[17] “David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee. (1 Samuel 17:37)
[18] “And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me.” (Alma 36:27)
[19] “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
“Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.” (Hebrews 11:5, 7, 11-12)
[20] James E. Talmage, “The Earth and Man,” An address delivered on 9 August 1931 in the Tabernacle as authorized by the First Presidency.
[21] James E. Talmage, “Articles of Faith,” 1890, p. 70, 78.
[22] Consider Lehi’s discussion of the importance of God’s law and “opposition in all things” in the universe.
“And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.
“And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon.
“And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.
“Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.” (2 Nephi 2:12-16)
[23] From Bill Nye during the debate: “So this idea that you can separate the natural laws of the past from the natural laws that we have now I think at the heart of our disagreement. I don’t see how we’re ever going to agree with that if you insist that natural laws have changed. It’s, for lack of a better word, it’s magical. And I have appreciated magic since I was a kid, but it’s not really what we want in conventional mainstream science.”
Kenneth R. Miller. Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search For Common Ground Between God and Evolution. Cliff Street Books, 1999.
Quoted in “Finding Darwin’s God: Notes and Review,” 2009.
“God the Charlatan: What saddens me is the view of the Creator that their intellectual contortions force them to hold. In order to defend God against the challenge they see from evolution, they have had to make Him into a schemer, a trickster, even a charlatan. Their version of God is one who intentionally plants misleading clues beneath our feet and in the heavens themselves. Their version of God is one who has filled the universe with so much bogus evidence that the tools of science can give us nothing more than a phony version of reality. In other words, their God has negated science by rigging the universe with fiction and deception. To embrace that God, we must reject science and worship deception itself.” (80)
“God the Magician: We would also have to attribute every plague, pestilence, and parasite to the intentional actions of our master designer…Finally, whatever one’s views of such a designer’s motivation, there is one conclusion that drops cleanly out of the data. He was incompetent…Nothing he designs is able to make it over the long term. … What is one to make of this? Quite simply, that the advocates of design are faced with a logical contradiction. They would like to claim that the perfection of design seen in living organisms cannot possibly have been achieved by a random, undirected process like evolution, and that an intelligent agent is required to account for such perfection. But when one looks at the record, the products of this intelligent design consistently fail to survive.” (102)
Ronald P. Millett, “Moroni Reveals a God of Miracles,” Meridian Magazine, March 27, 2013.
Quoting: James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, Salt Lake City, 1915. Pp. 148-149.
“Miracles cannot be contravention of natural law, but are wrought through the operation of laws not universally or commonly recognized. Gravitation is everywhere operative, but the local and special application of other agencies may appear to nullify it … Achievements made possible by modern invention … –these are no longer miracles in man’s estimation, because they are controlled by human agency. … We arbitrarily classify as miracles only such phenomena as are unusual, special, transitory and wrought by an agency beyond the power of man’s control.
“In a broader sense, all nature is a miracle. …
“In the contemplation of the miracles wrought by Christ, we must of necessity recognize the operation of a power transcending our present human understanding. … To deny the actuality of miracles on the ground that, because we cannot comprehend the means, the reported results are fictitious, is to arrogate to the human mind the attribute of omniscience, by implying that what man cannot comprehend cannot be, and that therefore he is able to comprehend all that is.”
[24] Ken Ham in debate: “One of our planetarium programs looks at this, where we go in and show you how large the universe is. And I think it shows us how great God is, how big He is, that He’s an all-powerful God, He’s an infinite God, an infinite, all-knowing God who created the universe to show us His power. I mean, can you imagine that? And the thing that’s remarkable, in the Bible, for instance it says, on the fourth day of creation, and oh, He made the stars also.’ It’s almost like, Oh, by the way, I made the stars.
‘ And just to show us, He’s an all-powerful God, He’s an infinite God. So, “I made the stars,” and He made them to show us how great He is. And He is; He’s an infinite creator God.”
Ronald P. Millett, “Science and Religion Debate: How Literally Must We Interpret the bible?” Meridian Magazine, February 11, 2014.
“The strictest interpretation has the creation of the whole universe just six thousand years ago during six 24-hour earth-days. It is one thing to theorize the creation of our earth or even our solar system 6,000 years ago because miraculous power was certainly involved in the process of creation. However, what about the 200 billion star systems in our galaxy and the at least 100 billion galaxies in the universe? Would all of those about 40 * 10^21 or 40 sextillion star systems come into existence when the earth was created?”
“It seems to me that for this option all of the worlds in the galaxies in the universe would have to start their existence at exactly the same time as earth’s creation sequence began. If there are other worlds, this option would require all of them to be synchronized into the same six day period of creation. (other worlds: “by whom He made the worlds” Hebrews 1:2)”
“Seeing that so literal an interpretation of Genesis 1:16 “He made the stars also” paints one into an almost infinitely problematic corner, I believe, should draw conservative Christians who support this view back to consider a less literal interpretation that is more tenable. Perhaps a logical approach might be to assert that the creation of the universe occurred “in the beginning” and that the fourth day discussion of the sun, moon and stars was about then making them visible upon the earth to “give light upon the earth” and not about creating the whole universe out of nothing after creating the earth. (Genesis 1:16-19)”
“Another crucial sentence is also in Moses 1:35: But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you.’ In other words, decouple the creation explanation, including any time periods, that you are about to receive from these other worlds in the universe that are in various stages of their existence and as it were have their own calendar systems.”
[25] Ken Ham, “Six Days: The Age of the Earth and the Decline of the Church,” 2013.
“Learn how allowing for and old universe of billions of years unlocks a door of compromise.”
“If God created everything in six days, as the Bible says, this surely reveals the power and wisdom of God in a profound way-the Creator of the universe did not need eons of time. Billions of years, on the other hand, diminishes God by suggesting that God needed huge amounts of time to create.”
“Actually, we can say with authority that the earth is approximately 6,000 years old, based on the six literal days of creation (which I assert were ordinary days…”
“Those who claim God used evolution to form life have no foundation-except that of God’s revelation which details how God created the universe, including life on earth in six literal days of creation approximately 6,000 years ago.”
[26] Emilio Elizalde, “Cosmological Constant and Dark Energy: Historical Insights,” November 12, 2012.
For a contrasting view, see Dr. Danny Faulkner’s 2013 article on the Big Bang.
Danny Falkner, “Universe by Design: Problems with the Big Bang,” AnswersInGenesis.org, June 11, 2013.
“The big-bang model has become so widely accepted that few have noticed the many nagging difficulties or have realized the numerous ways in which the model has been modified to handle some of these difficulties. Some of these have been discussed previously, but they should be mentioned here as well. The big bang depends upon the cosmological principle, but is the cosmological principle true? On the local level, galaxies obviously clump into clusters, but most cosmologists have assumed that on a grand scale this clumping disappears. Extensive surveys of galaxy distributions have revealed that clumping and long strands of galaxies seem to be the norm on the largest scales that have been plumbed. The homogeneity of the universe is assumed, but all evidence indicates that the universe is not homogeneous. Or in other words, there is no evidence that the universe is indeed homogeneous. As for isotropy, the previously mentioned polarization study of distant radio sources indicates that there is some fundamental anisotropy in the universe. Therefore, there is considerable doubt that the cosmological principle upon which the big-bang model is based is true.”
[27] James E. Talmage, “The Earth and Man,” Deseret News, 21 Nov 1931, Tabernacle Address given 9 Aug 1931.
“To the thoughtful mind there can be no confusion of the beginning spoken of in the opening verse of Genesis with the advent of man upon the changing earth; for by the scriptural record itself we learn of stage after stage, age after age of earth processes by which eventually this planet became capable of supporting life-vegetable, animal and human in due course.”
“Life and Death Before Man’s Advent: According to the conceptions of geologists the earth passed through ages of preparation, to us unmeasured and immeasurable, during which countless generations of plants and animals existed in great variety and profusion, and gave in part the every [sic] substance of their bodies to help form certain strata which are still existent as such.”
“It is not enough to refer effects to the “First Great Cause;” it is unsatisfying and not always reverent to answer questions as to how things came to be what they are by the easy statement that God made them so. With such an answer the scientific man has little patience. The fact that all created things are the works of God and that all processes of nature are due to him as the administrator of law and order is to the scientific mind an axiom requiring neither argument nor demonstration. The botanist knows that God makes the plant grow; but he, weak mortal, is devoting time and energy of body, mind and spirit, to a study of the way in which God works such a marvelous miracle. The geologist knows that God created the earth; but the best effort of his life is put forth in the hope of finding out in some degree, however small, the method by which the Creator wrought this wondrous world. The astronomer gazing into the starry depths sees in their orderly procession the Lord Eternal walking in his majesty and [p.245] might; and in humility the student of the heavenly bodies spends days and nights striving to learn a little of the way in which God worked out the marvel of the universe.”
RPMNote: To understand the importance of this talk by Elder Talmage in the discussions by the General Authorities about the subject of evolution see my article entitled “Is the context Important for This Popular Science and Religion quote?”
“Several of key quotes from Elder Talmage’s talk show how relevant his words are today as well as they were in 1931. Believe not those who would make man but little above the brutes, when in truth he is but little below the angels.’
I do not regard Adam as related to-certainly not as descended from-the Neanderthal, the Cro-Magnon, the Peking or the Piltdown man.
Adam came as divinely directed, created and empowered.’
Were it true that man is a product of evolution from lower forms, it is but reasonable to believe that he will yet develop into something higher. While it is a fact that eternal progression is a characteristic of man’s Divine birthright, as yet we have learned nothing to indicate that man shall develop physically into any other form than that in which he now appears.’
Evolution is true so far as it means development, and progress, and advancement in all the works of God; but many of the vagaries that have been made to do duty under that name are so vague as to be unacceptable to the scientific mind. … Within the Gospel of Jesus Christ there is room and place for every truth thus far learned by man, or yet to be made known. The Gospel is not behind the times, on the contrary it is up-to-date and ever shall be.'”
[28] “And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still; and yet thou art there, and thy bosom is there; and also thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever;” (Moses 7:30)
“And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.” (Moses 1:33)
[29] “Evolution, Creationism, Intelligent Design,” Gallup Poll, 2012.
2012 answers:
Humans evolved, with God guiding 32%
Humans evolved, but God had no part in process 15%
God created humans in present form 46%
No opinion 7%
Final answers on creation only at Second Coming of Christ:
“Yea, verily I say unto you, in that day when the Lord shall come, he shall reveal all things-Things which have passed, and hidden things which no man knew, things of the earth, by which it was made, and the purpose and the end thereof-Things most precious, things that are above, and things that are beneath, things that are in the earth, and upon the earth, and in heaven.” (D&C 101:32-34)
[30] “History of BYU,” BYU Facts.
“The university traces its roots to Utah’s rich pioneer heritage. The original school, Brigham Young Academy, was established Oct. 16, 1875, on a little over one acre of land in what is now downtown Provo. At that time, Brigham Young, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, charged that all secular learning at the institution should be fused with teachings from the scriptures. Speaking to Academy Principal Karl G. Maeser, President Young said: “Brother Maeser, I want you to remember that you ought not to teach even the alphabet or the multiplication tables without the Spirit of God.” BYU has remained true to that original charge.”
[31] “Mission of Brigham Young University,” Mission and Aims.
“Mission of the University: The mission of Brigham Young University–founded, supported, and guided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints–is to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life. That assistance should provide a period of intensive learning in a stimulating setting where a commitment to excellence is expected and the full realization of human potential is pursued.”
[32] Ezra Taft Benson, “In His Steps,” Conference Report, April 1966.