evolution and religion

From: john grigg (starman125@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Apr 24 2000 - 14:25:48 MDT


Spike asked:
Perhaps John Grigg can help me here:
years ago I heard that early Mormons were strictly creationist. One of the
first prophet/leaders,(Brigham Young?) saw in vision the *exact stones* that
Adam used to sacrifice lambs to his god, these being located in Illinois?
Upon closer examination, Adam's altar stones were found to
contain...fossils. [doooooh!]Since that day, the Mormon leadership has been
conspicuously silent on the topic. John, true or false?
(end)

I have heard alot of things, but never that story! I will have to look into
it. But why could not altar stone's contain fossils? Mormons do believe
still in creationism but not in the young earth spin of it. At Mormon
colleges like Brigham Young University (about 27,000 students) evolution is
taught with no apologies. It is seen as an important part of an education,
especially for future Mormon scientists. In religious classes and lectures
it may be seen negatively but not in science classes there!

I do not think Mormons have the vicious animosity toward evolutionary theory
that evangelicals sometimes have. But that is my opinion. An education to
further one's life is seen as extremely important to individual Mormons and
the future growth and power of the church.

I went to a recent evangelical creationist lecture at my local college and
he proposed the young earth view and even that dinasours lived on the earth
while men did! I don't buy that. I told him I tend toward 'old earth'
creationism and think that the Roman empire did not look like the book
series 'Dinotopia!'

I want to believe in creationism but see some strong evidences for evolution
(such as the fossil record!). I could see some good points that the
evangelical lecturer gave in his creationism lecture though, such as about
conservation of energy. The man had a doctorate in chemistry. I certainly
admit I need to study much more on the subject to come to a final
conclusion.

Last year I did take a class in biological anthropology that helped me to
understand evolutionary theory more then I did before. The female prof who
taught it should have her own show on PBS, she was a hoot! You could tell
she had minored in theater while in college!

sincerely,

John Grigg
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:09:47 MDT