Man His Origin and Destiny

by Joseph Fielding Smith

Conflicting attitudes expressed concerning science and religion have confused many people. Especially has this been true in the class room where hypotheses have been set forth erroneously as facts and where deductions made from those theories have been regarded as established truth. Many of the followers of Darwin, for instance, carried his views to the extreme of materialistic atheism, declaring not only that creation occurred without the aid of any Intelligent Creator, but that as a matter of fact, no such Being even exists. Both science and religion have suffered as a result. The greatest damage, however, has been among students who have lost their faith in God through accepting these man-made theories as facts. But time changes things. Whereas for years atheistic deductions were made from scientific research, now true scientists, armed with what they term "the new knowledge," are revising their "hasty first conclusions" as Sir James Jeans expressed it, and have discovered "evidence of a designing or controlling power that has something in common with our individual minds."

Genres: Religion, Science, Lds, Church

563 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr. was the tenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1970 until his death. He was the son of Joseph F. Smith, who was the sixth president of the LDS Church. His grandfather was Hyrum Smith, brother of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith, Jr., who was Joseph Fielding's great-uncle.

Reviews

[Nicole Mercer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'll admit I came in knowing this book was an anti-evolution text and I was, as a biologist, prejudiced against it. But it was worse than I thought it would be. I understand that a then Mormon apostle would use Biblical verses to counter evolution (although I find it a very poor way to set up an argument against any scientific concept). I was not surprised that Smith displayed many popular arguments against evolution. I was shocked, however, that Smith would say things like "it has been truthfully said that organic evolution is Satan's chief weapon in the dispensation in his attempt to destroy the divine mission of Jesus Christ" and "Believe it or not! This is the rubbish palmed off on the innocent and promulgated by the cunning, crafty, designing men bent on destroying the Bible order of creation" and "this is what comes naturally out of the doctrine of organic evolution. It ridicules religion. It denies the Fatherhood of God and the Sonship of Jesus Christ." The only way to really counter an argument of any kind is to be calm and concise. State what the facts are in as unbiased a way as possible. Smith failed miserably at this. Every few paragraphs he spews off about how evil evolution is. Without facts or scripture or some rationale, that's just an unjustified opinion.

I was proud however, when I realized one of Smith's chief opponents (although predating him by over fifty years) was Andrew Dixon White, the founder of Cornell University. As a Mormon scientist, I'm glad to be associated with White instead of Smith.

[Semi-Academic Eric]

I came across these interesting quotes today:

David O McKay, Letter to Professor William Lee Stokes, Feb. 15, 1957

On the subject of organic evolution the Church has officially taken no position. The book “Man, His Origin and Destiny” was not published by the Church, and is not approved by the Church. The book contains expressions of the author’s views for which he alone is responsible.


David O. McKay, President, February 3, 1959

Dear Brother: ... The Church has issued no official statement on the subject of the theory of evolution. Neither "Man, His Origin and Destiny" by Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, nor "Mormon Doctrine" by Elder Bruce R. McConkie, is an official publication of the Church.

...

Gordon B Hinckley, from Larry A Witham, Where Darwin Meets the Bible, Oxford University Press, 2002, pg. 176-177

Few American theologies are more complex than that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but its flagship Brigham Young University teaches off-the-shelf, industry-standard evolution. That has been the case since 1931, when the church officially said: “Leave biology, archaeology, and anthropology, no one of which has to do with the salvation of the souls of mankind, to scientific research.” . . . What the church requires is only belief “that Adam was the first man of what we would call the human race,” says Gordon Hinckley, the church’s living prophet. Scientists can speculate on the rest, he says, recalling his own study of anthropology and geology: “Studied all about it. Didn’t worry me then. Doesn’t worry me now.”

As of this notation, I am not sure of the website in which these quotes came from. I merely wanted to make note of this information here, where we can hopefully find this book as a reference in the future.

(These quotes come from a page titled Mormon Authorities on Evolution and can be found here: http://community.transfigurism.org/mo...)

[Jeff Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if somewhat dated, there is no better scholar on the standard works and no better doctrinal mind, save Joseph Smith, than JFS.

[Christie Norris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Older, but interesting dissection of arguments against things such as the creation, historocity of the scriptures, etc.

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really good book. I learned a lot about things that I did not quite understand about the creation and our life here on earth as well as our destiny as well as the destiny of the earth.

[Matthew Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

A joke of a reaction to Darwin's work