What is the Church’s stance on Pre-historic man?
Question
Gramps,
I cannot find any official statements on the Church’s stance on pre historic man, i.e. Homo Erectus, Neanderthals etc. Can you help?
Nikolai
Answer
Nikolai,
Unfortunately I cannot because there are none. You see, the LDS Church is a religion. As such it is concerned with religious matters as a rule. There are areas where religious matters enter, and thus have an impact upon, society. In these areas the LDS Church seeks to councel and advise its members primarily, followed by any others interested in hearing what is said.
The matter of cavemen, or the possible evolution of mankind is not a religious matter, but a scientific one. For all the information the scriptures, and by connection the Lord himself, have given us it is entirely possible that evolution was part of the process of God creating man. We simply don’t know for sure one way or the other right now.
The Bible merely says God created man. It fails to explain how, or how long it took.
Excellent answer and it is true. All we really know is that Man was made in God’s image. There are really no other details provided. The story of creation in the bible is an allegory. It was never intended to be accepted literally.
Nikolai, or others, if I may:
The bible does in fact give details as to how man came to be.
Genesis 1:26-27 are rather non-descriptive but it is obvious elsewhere in the scriptures.
In fact, reading on to the next page, in Genesis 2:7 you find that God “formed man of the dust of the ground”.
Then he “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” which caused man to become a living soul.
Turn to Mormon 9:17 to have this confirmed.
Job 33:4-6 (Elihu to Job) “Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead: I am also formed out of the clay”
If you continue on past Genesis 2:7 you’ll find that after god made man, he formed every beast of the field in Genesis 2:19 as a companion for Adam.
Keep going and in Genesis 2:21 he took a rib from Adam to make Eve.
Certainly not through evolution as some suggest because animals were after man and man was made from the dust of the earth.
And, as a follow-up to the comment before mine; the creation story is not simply allegorical.
To accept this approach is to ignore the revelation given to Joseph Smith in March of 1832 (185 Years ago).
D&C 77:12. Joseph spoke of the creation in six days because God revealed its truth to him. Man from dust. 7,000 year temporal existence of earth.