Orson Pratt on Harmonization

Orson Pratt

mormon authorities harmonization science

The study of science is the study of something eternal. If we study astronomy, we study the works of God. If we study chemistry, geology, optics, or any other branch of science, every new truth we come to the understanding of is eternal; it is a part of the great system of universal truth. It is truth that exists throughout universal nature; and God is the dispenser of all truth⁠—scientific, religious, and political.

Journal of Discourses, vol 7, page 157, Liverpool, England: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1860

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More from Orson Pratt

Our Father in Heaven was begotten on a previous heavenly world by His Father; He was begotten by a still more ancient Father; and so on from generation to generation, from one heavenly world to another.

Mormonism, to me, is but another name for God’s truth, and to find the fullness of that truth we would have to bring together and aggregate the truth of all religions, adding thereto all others that God would or could reveal. Truth is truth, where’er `tis found, On Christian or on heathen ground. This religion called Mormonism is no new thing. According to our view it is the oldest of all religions.

The Gods who dwell in heaven . . . were once in a fallen state . . . they were exalted also, from fallen men to celestial Gods.

The great temple of science must be erected upon the solid foundations of everlasting truth; its towering spires must mount upward, reaching higher and still higher, until crowned with the glory and presence of Him, who is Eternal.