David O. McKay
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.
Lorenzo SnowSeventy years ago this Church was organized with six members. We commenced, so to speak, as an infant. We had our prejudices to combat. Our ignorance troubled us in regard to what the Lord intended to do and what He wanted us to do We advanced to boyhood, and still we undoubtedly made some mistakes, which generally arise from a lack of experience.
Dallin H. OaksThe use of medical science is not at odds with our prayers of faith and our reliance on priesthood blessings. When a person requested a priesthood blessing, Brigham Young would ask, “Have you used any remedies?” To those who said no because “we wish the Elders to lay hands upon us, and we have faith that we shall be healed,” President Young replied: “That is very inconsistent according to my faith. If we are sick, and ask the Lord to heal us, and to do all for us that is necessary to be done, according to my understanding of the Gospel of salvation, I might as well ask the Lord to cause my wheat and corn to grow, without my plowing the ground and casting in the seed. It appears consistent to me to apply every remedy that comes within the range of my knowledge, and then to ask my Father in Heaven … to sanctify that application to the healing of my body.”
Gordon B. HinckleyBut in a larger sense this has been the best of all centuries. In the long history of the earth there has been nothing like it. The life expectancy of man has been extended by more than 25 years. Think of it. It is a miracle. The fruits of science have been manifest everywhere. By and large, we live longer, we live better. This is an age of greater understanding and knowledge. We live in a world of great diversity.
Among the generalizations of science, evolution holds foremost place. … A creature which has traveled such distances, and fought such battles and won such victories deserves, one is compelled to say, to conquer death and rob the grave of its victory.
Whatever the subject may be, the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ may be elaborated upon without fear of anyone’s objecting, and the teacher can be free to express his honest conviction regarding it, whether that subject be in geology, the history of the world, the millions of years that it took to prepare the physical world, whether it be in engineering, literature, art—any principles of the gospel may be briefly or extensively touched…
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.
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.
[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.”