Dinosaurs

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This page is based on an answer to a question submitted to the FAIR web site, or a frequently asked question.

Contents

Question

My seminary class has questions regarding the dinosaurs. They seem to be stuck on "where" and "when." How do they fit into the creation story presented by the scriptures?

Answer

Your seminary students are probably hung up on the following issues:

  1. Scientists say dinosaurs lived and died millions of years ago, and became extinct due to a cataclysmic event, probably an asteroid that struck the earth. This is what your students are taught in school, because it reflects the scientific consensus.
  2. It is generally believed by many members of the Church that the fall of Adam and Eve took place around 4,000 B.C., and that before this there was no death in the world.
  3. How do we square #1 with #2? How do we account for fossils that appear to be millions of years old, if we conclude there was no death before about 6,000 years ago?

The core of the problem is that the scriptures and the revelations simply don't talk about dinosaurs, and are inconclusive about whether there was physical death for other organisms before Adam and Eve's fall. This leaves each person to decide for themselves how the fossils we have discovered fit into the timeline of the plan of salvation. There several possible solutions that have been adopted by intelligent, faithful Latter-day Saints:

  • Some have concluded that dinosaurs never existed, that the bones we've found are actually from other planets, and that they ended up here when the earth was created from material previously used to create other planets.
  • Others have reasoned that there was no death before the Fall, so the dinosaurs must have lived alongside Adam and the early patriarchs, perhaps dying in (maybe even after) the Flood. (See: Death before the fall main article FAIRWiki link.)
  • Still others have taken the approach that the earth is very old, that there was death before the Fall, and that the dinosaurs lived and died in a era long before the story of Adam and Eve begins.

The three important points to get across to your students are:

  1. The scriptures — especially the creation accounts in Genesis, Moses, Abraham, and the temple endowment — are not concerned with laying out a comprehensive history of the earth. They are concerned with telling the story of God's covenant relationship with men, a covenant he first established with Adam and Eve. Anything outside this story is simply not relevant to the issue the scriptures are dealing with.
  2. Latter-day Saints are ultimately interested in truth, whatever and wherever it may be. We should not be afraid of learning new things that may contradict our previous assumptions, and we should not be overly dogmatic about things that are peripheral to the gospel message (that message being Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was a true prophet, the Book of Mormon was divinely revealed, the keys of the priesthood are on the earth). In other words, have an open mind, but not a gaping one.
  3. Ultimately, our salvation does not depend on when we believed the dinosaurs lived, or even if we believe there was (or was not) death before the Fall. Our salvation lies in hearing the word the Lord and then doing it.

The Church does not take an official position on this issue

Main articles: Fallibility of prophets and Changing doctrine

This is one of many issues about which the Church has no official position. As President J. Reuben Clark taught under assignment from the First Presidency:

Here we must have in mind—must know—that only the President of the Church, the Presiding High Priest, is sustained as Prophet, Seer, and Revelator for the Church, and he alone has the right to receive revelations for the Church, either new or amendatory, or to give authoritative interpretations of scriptures that shall be binding on the Church....
When any man, except the President of the Church, undertakes to proclaim one unsettled doctrine, as among two or more doctrines in dispute, as the settled doctrine of the Church, we may know that he is not "moved upon by the Holy Ghost," unless he is acting under the direction and by the authority of the President.
Of these things we may have a confident assurance without chance for doubt or quibbling.
—J. Reuben Clark, Jr. "When Are the Writings or Sermons of Church Leaders Entitled to the Claim of Scripture?" Address to Seminary and Institute Teachers, BYU (7 July 1954); reproduced in Church News (31 July 1954); also reprinted in Dialogue 12/2 (Summer 1979): 68–81.]

This was recently reiterated by the First Presidency (who now approves all statements published on the Church's official website):

Not every statement made by a Church leader, past or present, necessarily constitutes doctrine. A single statement made by a single leader on a single occasion often represents a personal, though well-considered, opinion, but is not meant to be officially binding for the whole Church. With divine inspiration, the First Presidency...and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles...counsel together to establish doctrine that is consistently proclaimed in official Church publications. This doctrine resides in the four “standard works” of scripture (the Holy Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price), official declarations and proclamations, and the Articles of Faith. Isolated statements are often taken out of context, leaving their original meaning distorted.
—LDS Newsroom, "Approaching Mormon Doctrine," lds.org (4 May 2007) off-site]

(For further discussion of this principle see: FAIR wiki article: Official Church doctrine and statements by Church leaders.)

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

Evolution

FAIR web site

Evolution links to FAIR
  • FAIR Topical Guide: Evolution FAIR link
  • FAIR Topical Guide: Noah's flood FAIR link
  • FAIR Topical Guide: Science and Religion FAIR link
  • Trent D. Stephens, "Evolution and Latter-day Saint Theology: The Tree of Life and DNA," paper given at the 2003 FAIR Conference. FAIR link

External links

Evolution links
  • Eyring-L FAQ: Evolution off-site
  • Michael R. Ash, "The Mormon Myth of Evil Evolution," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 35:4 (Winter 2002): 19–38. PDF link
  • Robert R. Bennett, "Science vs. Mormonism: The Dangers of Dogmatism and Sloppy Reading, Review of Farewell to Eden: Coming to Terms with Mormonism and Science by Duwayne R. Anderson," FARMS Review 18/2 (2006): 1–43. off-site PDF link wiki
  • Donald Q. Cannon, Larry E. Dahl, and John W. Welch, "The Restoration of Major Doctrines through Joseph Smith: The Godhead, Mankind, and the Creation," Ensign (January 1989): 27–33. off-site
  • A. Kent Christiansen, webpage with letter to and from David O. McKay on subject of Church's official position. off-site
  • Richard F. Haglund, Jr., "Science and Religion: A Symbiosis," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 8:3–4 (Autumn/Winter 1973): 23–37. off-site
  • Duane E. Jeffery [Jeffrey in original], "Seers, Savants and Evolution: The Uncomfortable Interface," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 8:3–4 (Autumn/Winter 1973): 41–69. off-site PDF link
  • Duane E. Jeffery, "Noah’s Flood: Modern Scholarship and Mormon Traditions," Sunstone (Issue #134) (October 2004): 27–45. off-site
  • Jeffrey E. Keller, "Discussion Continued: The Sequel to the Roberts/Smith/Talmage Affair," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 15:1 (Spring 1982): 79–98. off-site
  • Edward L. Kimball, "A Dialogue with Henry Eyring," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 8:3–4 (Autumn/Winter 1973): 99–108. off-site
  • Morris S. Petersen, "Do we know how the earth’s history as indicated from fossils fits with the earth’s history as the scriptures present it?," Ensign (September 1987): 27. off-site, off-site
  • Frank B. Salisbury, "The Church and Evolution: A Brief History of Official Statements, Review of Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements by William E. Evenson and Duane E. Jeffery," FARMS Review 18/1 (2006): 307–311. off-site PDF link wiki
  • Frank B. Salisbury, "Creation by Evolution? Review of Evolution and Mormonism: A Quest for Understanding by Trent D. Stephens," FARMS Review 18/1 (2006): 313–319. off-site PDF link wiki
  • Richard Sherlock, "A Turbulent Spectrum: Mormon Reactions to the Darwinist Legacy," Journal of Mormon History 5:1 (1978): 19–32. off-site
  • Richard Sherlock, "Mormonism and Intelligent Design," FARMS Review 18/2 (2006): 45–81. off-site PDF link wiki
  • Richard E. Sherlock and Jeffrey E. Keller, "'We Can See No Advantage to a Continuation of the Discussion': The Roberts/Smith/Talmage Affair," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 13:3 (Fall 1980): 63–78. off-site
  • William Lee Stokes, "An Official Position," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 12:3 (Winter 1979): 90–92. off-site
  • Clayton M. White and Mark D. Thomas, "On Balancing Faith in Mormonism with Traditional Biblical Stories: The Noachian Flood," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 40:3 (Fall 2007): 85–110. PDF link
  • Michael F. Whiting, "Lamarck, Giraffes, and the Sermon on the Mount (Review of Using the Book of Mormon to Combat Falsehoods in Organic Evolution by Clark A. Peterson)," FARMS Review of Books 5/1 (1993): 209–222. off-site PDF link

Printed material

Evolution printed works
  • William E. Evenson and Duane E. Jeffrey, Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements (Draper, Utah: Greg Kofford Books, 2006), 1. ISBN 1589580931. off-site
  • Boyd K. Packer, "The Law and the Light," in Jacob through Words of Mormon: to Learn with Joy: papers from the Fourth Annual Book of Mormon Symposium, edited by Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate, (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, distributed by Bookcraft, 1990), 1–31. ISBN 0884947343. ISBN 978-0884947349. GL direct link
  • Trent D. Stephens, D. Jeffrey Meldrum, Forrest B. Peterson, Evolution and Mormonism: A Quest for Understanding (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 2001), 1. ISBN 1560851422.
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