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
No comments:
Post a Comment