Joseph Smith and the Missing Garden of Eden

Back in May the LDS Newsroom released a statement titled "Approaching Mormon Doctrine," which stated:

Some doctrines are more important than others and might be considered core doctrines. For example, the precise location of the Garden of Eden is far less important than doctrine about Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice.

The new manual, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith is consistent with that statement. My search turned up only one reference to the Garden of Eden (chapter 42), and it has nothing to do with location.

Kevin Barney at By Common Consent has previously written a post, Was the Garden of Eden Really in Missouri? And coincidental to my composition of this post, Sam MB, also at BCC, has posted Finding the Garden today.

It's worth pointing out, I think, that the identification of the Garden of Eden with Missouri is not explicitly made in scripture, and Joseph's teaching on this comes exclusively through his associates. What about Adam-ondi-Ahman? I can't help but wonder if there are two of them--an ancient one and the future one--like old Jerusalem and New Jerusalem.

Given what science has uncovered about the origins and migrations of anatomically modern humans thus far, Eden in Missouri appears to be either (i) myth, (ii) an understandable misunderstanding, or (iii) true, but of no detectable genetic, anthropological, or archaeological significance.

I think the bottom line is that this issue has not really been fleshed out, and may not really need defending. It seems unfair to simply label it as folk-doctrine, but I think it runs in that direction.

(I see that FAIRwiki has a good article on this issue that raises my two-Adam-ondi-Ahman idea.)

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