BC, please outline your Eden/Flood beliefs, geography, and timeline. I, for one, am very interested in them.
No timeline per se, but it all revolves around my acceptance of evolution and all science; recognizing that science does not necessarily equate to THE absolute truth but is a good method for trying to get there. So....
Big Bang/Evolution up to modern homo sapiens.
Recognizing that there are hundreds of thousands of years of big-brained homo sapiens who nevertheless don't come up with civilization until recently, I hypothesize that the preAdamite homo sapiens either were infused with a different spirit (not a spirit child of God) or there was a great revelation of knowledge (Eden and just after) that sparked humanity's uplift.
Assuming evolution, it proceeds until God determines all is ready and then (hypothestically) two homo sapiens are born who have spirit children of God as spirits within them and are placed into the garden. The question then arises as to is it just the garden in which there is no death or is it the whole world? There is doctrinal support for either and I can go either way. Then there was the Fall. The time in the garden could last many many years imho without being detected by say, a slow down in evolution.
As for a date, I'm flexible. But I think it makes more sense to push it back from the traditional 4000 BC to near 8000 BC and the rise of the first civilization.
So after the Fall, evolution, at least for homo sapiens depending on the extent of "no death", proceeds apace. No need to worry about Noah since the Flood is local. Continental drift is as science has it. In the Hebrew, the waters covering the land can just as easily be interpreted local and the separation in the days of Peleg need not be continental or refer to land at all.
The question might be asked what happened to those homo sapiens outside the garden (if there was an outside)? Well, perhaps they kept on going and because they had lesser spirits holding back their deveolpment, they couldn't compete and died out. Perhaps there was intermating and the resulting bodies all had spirit children of God despite the fact that one parent didn't. Or perhaps after the Fall, all homo sapiens thereafter gave birth to bodies with spirit children of God. In that last case, we would obviously not descend physically from Adam but in a spirit sense we are still consider part of the same family.
I'm sure there are other equally plausible explainations that could help my hypothesis and sure my hypothesis is not the only one that allows for evolution etc.
Evolution itself is supported in LDS scripture. In 2 Nephi 2:22 we see that everything was created AND THEN placed into a state of no death. So we have a period of creation in which the property of no death is not given. Thye Abraham account of the creation is evolution friendly. Some doctrine, such as that on D&C 77 in the institute manual makes the spiritual creation actually a physical one and negates the notion of seven dispensations being the whole history of the world. it's only the history we need be concerned about.
The 1909 statement does not preclude evolution.
The 1931 statement allows for preAdamite notions to exist without being contrary to LDS doctrine.
etc. etc.
So I am in conflict with LDS doctrine on the Flood and Peleg, but not on evolution.
Yes, you are in opposition to Church teaching on this - you are on your way to the dark side.
Doubt it. I've been advocating evolution since I was 15 and a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood and was brought before the bishop because of it. The SP, thanks to my Dad, got me off the hook. I am now having my first grandchildren. Nothing's changed in between regarding the status of my belief in the LDS Church as the only true Church. Doubts certainly have rose and fell, but nothing to cause an antiMormon radar to show a blip.