---
title: "Mormon views on evolution"
chunk: 6/8
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"
---

=== Statements from the 1930s Roberts–Smith–Talmage dispute ===
In 1930, B. H. Roberts, the presiding member of the First Council of the Seventy, was assigned by the First Presidency to create a study manual for the Melchizedek priesthood holders of the church. Entitled The Truth, The Way, The Life, the draft of the manual that was submitted to the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for approval stated that death had been occurring on Earth for millions of years prior to the fall of Adam and that human-like pre-Adamites had lived on the Earth.
On 5 April 1930, Joseph Fielding Smith, a junior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the son of a late church president, "vigorously promulgated [the] opposite point of view" in a speech that was published in a church magazine. In his widely read speech, Smith taught as doctrine that there had been no death on earth until after the fall of Adam and that there were no "pre-Adamites".
In 1931, both Roberts and Smith were permitted to present their views to the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. After hearing both sides, the First Presidency issued a memo to the general authorities of the church which stated while they agree with the idea that "Adam is the primal parent of our race", there is no advantage to continuing the discussion and that church members should focus on "[bearing] the message of the restored gospel to the people of the world" and that those sciences do not have anything to do with, "the salvation of the souls of mankind". They stated that continuation of the discussion would only lead to "confusion, division, and misunderstanding if continued further."
Another of the apostles, geologist James E. Talmage, pointed out that Smith's views could be misinterpreted as the church's official position, since Smith's views were widely circulated in a church magazine but Roberts's views were limited to an internal church document. As a result, the First Presidency gave permission to Talmage to give a speech promoting views that were contrary to Smith's. In his speech on August 9, 1931, in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, Talmage taught the same principles that Roberts had originally outlined in his draft manual. Over Smith's objections, the First Presidency authorized a church publication of Talmage's speech in pamphlet form.
In 1965, Talmage's speech was reprinted again by the church in an official church magazine. As Talmage points out in the article, "The outstanding point of difference ... is the point of time which man in some state has lived on this planet." With regards to evolution in general, Talmage challenged many of its aspects in the same speech. He said that he does not believe Adam descended from cavemen or lower forms of men, but is divinely created. He did, however, state that were it true that Adam evolved from lower form, it only seems likely that men will continue to evolve into something higher as a part of eternal progression. He continued by stating that, "evolution is true so far as it means development, and progress, and advancement in all the works of God", and that the scriptures, "should not be discredited by theories of men; they cannot be discredited by fact and truth." Talmage considered the possibility of pre-Adamites; however, he denied speciation and evolution. Roberts died in 1933 and The Truth, The Way, The Life remained unpublished until 1994, when it was published by an independent publisher.
Although it is apparent that Roberts and Smith may have had differing views on whether there was death before the fall of Adam, it is evident that they may have had similar views against organic evolution as the explanation for the origin of man. For example, Roberts wrote that "the theory of evolution as advocated by many modern scientists lies stranded upon the shore of idle speculation. There is one other objection to be urged against the theory of evolution before leaving it; it is contrary to the revelations of God." Roberts further criticized the theories of evolution by stating that Darwin's claims of evolution are contrary to the experience and knowledge of man, because the law of nature requires that every organism reproduces of its own kind, and while variation may occur, changes usually revert due to extinction, chromosomal infertility, or by reversion to original species.