Official LDS Position

Upon the fundamental doctrines of the Church we are all agreed. Our mission is to bear the message of the restored gospel to the world. Leave geology, biology, archaeology, and anthropology, no one of which has to do with the salvation of the souls of mankind, to scientific research, while we magnify our calling in the realm of the Church - First Presidency, 1931

Topics
5-6 accounts 3 Popular views What did ancient Israelites believe? What if the scriptural account is wrong?

Major Accounts
Genesis 1:1-2:3 (P) Genesis 2:4-2:4 (J) Job 41, Psalm 74, Psalm 104, Isa 27:1 (U)

Moses/JST Genesis 2-3

Abraham 4-5

Temple Each account gives its own twist.

Young Earth Creationism (YEC)

7 days = 24 hour periods
Earth is 6,000 years old

7 days = 1,000 year periods (2 Peter 3:8)

Earth is 13,000 years old

No evolution, Adam formed from dust, first man

Reading Genesis literally

Old Earth Creationism

7 days = 7 periods of undefined time
day in Hebrew, in some cases, can be non-specific

Earth is 4.5 billion years old

Modern scientific view

Some evolution

Life and death before Adam and Eve

Adam may or may not be the first homo sapien

Theistic Evolution
7 days = various views 24 hour periods Undefined Earth is 4.5 billion years old

God operates through evolution

Life and death before Adam and Eve

Adam not the first homo sapien

What did the Israelites believe?

Geocentrism
Flat Earth

Three-tiered Cosmos

Functional creation

No creation ex nihilo

Geocentrism

Two Important Points

Functional Creation
Most recent scholarship Genesis is about the assigning of purpose and function to already existing things Not about physical creation of objects and bodies A thing doesnt exist until it is given a role or function

No creation ex nihilo
God does not create matter out of nothing Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could.

What are the Creation accounts?

What are they not?
Not science textbooks Not history textbooks

Narratives designed to give theological lessons

Jehovah is the creator, not other gods

Man is in Gods image

Sacred time (7th day) Spiritual creation Council of Gods

Creation is Gods temple

Pre-existent matter

Crucial Elements
In my opinion Adam and Eve were a real couple, who in some way, at some time, were the first humans and who represent all of us

God, in some way, created the Earth and all life

We are Gods children

Adam and Eve fell in some way that affects us

The story of Adam and Eve is the story of us.

What if part of the story is scientifically inaccurate?

Explain how a car works to a 5 year old, in simplified terms, then let him/her try to re-explain it.
You are going to get errors! That is essentially what the creation narratives are.

God is OK with us not perfectly understanding everything.

Latter-day Saints dont believe in inerrant scriptures.

Official LDS Position

Upon the fundamental doctrines of the Church we are all agreed. Our mission is to bear the message of the restored gospel to the world. Leave geology, biology, archaeology, and anthropology, no one of which has to do with the salvation of the souls of mankind, to scientific research, while we magnify our calling in the realm of the Church - First Presidency, 1931