---
title: "Mormon views on evolution"
chunk: 7/8
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"
---

=== Joseph Fielding Smith ===
In 1954, when he was President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Smith wrote at length about his personal views on evolution in his book Man, His Origin and Destiny stating that it was a destructive and contaminating influence and that "If the Bible does not kill Evolution, Evolution will kill the Bible." He further stated that "There is not and cannot be, any compromise between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the theories of evolution" and that "It is not possible for a logical mind to hold both Bible teaching and evolutionary teaching at the same time" since "If you accept [the scriptures] you cannot accept organic evolution." In response to an inquiry about the book from the head of the University of Utah Geology Department, church president David O. McKay affirmed that "the Church has officially taken no position" on evolution, Smith's book "is not approved by the Church", and that the book is entirely Smith's "views for which he alone is responsible". Smith also produced personal statements on evolution in his Doctrines of Salvation including that "If evolution is true, the church is false" since "If life began on Earth as advocated by Darwin ... then the doctrines of the church are false". Smith stated about his views on evolution, "No Adam, no fall; no fall, no atonement; no atonement, no savior." Smith also asserted that "There was no death of any living creature before the fall of Adam! Adam's mission was to bring to pass the fall and it came upon the earth and living things throughout all nature. Anything contrary to this doctrine is diametrically opposed to the doctrines revealed to the Church! If there was any creature increasing by propagation before the fall, then throw away the Book of Mormon, deny your faith, the Book of Abraham and the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants! Our scriptures most emphatically tell us that death came through the fall, and has passed upon all creatures including the earth itself. For this earth of ours was pronounced good when the Lord finished it. It became fallen and subject to death as did all things upon its face, through the transgression of Adam."

=== Bruce R. McConkie ===
Bruce R. McConkie was an influential church leader and author on the topic of evolution, having been published several times speaking strongly on the topic. He stated his view in 1982 at BYU that there was no death in the world for Adam or for any form of life before the fall, and that trying to reconcile religion and organic evolution was a false and devilish heresy among church members. In 1984, McConkie disparaged the "evolutionary fantasies of biologists" and stated that yet to be revealed "doctrines will completely destroy the whole theory of organic evolution" and stated that any religion that assumes humans are a product of evolution cannot offer salvation since true believers know humans were made in a state in which there was no procreation or death. In his popular and controversial reference book Mormon Doctrine, McConkie devoted ten pages to his entry on evolution.
After canvassing statements of past church leaders, the standard works, and the 1909 First Presidency statement, McConkie concluded that "[t]here is no harmony between the truths of revealed religion and the theories of organic evolution." The evolution entry in Mormon Doctrine quotes extensively from Smith's Man, His Origin and Destiny. McConkie characterized the intellect of those Latter-day Saints who believe in evolution while simultaneously having knowledge of church doctrines on life and creation as "scrubby and grovelling". McConkie included a disclaimer in Mormon Doctrine stating that he alone was responsible for the doctrinal and scriptural interpretations. The 1958 edition stated that the "official doctrine of the Church" asserted a "falsity of the theory of organic evolution." McConkie also wrote that "there were no pre-Adamites," that Adam was not the "end-product of evolution," and that there "was no death in the world, either for man or for any form of life until after the Fall of Adam."

=== Russell M. Nelson ===
Prior to becoming president of the LDS Church, Russell M. Nelson stated in a 2007 interview with the Pew Research Center that "to think that man evolved from one species to another is, to me, incomprehensible. Man has always been man. Dogs have always been dogs. Monkeys have always been monkeys. It's just the way genetics works." He also stated in 1987 in a church magazine article that he found the theory of evolution unbelievable.