Creation: After the Lesson

Well, it was a good day in Sunday School. It was cut a little short by a slightly long-winded member of the Stake Presidency, but hey, what can you do?
So, I had a couple of things floating through my mind, wondering what would be brought up in class today (FYI, I did not teach today). I wondered if anyone would start talking about Dinosaurs (Those bones that Satan put there to confuse us). I've had people talk about how they think we have dinosaur bones because God used previous worlds to create ours and that is why we have dinosaurs and rocks that are billions of years old. Sorry, doesn't work for me.
But it seemed to me that mostly everyone in my ward has a pretty strong grasp on religion and science. It made me feel good. In fact, very little of the discussion was about the "hows" of creation. But one very interesting thought was brought up.
One of the discussions on "how" came around to what God's role in the creation was. SIDE NOTE: So, this is for my Non-LDS readers. Pretty much everybody knows that Mormons have the Bible and the Book of Mormon. We're "named" after the latter. Along with those two books we have two others that we use: The Doctrine and Covenants (a set of revelations given mostly to Joseph Smith along with a few of his predecessors) as well as the Pearl of Great Price (a small collection of what we believe to be ancient papyri translated by Joseph Smith, containing accounts written by Moses and Abraham; along with a few other things) Whenever Mormons do an "in depth" study of the Old Testament (as we are currently doing this year for Sunday School) we tend to include the Pearl of Great Price in that study END SIDE NOTE. In the accounts in the books of Moses and Abraham the word "organize" is used a lot. I feel like that is the perfect word to describe how I feel about the history of this universe, world, and the species that inhabit it. One of the people in the class talked about how he feels that God organized (we could say planned, set in motion even) things, but did so that they would be self-sustaining and able to continue on their own without Him having to come in and intervene every so often. That pretty well sums up my feelings on the matter. By no means do I believe in Ken Ham's (the guy who debated Bill Nye a few weeks ago) creationism. Geological evidences show that such cannot be the case, and all of modern biological science is based on evolutionary biology. Do I believe in a deity? Most definitely. Do I believe said deity to be the God that is taught in Mormon theology? Yes sir and/or madam. Do I believe that the earth was created some 6000-10,000 years ago? Heavens no. Do I feel at odds believing in God and science? Not even a little. Something I've said to many friends and tweeted at least once or twice is this: If science and religion don't mesh well and cleanly for you, then you have a severe understanding of God and/or science. I do not believe they need to be in opposition to each other.

TL;DR It makes sense that God is the grand architect of this universe but lets it play out according to physical laws.

Pre-Lesson Post

Creation: Before the Lesson

So, tomorrow's Sunday School lesson in my ward is on the Creation. While I'm not teaching, it should be a very interesting lesson. While I very much am a believer in God, I simply cannot get behind the idea that the earth is 6000 years old with a six 24-hour day creation. Rather, I believe that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old. It is interesting to note that at the end of the previously linked lesson plan it says that "day" in the Old Testament does not represent a 24-hour period. It doesn't say it "might not" or "may not". That's pretty cool, in my mind. Along with that, I'm one of the Mormons that is crazy enough to believe in evolution by natural selection. Some within the LDS faith will admit to believing in evolution of species outside of humans, but that mankind is a special case. For me that simply doesn't fit into my world view. I believe that man, just like all other species, is the product of (divinely appointed) evolution. I don't believe God "rushed" evolution of any species, but that such things took their sweet time as explained by modern science. I know that this isn't a very well-accepted view among those of my own faith, but even BYU's "Evolution Packet" has a statement that we know the why's of man's creation, but necessarily the how's.

Now some may say, "But David, that's not really all that important to your eternal salvation." That may be true. Eternity doesn't directly hang in the balance when it comes to what I believe on the origin of this earth and the origin of man. That being said, it is important for me to believe as I do. I subscribe to the idea of uniformitarianism on a scientific as well as religious level (see Hebrews 13:8, 1 Nephi 10:18, and Mormon 9:9). Joseph Smith, in the Lectures on Faith said "But it is equally as necessary that men should have the idea that he is a God who changes not, in order to have faith in him, as it is to have the idea that he is gracious and long suffering. For without the idea of unchangeableness in the character if the Deity, doubt would take the place of faith." (Lecture Third, Verse 21) I simply cannot believe in a God who goes about changing the rules of physics on a whim (that being said, I don't believe that the miracles we read about in the scriptures break any laws of physics/chemistry/biology/etc. But that is a post for a later time). If He is changing in something seemingly trivial, how can I put faith in him on the big stuff? So, my friends, that is why I believe in an old earth and man coming about via evolution.

TL;DR I believe in God, an earth that is 4.5 billion years old, and evolution of man.

Followup Post

My First Sunday School Lesson

So, I've been debating on whether or not I want to assume my audience has a firm understanding of Mormon doctrine and theology. I know many of my friends aren't LDS. Even though many of them grew up in a predominantly Mormon town, I feel many of them have some pretty ridiculous misunderstandings about my faith. Part of me wants to take the time to not only explain my personal feelings and interpretations, but also elaborate on what the official doctrines of my faith are. I've decided to... well, do whatever the heck I please at the moment. Sometimes I may assume you have been going to Mormon Sunday School since you were five, and sometimes I may assume that you think Mormons play naked volleyball in the Temples (FYI, that is a false assumption).

I also apologize in advance. I talked about how I planned on writing before and after the lesson. That didn't happen today. I got a bit busy before church.

Today's Lesson: Foreordination
Honestly, I was a little worried about this lesson. Foreordination is not only a topic I don't understand well, so I felt extremely unqualified to teach about it. Now, before I get going, let me clarify. Official doctrine states that we are foreordained to certain things in life, such as Jesus being the savior of the world and Joseph Smith being foreordained to be the first prophet in these "the latter days". (So, I'm realizing how much Mormons have our own "dialect" when we talk). You know, things that you're supposed to do to help continue the Lord's work on the earth. Not to be confused with the Calvinist doctrine (sorry if anyone reading this is Calvinist and takes offense. I mean no harm, but your doctrine is different than mine) of predestination, or that your eternal salvation is already decided from the moment you are born. Mormons believe that what you do with your agency in this life will affect you in the eternities, and that you can miss out on fulfilling your foreordained duties. And that's pretty much what we talked about today (The nice thing about being a Sunday School teacher for adults is that you can get them talking and making comments and they do the teaching and you are pretty much just a referee to make sure the lesson goes in the general direction you want). Some expressed the excitement knowing that they have a special purpose in life (see the third paragraph on this page), knowing there is a purpose to being. Others talked about how heavy of a responsibility that can be, and expressed a bit of anxiety at the daunting task of making sure they do what the Lord has planned for them. The last few minutes I reined in the class and gave my two cents. Joseph Smith once said, "[T]he fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it." I take that to mean that anything we teach in the Church absolutely must tie back to Christ and his atonement. If you can't connect what you're talking about to it, then it is not important enough to be discussed in a religious context. So, that's what I did. I talked about Christ's foreordination to be our Savior. I am so grateful that he lived up to that. Why, you might ask? Well, because I fall short so much in what could possibly be my mission in this life. I no doubt have missed out on opportunities to bless other's lives. In fact, I have knowingly avoided such situations. But Christ's atonement makes that okay. Yeah, I may have missed out on some blessings, but in the end, I can still be eternally blessed.

TL;DR We all have a mission on this earth that God expects us to fulfill. But even if we screw up and don't fulfill that mission, there is still a place for us in God's kingdom, because Christ fulfilled his mission

Why this new blog?

Well, I've started and stopped and deleted and et cetera et cetera many a blog. I have one that I haven't update for years but (for some reason) haven't gotten rid of it. I have another I tend to only update for big things. I have another that only I can read that I use as somewhat of an online journal. So why this one? Well, a few weeks ago I was called to a Sunday School instructor. That means for about an hour once a month I will be in charge of promoting spiritual development of effectively my whole ward. So, I decided to create a place where I could put my thoughts together before and after my lessons, as well as somewhere to put my own two cents when it comes to religious topics (scripture, prophetic council, etc). (Somewhat) MANDATORY DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on this blog are not necessarily those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For any and all official positions/statements/etc from the Church please visit any of the official sites of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (www.mormon.org www.lds.org www.mormonnewsroom.org) END DISCLAIMER. So, I plan on updating this at least once a month with the basic thoughts on the lessons I give. Sometimes more, if I feel like any of my personal insights are worthy of sharing with you great folks. If you want a taste of what other thoughts go through my mind, go ahead and visit my other blog.

BONUS FEATURE
"But David, that sure is a weird name for a blog. Why that name? It makes it sound like you're going apostate or something." Well, I was mulling the idea for this blog around in my head while showering, and that name just came to me. I really liked it, and I feel it made sense. I'm somewhat of an atypical Mormon (though, the more Mormons I meet, the fewer of them I think actually fit the typical Mormon mold). Politically I am somewhat of a social liberal (I probably think I am more than I actually am). I'm a firm believer in things like evolution (that's right folks, I think humans are the product of a divinely inspired chain of evolutionary changes and adaptations) and the big bang (I really can't subscribe to a 6000 year old earth created in six 24-hour days way of thinking). I'm opposed to Sunday School teachers forcing a class through the material. Let the conversation go where the Spirit wants it to, not where some manual wants it to. I'm crazy enough to believe that the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are just as fallible as you and me, and that even they can (and even do *GASP*) make mistakes. (That being said, I do believe that in the weightier matters they are very inspired and very much directed by God) So, yeah. If you come to my Sunday School classes you will likely end up being a Sunday School Dropout! (Expect an update tomorrow. I'm giving a lesson on this.)

TL;DR I'm a Sunday School teacher now and this is where you can read about what I teach. (You can expect a one or two sentence summary in the form of TL;DR for each of my posts)