David O. McKay
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.
Spencer W. Kimball“And I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him: male and female created I them.” (The story of the rib, of course, is figurative.) “And I, God, blessed them (Man here is always in the plural. It was plural from the beginning.) and said unto them: Be fruitful …” The Creators breathed into their nostrils the breath of life and man and woman became living souls. We don’t know exactly how their coming into this world happened, and when we’re able to understand it the Lord will tell us.
Hugh NibleyWhen we conclude to make a Zion,” said Brigham Young, ‘we will make it, and this work commences in the heart of each person.” Zion can come only to a place that is completely ready for it, which is to say Zion must already be there. When Zion descends to earth, it must be met by a Zion that is already here: “And they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks; . . .
Howard W. HunterThere is a separation of the spirit and the body at the time of death. The resurrection will again unite the spirit with the body, and the body becomes a spiritual body, one of flesh and bones but quickened by the spirit instead of blood. Thus, our bodies after the resurrection, quickened by the spirit, shall become immortal and never die.
The thing you need to remember about evolution is that the Lord has never revealed anything about the matter. People have their opinions but the Lord has not revealed the details of how He created the Earth.
But science, dominated by the spirit of religion is the key to progress and the hope of the future. For example, evolution’s beautiful theory of the creation of the world offers many perplexing problems to the inquiring mind. Inevitably, a teacher who denies divine agency in creation, who insists there is no intelligent purpose in it, will infest the student with the thought that all may be chance.
I appreciate and realize the accomplishments, to a certain degree, of this wonderful atomic age in which we are living. Scientific discoveries of today stagger the imagination. Nearly every day we read of almost unbelievable accomplishments. The age of the atom has only begun, and no one knows what exciting developments may yet unfold when the atomic research now in progress is completed.
I would like to know just what it is that a man must be required to believe to be a member of this Church. Or, what it is that he is not permitted to believe, and remain a member of this Church. I would like to know just what that is. Is it evolution? I hope not, because I believe in evolution.
[President McKay] said, “Brother [Ted] Jacobsen, the United States is trying to put a man on the moon. How would you like to be the first one to fly to the moon?” I [Jacobsen] had never thought about that question. I said, just quickly, “President McKay, I think maybe I’d rather be the second man to fly to the moon, so the first one would have some experience.” He spoke right up and he said, “You know, I’d love to be the first man to fly to the moon. How do you suppose we are going to travel from one planet to another in the hereafter unless we learn how to do some of it on this earth?” Then he quoted the old song in the hymnbook called “If You Could Hie to Kolob.” He quoted every word from memory, all verses of that song to me. And he said, “Now this is just not a figment of imagination. There’s a lot of truth in what this man has put in this song.” … He [McKay] was a kind of forward-looking man, and he was not one who didn’t think that it was possible for us to go to the moon. He wanted to be there also.”