---
title: "Mormon views on evolution"
chunk: 4/8
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_views_on_evolution"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:31:57.700246+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

==== Improvement Era ====
The Improvement Era was an official periodical of the church between 1897 and 1970. In the April 1910 edition in the "Priesthood Quorum's Table" section of that periodical, Genesis is cited as well as other scriptures from Genesis and the Pearl of Great Price. The article states that it is unclear whether the mortal bodies of man evolved through natural processes, whether Adam and Eve where transplanted to Earth from another place, or whether they were born on Earth in mortality. The article states that those questions are not fully answered in the church's current revelation and scripture. The article cites the answer is attributed to the church's First Presidency.

=== Canonized scriptures ===
Some verses in the standard works raise questions about the compatibility of scriptural teachings and scientists' current understanding of organic evolution. One such verse, in Doctrine and Covenants describes the "temporal existence" of the earth as 7,000 years old.
Other scriptural verses suggest that no organisms died before the fall of Adam. In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Lehi teaches: "If Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end". In Moses in the Pearl of Great Price, the prophet Enoch states: "Because that Adam fell, we are; and by his fall came death; and we are made partakers of misery and woe."

=== Bible Dictionary ===
In the Bible Dictionary of the LDS Church, the entry for "Fall of Adam" previously included the following statement: "Before the fall, Adam and Eve had physical bodies but no blood. There was no sin, no death, and no children among any of the earthly creations." Under the entry "Flesh", it is written: "Since flesh often means mortality, Adam is spoken of as the 'first flesh' upon the earth, meaning he was the first mortal on the earth, all things being created in a non-mortal condition, and becoming mortal through the fall of Adam.
As noted above, the Bible Dictionary is published by the LDS Church, and its preface states: "It [the Bible Dictionary] is not intended as an official or revealed endorsement by the church of the doctrinal, historical, cultural, and other matters set forth."

== Statements from church presidents ==
Every statement by an LDS Church president does not necessarily constitute official church doctrine, but a statement from him is generally regarded by church membership as authoritative and usually represents doctrine. Official church doctrine is however presented and taught unitedly by the entire First Presidency, usually released in an official letter or other authorized publication.

=== Brigham Young ===
Brigham Young, the church's second president, stated that the LDS Church differs from other Christian churches, because they do not seek to clash their ideas with scientific theory. He further stated that whether God began with an empty Earth, whether he created the Earth out of nothing, and whether he made it in six days or millions of years will remain a mystery unless God reveals something about it. Two years later Young also stated it was unjust that the theories of scientists were taught in schools, but not the principles of the gospel, and hoped in the future to have schools teach from curriculum written by members of his church that taught church doctrine. He wrote to his son stating that he'd created Brigham Young Academy in part because of his opposition to the theory of evolution, and was "resolutely and uncompromisingly opposed" to "the theories...of Darwin."

=== John Taylor ===
John Taylor was the second church president to comment directly on Darwinian theory. In his 1882 book Mediation and Atonement, Taylor stated that nature and creation is governed by the laws of man and organisms exist in the same form since creation, as contradicted by the ideas of evolutionists. Taylor continued that man did not originate from chaos of matter, but from "the faculties and powers of a God".

=== Joseph F. Smith ===
Soon after the First Presidency's 1909 statement, Joseph F. Smith professed in an editorial that "the Church itself has no philosophy about the modus operandi employed by the Lord in His creation of the world." However, in the very same month (and in the wake of the evolution controversy that had recently ensued at Brigham Young University), Smith published and signed a statement wherein he explained some of the conflicts between revealed religion and the theories of evolution. He cited the 1911 Brigham Young University modernism controversy, stating that evolution is in conflict with scriptures and modern revelation. He continues that the church holds 
that "divine revelation" must be the "standard" and is "truth". Smith mentions that "science has changed from age to age", and "philosophic theories of life" have their place, but do not belong in LDS Church school classes and anywhere else when they contradict the word of God.
A 1910 editorial in a church magazine that enumerates various possibilities for creation is usually attributed to Smith or to the First Presidency. Included in the listed possibilities were the ideas that Adam and Eve: (1) "evolved in natural processes to present perfection"; (2) were "transplanted [to earth] from another sphere"; or (3) were "born here ... as other mortals have been." Smith authored an editorial the next year in the church magazine discouraging the discussion of evolution in church school stating that members of the church believe the theory of evolution was "more or less a fallacy."