The BYU-Idaho Perspective on Evolution

BYU-Idaho has a campus magazine called Perspective. There are several articles written by science faculty that I want to highlight. The articles primarily cover how the faculty deal with the topic of evolution. One of the articles discusses the history of the BYU Evolution Packet, and should be read in conjunction with the Daily Universe article by William Evenson (available in the pdf link on the sidebar under LDS Links.) These articles are comforting in that they help create a climate of accepting science while maintaining faith. I highly recommend them and will probably add them to my Essential Texts post.

An Explanation of the BYU Library Packet on Evolution

A Delicate Balance: Teaching Biological Evolution at BYU-Idaho

Teaching Geology, an Old Earth, and Organic Evolution in the Context of the Gospel

Science and the Church: Friend or Foe


Here is an excerpt from the first article above:


Continue Reading

First, Church members should avoid following the path of other evangelical faiths without considering carefully how our doctrine differs from theirs. For example, one of the fundamental dogmas associated with a literal interpretation of the creation story is creation ex nihilo,or creation out of nothing. This doctrine states that God created the world from absolutely nothing because He is in the absolute sense omnipotent. However, Joseph Smith taught that God formed the Earth from already existing matter. Other doctrines closely associated with creation ex nihilo, such as a belief that the earth was created in six 24-hour periods, or that species are immutable, are also unspecified or ignored in official LDS theology. In summary, we should be careful about jumping onto the creationist bandwagon because of the other theological cargo that is riding along.

A second benefit of not formalizing a statement about evolution is that we should avoid “jumping to quick conclusions or seizing upon simple answers.” In both theology and science,it is easy for Church members to follow others’ trends of attacking opposing viewpoints with simplistic clichés or emotionally charged logical fallacies. For example, creationists have attacked evolution with arguments that claim that it contradicts the second law of thermodynamics or that it is “just a theory.” For Church members to repeat these arguments demonstrates a severe lack of understanding of the scientific principles involved.

And lastly, we should not just simply attribute the theory of organic evolution to the evil designs of scientists devising means to turn others’ faith from God. There are far too many evolution scientists who are devout in their Christian faith (including our own) to draw any conclusions that belief in evolution has been detrimental to a belief in a supreme being. In contrast,many scientists have claimed that a deeper understanding of the processes of life has developed in them a deeper conviction of the existence of God.