Finally the Church says "no official position on Evolution"

[_Themis]

The church has taken this position for many decades

but it wasn't that clear. I think it is the first time a church publication says "no official position on evolution" and "no spirit children ... before Adam"

The church usually avoids making positions very clear or public. I think they want to give just enough for different groups in the church something to help keep them in. How well would it go over for YEC LDS if the church came out and said their official position is OEC through evolution?

[_Themis]

Evolution is a real thing. It can be demonstrated with ease. The only real question that remains is if the evolution of this planet was guided. I believe it was. But it is also safe to say it was not.

Ya it's safe to say it was not or we would see a much better world. Unless of course these supreme beings just like to make a mess.

Having no position on evolution just goes to show the lack of thought the church leadership has placed on this subject. It also shows a complete lack of any connection to a higher power. This is a big mistake on their part. Their continuous statements about being seers and revelators means nothing if they are clueless about how man got here.

They cannot do anything about the fact they have no connection to anything divine, but taking no position is to avoid conflict with different positions of members. It's the safest position they can take.

[_Hagoth]

The church usually avoids making positions very clear or public. I think they want to give just enough for different groups in the church something to help keep them in.

Judging from the format of the Gospel Topic essays, I would say they don't really have any good answers about anything. The new way of addressing tough questions is to throw out a series of what-ifs and maybes and hope one of them will stick to the wall.

[_Themis]

The church usually avoids making positions very clear or public. I think they want to give just enough for different groups in the church something to help keep them in.

Judging from the format of the Gospel Topic essays, I would say they don't really have any good answers about anything. The new way of addressing tough questions is to throw out a series of what-ifs and maybes and hope one of them will stick to the wall.

The membership is not a unified group on many issues so the maybe's and if's let them believe what they want and still show up on Sunday.

[Guest]

But isn't that really a position on Evolution? They basically deny it. The alternative would be to say that their God experimented with human bodies or something like that, which is simply crazy. They are claiming that Adam was the first human with a "spirit" in it. This is denial of evolution. They are denying that lower life forms EVOLVED into their first man and woman, Adam and Eve. (which would be evolution). Their carefully worded BS is getting old.

[_Tator]

The membership is not a unified group on many issues so the maybe's and if's let them believe what they want and still show up on Sunday.

Menu Mormons take what you want and leave the rest behind, except you do have to do that list of ten mandatory requirements:

1. Pay tithing
2. Pay tithing
3. Pay tithing
4. Pay tithing
5. Pay tithing
6. Pay tithing
7. Pay tithing
8. Pay tithing
9. Pay tithing
10. Pay tithing

[_Hagoth]

Oct 2016 Ensign
God directed the creation of Adam and Eve and placed their spirits in their bodies. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve, our first parents, who were created in God’s image. There were no spirit children of Heavenly Father on the earth before Adam and Eve were created. In addition, “for a time they lived alone in a paradisiacal setting where there was neither human death nor future family.”

Someone please help me understand what they're actually saying here.

The DNA essay confirms that there were people in the Americas well before biblical times and cites end notes that establish the existence of Eurasian people much earlier than that.

So does this statement mean that:

1) those people didn't really exist, nor did those who left fossil remains for a couple of million years before that (evidence planted by Satan maybe?),

2) that Adam and Eve actually lived hundreds of thousands, or millions of years ago, which made them the parents of all of those early humans (Adam's last name was Erectus?), or

3) Adam and Eve were a separate creation that happened in a Terrestrial bubble while all of these other not-children-of-God people went about their lives all around them in the Lone and Dreary World?

Also, how does this statement jibe with the Neanderthal DNA mentioned earlier, which is present in the genome of all non-Africans.

[_sock puppet]

Oct 2016 Ensign
God directed the creation of Adam and Eve and placed their spirits in their bodies. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve, our first parents, who were created in God’s image. There were no spirit children of Heavenly Father on the earth before Adam and Eve were created. In addition, “for a time they lived alone in a paradisiacal setting where there was neither human death nor future family.”

Someone please help me understand what they're actually saying here.

The DNA essay confirms that there were people in the Americas well before biblical times and cites end notes that establish the existence of Eurasian people much earlier than that.

So does this statement mean that:

1) those people didn't really exist, nor did those who left fossil remains for a couple of million years before that (evidence planted by Satan maybe?),

2) that Adam and Eve actually lived hundreds of thousands, or millions of years ago, which made them the parents of all of those early humans (Adam's last name was Erectus?), or

3) Adam and Eve were a separate creation that happened in a Terrestrial bubble while all of these other not-children-of-God people went about their lives all around them in the Lone and Dreary World?

Also, how does this statement jibe with the Neanderthal DNA mentioned earlier, which is present in the genome of all non-Africans.

Myth spinners can't be expected to be consistent. Not with external realities. Not even internally within their myth propositions.

[_grindael]

Also, how does this statement jibe with the Neanderthal DNA mentioned earlier, which is present in the genome of all non-Africans.

I have Neanderthal DNA? Well... that could explain a lot.

[_Philo Sofee]

But isn't that really a position on Evolution? They basically deny it. The alternative would be to say that their God experimented with human bodies or something like that, which is simply crazy. They are claiming that Adam was the first human with a "spirit" in it. This is denial of evolution. They are denying that lower life forms EVOLVED into their first man and woman, Adam and Eve. (which would be evolution). Their carefully worded BS is getting old.

Getting?