Science and the Church of Jesus Christ/Dinosaurs

This page is based on an answer to a question submitted to the FAIR web site, or a frequently asked question.

Question

My seminary class has questions regarding the dinosaurs. They seem to be stuck on "where" and "when." How do they fit into the creation story presented by the scriptures?

Answer

Your seminary students are probably hung up on the following issues:

  1. Scientists say dinosaurs lived and died millions of years ago, and became extinct due to a cataclysmic event, probably an asteroid that struck the earth. This is what your students are taught in school.
  2. It is generally believed by members of the Church that the fall of Adam and Eve took place around 4,000 B.C., and that before this there was no death in the world.
  3. How do we square #1 with #2? How do we account for fossils that appear to be millions of years old, when there was no death before about 6,000 years ago?

The core of the problem is that the scriptures and the revelations simply don't talk about dinosaurs. This leaves each person to decide for themselves how the fossils we have discovered fit into the timeline of the plan of salvation. There several possible solutions that have been adopted by intelligent, faithful Latter-day Saints:

  • Some have concluded that dinosaurs never existed, that the bones we've found are actually from other planets, and that they ended up here when the earth was created from material previously used to create other planets.
  • Others have reasoned that there was no death before the Fall, so the dinosaurs must have lived alongside Adam and the early patriarchs, perhaps dying in (maybe even after) the Flood.
  • Still others have taken the approach that the earth is very old, that there was death before the Fall, and that the dinosaurs lived and died in a era long before the story of Adam and Eve begins.

The three important points to get across to your students are:

  1. The scriptures — especially the creation accounts in Genesis, Moses, Abraham, and the temple endowment — are not concerned with laying out a comprehensive history of the earth. They are concerned with telling the story of God's covenant relationship with men, a covenant he first established with Adam and Eve. Anything outside this story is simply not relevant to the issue the scriptures are dealing with.
  2. Latter-day Saints are ultimately interested in truth, whatever and wherever it may be. We should not be afraid of learning new things that may contradict our previous assumptions, and we should not be overly dogmatic about things that are peripheral to the gospel message (that message being Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was a true prophet, the Book of Mormon was divinely revealed, the keys of the priesthood are on the earth). In other words, have an open mind, but not a gaping one.
  3. Ultimately, our salvation does not depend on when we believed the dinosaurs lived, or even if we believe there was (or was not) death before the Fall. Our salvation lies in hearing the word the Lord and then doing it.

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

FAIR web site

Template:EvolutionFAIR

External links

  • Eyring-L FAQ: Evolution
  • Michael R. Ash, "The Mormon Myth of Evil Evolution," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 35 no. 4 (Winter 2002), 19–38. PDF link
  • Richard F. Haglund, Jr., "Science and Religion: A Symbiosis," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 8 no. 3–4 (Autumn/Winter 1973), 23–37.off-site
  • Duane E. Jeffery [Jeffrey in original], "Seers, Savants and Evolution: The Uncomfortable Interface," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 8 no. 3–4 (Autumn/Winter 1973), 41–69.off-site PDF link
  • Edward L. Kimball, "A Dialogue with Henry Eyring," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 8 no. 3–4 (Autumn/Winter 1973), 99–108.off-site
  • Morris S. Petersen, "Do we know how the earth’s history as indicated from fossils fits with the earth’s history as the scriptures present it?," Ensign (September 1987): 27.off-site,off-site
  • William Lee Stokes, "An Official Position," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 12 (Winter 1979), 90–92.off-site
  • Michael F. Whiting, "Lamarck, Giraffes, and the Sermon on the Mount (Review of Using the Book of Mormon to Combat Falsehoods in Organic Evolution by Clark A. Peterson)," FARMS Review of Books 5/1 (1993): 209–222. off-site
Retrieved from "https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/index.php?title=Science_and_the_Church_of_Jesus_Christ/Dinosaurs&oldid=7496"