As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes referred to as the LDS or ‘Mormon’ faith), I find my position in the middle of the debate of Creation vs Evolution debate. While I will not pretend to make the argument in this post of which is the correct interpretation of the revealed word of God in relation to the generally accepted scientific knowledge of the day, I will direct my thoughts as to why this interpretation should be pursued in the first place. Full disclosure: I will use both ancient and modern scripture officially accepted as LDS canon.

God vs. Science

First of all, I’m no scientist, at least in the strictest sense of the term. That is, I have no formal degree or fancy letters before or after my name. Additionally, I am no theologian. Certainly I believe in God and I consider myself a student of the scriptures, but again, I have no formal training in what the majority of the secular or religious world would recognize as any sort of authority on a theological matter. I do however love the sciences, study published papers whenever I have the opportunity and love reading, researching and experimenting in anything from chemistry to astrophysics. Oddly enough, I don’t feel my “Mormon” faith and my testimony in the reality of Jesus Christ and a greater purpose are in conflict with scientific reason. It is taught in our church that faith and reason can only exist in their perfect form when they are unified.

God is an Exalted Being with Ultimate Scientific Understanding

For the purposes of keeping this conversation brief, we believe that God is an exalted being, perfect not only in thought, word and behavior but also in knowledge. He also does not make up laws, rather He knows the laws perfectly and knows how to work within their confines. We also believe that God being all-powerful means that while he can do anything, He only wants to do righteously. He cannot break these fundamental laws. Miracles are therefore simply an application of scientific knowledge we do not yet understand with our rudimentary grasp of the governing laws of the universe.

God and Science Are Not At Odds

Many of our fundamental principles of God’s attributes are in harmony with fundamental scientific principles. For example, the scientific concept that matter (and energy) is neither created or destroyed, but rather simply converted from one form to another. While we believe God created what we see before us, we see creation as a word for bringing previously separate parts to “create” a new whole, such as the combining of an egg and sperm to “create” a new baby from two parents.

In our book of modern prophetic revelation, Doctrine and Covenants, it talks about how the fundamental building blocks of existence were “…not created or made, neither indeed can be” but rather God used the materials available to make or “create” what we see before us. If God is a being of supernatural intelligence — as in beyond our current capacity rather than as in ‘magical’ — and he simply knows the fundamental makeup of the universe to the point that he knows how to affect it according to his purposes, why would the pursuit of science and the pursuit of this kind of faith be at odds? The difference is the method of arrival.

For example, say we encounter an advanced alien civilization that comes to Earth for a visit. We would be amazed by their advanced grasp of physics and chemistry, the makeup of space-time and possibly other as-of-yet undiscovered sciences. Would we look at all of their advances and not simply ask them: “Hey, how’d you do that?” or would we put our heads down and say “Meh, we’ll figure it out”.

Of course, given the opportunity, almost any scientist — if not all — would jump at the chance to leap forward and use their knowledge to further our own. This type of science occurs all the time as we help the “third world” through education, improved healthcare and social and societal reform. I call it ‘revealed science‘ or science that was given to you, explained and supported by a person or persons with a knowledge greater than your own. They stand on the shoulders of others, perhaps not appreciating or even understanding what knowledge was required to lead them there.

What I term as ‘experimental science‘ is simply what we have today in the secular world. Hypotheses are experimented upon and sometimes developed into theories, theories through a painstaking process can be accepted — based on prevailing scientific understanding — as fact or scientific law.

I submit that their goals are aligned and that the scientific community and the different communities of faith can learn something from each other. We have vast amounts of experimental data that can and has proven vast amounts of scientific understanding. We can do amazing things with the body, mind, technology and our environment. To disregard the pursuit of scientific knowledge would be akin to agreeing to staying ignorant of a beautiful, complex world that deepens our understanding of everything around us and stretches our civilization to improve in every way.

My faith teaches me that a supreme being with vast, indeed perfect scientific enlightenment has revealed much to us about how the universe works. We do not understand it perfectly but given the advanced nature of this knowledge, we must take it in steps to comprehend the vastness of and, eventually, simplicity of the created universe and beyond. Refusing to at the very least frame evidentiary information against revealed truth is akin to purposely and defiantly ignoring the advanced alien culture’s desire to share scientific knowledge.

Of course I’m not suggesting that God is an alien. He is our Father. Much like every other forms of life on Earth, we are in our infant and perhaps even pubescent stages and not yet fully formed adults. God is who we want to grow up to be like. Right now, we are His children growing up and learning from him in a controlled environment, much like our raising our children at home and sending them to school. I believe we’re at the home stretch of that time for when we die, our eternal life begins and we reap the rewards of this mortal life and our choices in the life before.

The Glory of God is Intelligence

The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy. The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even temples; and whatsoever temple is defiled, God shall destroy that temple. The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. — Doctrine and Covenants 93:33-36

The Glory of God, as it states, is intelligence. It is not ignorance, blind obedience or stubbornness. Would we listen to our mother that warns us not to touch the stove or must we first understand electricity, heat conduction and molecular biology to decide then to not touch it? It is by dedicated, lifelong learning, both scientific and spiritual, that we can reap the rewards of our Heavenly Father’s perfect knowledge and our opportunity to explore, experiment and learn how to be like Him and live up to our divine, advanced and powerful heritage. If that excites you, please join me on this blog.