Notable Quotes of Sterling Talmage

I previously introduced the book Can Science Be Faith-Promoting? by Sterling Talmage. Below I have collected a few of what I thought were notable quotes. All italics are as printed in the book.

These first three quotes are from "An Open Letter to Joseph Fielding Smith." Sterling first sent a copy to his father, James E. Talmage, who wrote in reply, "I think it should be put into final shape an sent to its intended addressee without delay.... The conditions are peculiar but in my judgement and in that of certain others it is well to follow the course indicated."

In your boyhood and in mine, the statements of the general authorities of the Church were considered to be final; nobody in good standing in the Church presumed to question them. Today this is not so, and I believe for only one reason, namely, that some of the authorities have made statements that are not worthy of belief... [pg. 213]

My observation has convinced me that positive misstatements by men in authority regarding facts on which they are not informed constitute a stimulus toward skepticism many times more potent than any amount of the whispering regarding the [white horse prophecy], which you so rightly condemn. [p. 214]

But laying all personal feelings aside and speaking solely in the interest of the educated young people of the Church, I feel that if you continue to go outside your field and off your subject, invading at every opportunity the field of earth science in which you are so obviously not well informed, I shall feel justified in letting no chance pass, in speech or writing, to prove point by point that our faith is not founded on absurdity. [p. 215]

If I were forced to make a choice between an acceptance of the truths of nature and some of the stupid, fiatistic dogmas of certain miscalled "fundamentalist" sects, I would choose the truths of nature without any compunction whatever. Fortunately, I am not forced to make such a choice, since I have been taught from my early youth that the gospel is broad enough to include all truth. [p. 155]

...in spite of the definite proof that the total span of earth duration cannot be as brief as seven thousand years, the back part of my mind was still harassed by the echo of a thirty-year-old sermon: The Doctrine and Covenants says that it is! In such a manner, can a misfounded faith persist, even in the face of a truth that flatly contradicts it. [p. 174]

There are some other gems, but I'll leave it at that for now. In fairness I will end with a quote from a letter of Joseph Fielding Smith to Sterling.

There is nothing in all the world so dear to me as revealed truth--the gospel with all its amplifications received through the word of the Lord to his prophets, even in our own day. When I think I find something which tends to destroy the faith of the youth in these revelations, or which is hurtful to this truth, I have opposed it with vigor and have freely expressed my views.

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