesis, Moses, & Abraham in light of D&C 77:12 shows that Adam was the first living person or animal to walk on the earth. The animals all followed after him in their physical creation. This doctrine shows that the chimpanzee came after man and not before.
The debete on whether or not Adam and all life was formed on the seventh day or before continues on.
I have stated in the past that the earth was not ready for physical life until it was sanctified (set apart for holy use) by God. This event did not happen until the seventh day. How God formed man I am not sure. But I can say with some scriptural support that it was not from a lower order of animals as they would appear after him and not before.
Trent Stephens deserves credit for acknowledging that the April 1910 Priesthood Quorums' Table comment is anonymous, not signed by the First Presidency:
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"This is the Improvement Era from 1910, this is under the heading ' Priesthood Quorums' Table.' It's an anonymous statement, it's not signed by the First Presidency, but it is published in the Improvement Era. ... Joseph F. Smith was president of the Church at this time and was listed as the editor for The Improvement Era.
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The authors of Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements were not as careful as was Trent Stephens in this respect.
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