It is somewhat well-known that Joseph Fielding Smith did not like the idea of astronauts; scripture, in his view, was clear that humans were limited to this planet, and attempts to get off it, at all, would fail. It even made the Ensign, in 2015.
Category: science and religion
Tales from the Archives: Cleon Skousen, George Hansen, and Geology
My last post talked about Cleon Skousen’s book, The First 2000 Years. Today I came across an interview with BYU professor Bertrand Harrison, a biology and botany professor. If you’ve ever been to the garden or duck pond on the south end of BYU campus, on 800 North, that’s the Bertrand F. Harrison Arboretum, pictured above
Harrison had written one of the most pro-evolution articles ever published in a Church magazine, and it was specifically read and approved by President McKay to appear in the magazine. That article was part of a controversial pro-science series in Church magazines in 1965, which I detailed here.
I came across this interview with Harrison, wherein he relates an anecdote about George Hansen and Cleon Skousen. Continue reading
Tales from the Archive: Henry Eyring Teaches the First Presidency about Carbon-14 Dating
Henry Eyring Sr. taught chemistry at the University of Utah, but also served on the general Sunday School board for the LDS Church from 1946 onwards. He frequently spoke about science and religion. Continue reading
Science as a Legitimate Contributor to our Knowledge of Creation and Earth History
As noted in a prior post, Orson F. Whitney authored the 1909 First Presidency statement on “The Origin of Man.” He sent a letter to John Widtsoe with that draft, along with some notes. Although Whitney was strongly opposed to evolution, he acknowledge that science could play a role in clarifying earth history. Continue reading
What I’m Doing Here, and What I Hope Others Will Do
I am not an “evolution apologist.” Although I suspect I have more scientific training than your average historian, I’m not a scientist. And more likely than not, neither is my average reader. For that reason, and because I don’t follow the specialized and technical literature, I don’t engage in scientific debate about evolution. Rather, in keeping with my own training and expertise, my approach is historical, scriptural, and theological. And historically, I understand how and why evolution has come to be the dominant way to make sense of mountains of data across multiple fields, and why 98% of scientists accept evolution as the best explanation of all that data. Continue reading
The 1909 First Presidency Statement in Its Historical Context
Some Latter-day Saints have touted the 1909 First Presidency statement as the definitive doctrinal repudiation of evolution for all time; Elder McConkie wanted it canonized and added to the 1978/82 scripture revisions, for example.
Tales from the Archives 4: Science, Interpretation, and Bad Feeling in 1965
In June 1965, the LDS Sunday School presidency informally began a new series on science and religion, written by LDS scientists. Continue reading
LDS and Science: An Epidemic, a Puzzle, and new Apostle… in 1904
I recently discovered an article about “the first real confrontation of Mormonism with science” during the Utah smallpox outbreak at the turn of the 19/20th century.
Tales from the Archives 3: The 1934-5 Newspaper Proxy Wars and Writing Hot
From 1934-5, the age of the earth, evolution, and scripture was hotly debated in the Deseret News. (See here for a little history and context.) Elders John Widtsoe and Joseph Fielding Smith wrote nothing themselves, but encouraged, solicited, and pushed articles reflecting their own views. On Widtsoe’s side was James E. Talmage’s son Sterling, who had received a PhD in geology. (JET had died the year before.) On Smith’s side, were several people, including Sidney Sperry, Major Howard S. Bennion, and Dudley J. Whitney, a Pentecostal farmer. Continue reading
Tales from the Archives part 1: “So, things are normal.”
I will occasionally post things from the archives, with minimal explanation or point, sometimes. Here’s a fun one recently.
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