Parallel: All Things are Governed by Law - Part 2

There is a traditional belief in Christianity that God is "all powerful" or omnipotent. According to this belief, God can speak, and instantly his words are obeyed. The common belief in Christianity that God created the cosmos out of nothing is based on this belief. However, Latter-day Saints do not believe that God can instantly create things out of nothing.

In Part 1 of this post, I established the fact that the cosmos was organized in an orderly way, and that an influence from Jesus Christ is the "law by which all things are governed". I commented that this is a religious way of saying that the Cosmos is governed by natural laws. In Mormon Belief: Eternal Elements I presented the belief that God created or organized the cosmos out of existing, eternal elements. The use of eternal elements implies that God used eternal laws to organize the elements. At least within Christianity, this belief that God followed natural laws in His creative work is, I believe, a belief that is unique to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In this post, I discuss the relationship between God, Himself, and the natural laws that govern our existence. To better understand how God used natural laws in his creations, we need to answer the question, What would happen if God went against or disobeyed natural laws?

The Book of Mormon answers that question. The prophet Alma perceived that his son, Corianton, had questions about his religious beliefs, and Alma answered the questions. One of the questions concerned the mercy and justice of God. Alma explained that Adam and Eve left the Garden and lived in mortality. He further explained that our mortal life is a probationary state, a time for us to prepare to return to God. Alma explained that mankind (and womankind) has committed sins, and because of the justice of God must pay the penalty of sin, which is to be separated from God. Then he made the following remarkable statement.

Therefore, according to justice, the plan of redemption could not be brought about, only on conditions of repentance of men in this probationary state, yea, this preparatory state; for except it were for these conditions, mercy could not take effect except it should destroy the work of justice. Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God. (Alma 42:11)

That is, if mercy provided by Jesus Christ were to overrule the justice of God, God would cease to be God! In verses 22 and 25, Alma repeated that mercy cannot "rob" justice, and if that were to happen, God would cease to be God. This means that justice is an eternal law that God must follow, and mercy is also an eternal law that God must follow, and the two laws must both be obeyed. This is the basis of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, that Christ suffered for our sins, thus satisfying justice, and provided the mercy that we need to enable our return to God. And, this explains why, in our pre-earth life, that God did not, could not, accept the plan of Lucifer to force us all to be obedient to God. Lucifer's plan would have violated both the laws of justice and mercy, and God would have ceased to be God. We can only speculate on what would have happened after that.

The Book of Mormon establishes the fact that God can not violate the laws of justice and mercy, and this implies that God cannot violate any of the laws that involve His creative works. This means that all of the laws of nature that are being discovered by scientists are eternal laws that govern the cosmos, and that God obeys those laws in His work. In Part 1 of this post I discussed that the laws of the cosmos come from Jesus Christ. This does not mean that Christ originated those laws. It means that Christ used those laws in his creation of the cosmos under the direction of his Father.

I've brought out that God can not go against the natural laws of the cosmos. He can, of course, bring into play higher laws that might overshadow lower laws. A simple example of such hierarchies of natural laws is the law of gravity vs. the law of aerodynamic lift. An unorganized weight of several tons can not "fly" through the air. It just "sits" on the ground like the lump of matter that it is. However, if that matter if formed into particular shapes and given sufficient thrust, it can move through the air. The law of gravity is still in effect, but the law of "lift" has overshadowed gravity and causes the matter to leave the ground and fly. I believe that God's performing of miracles is such a use of higher laws to overrule lower laws.

I'm grateful that God follows natural laws and that those laws are absolute in their existence and influence. Were it not for this, our universe would be chaotic and inconsistent, and we would be unable to advance in our spiritual and scientific lives. We would always hiding in our houses, caves, or where ever, not knowing what would happen next.

Parallel: Evolution - Part 3

In Part 1 of this Parallel, I speculate how evolution could have been used by God in the creation of our mortal world even though the creation described in Genesis was of an immortal world. This is explained in more detail in my essay on the reconciliation of the Fall of Adam with evolution.

In Part 2 I give my reasons for believing that God's creation of the world in which plants and animals are to multiply "after their kind" is a necessary condition for evolution to exist.

In this Part, Part 3, I give scriptures that teach that the world was without death prior to the Fall of Adam, and I comment on a belief among some LDS that only the Garden of Eden was without death, the rest of the world being mortal.

First, the book of Genesis implies that the Garden of Eden was immortal. Of all the trees in the Garden, two trees are given special attention: the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve were told they could eat of all the trees except the Tree of Knowledge. It is significant that they could eat of the Tree of Life, a tree that would cause them to live forever. Hence, we understand that they were immortal and were already living forever. However, after they had eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, they were prevented from eating of the Tree of Life, else they “live for ever.” (Genesis 3:22) Thus, we realize they had changed from a condition of immortality to one of mortality.

Next, in the Book of Mormon, we have Lehi teaching his son, Jacob.

And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. (2 Nephi 2:22)

From Alma we have

And now behold, I say unto you that if it had been possible for Adam to have partaken of the fruit of the tree of life at that time, there would have been no death, and the word would have been void, making God a liar, for he said: If thou eat thou shalt surely die. (Alma 12:23)

And, from the Book of Moses,

And he said unto them: Because that Adam fell, we are; and by his fall came death; and we are made partakers of misery and woe. (Moses 6:48)

Some people say the world, in general, was a mortal world, thus having death, and that God used evolution to create the animals that were later made immortal and placed in the Garden of Eden. If that happened, then Adam didn't bring death into the world. The world already had death, and Adam's "fall" was nothing more than Adam & Eve and the plants & animals leaving the immortal garden and going into the world of pre-existing death.

I think this belief that only the Garden of Eden was immortal is a poor way to reconcile evolution and the immortality of Adam and Eve prior to the Fall. It is more straight-forward to take the scriptures for what they imply, the world had no death until Adam and Eve choose to become mortal. At that point, the Lord created the mortal world, including the bodies of Adam and Eve, and they began their journey through mortality. From science we know that evolution was part of the creation of the mortal world. Evolution wasn't used to create the immortal world but was subsequently used to create the mortal world that was brought into existence via the Fall of Adam.

The Truth Behind Noah's Flood

A report at pbs.org of Bob Ballard's attempts to determine if an ancient flood that is believed to have occurred in the Black Sea was observed by human inhabitants of the area. I couldn't find a date for the report, but it was written after the year 2000. There is a link to online video about the report.

Inspired by Ryan and Pitman's work, Bob Ballard and an international team of specialized scientists and engineers took a small fleet of ships and remotely operated vehicles (ROV's) into the Black Sea seeking evidence of human habitation before the flood.

Here is the National Geographic story on Ballard's expedition.

Noah's Flood Hypothesis May Not Hold Water

As reported in Science News for June 17, 2002, one researcher believes flooding in the Black Sea occurred gradually and was not a great deluge.

Abrajano cites evidence of a much more gradual rising of the Black Sea that began to occur 10,000 years ago and continued for 2,000 years.

“Noah’s Flood” Spread Farming, Researchers Say

Under a date of November 19, 2007, World Science reported that a flood in the Black Sea that is believed to have occurred about 7,500 years ago may have caused mass migrations of people throughout Europe, causing the farming skills of the people to spread into areas of Europe that were primarily occupied by hunter-gathers.

“Ar­chae­o­log­i­cal ev­i­dence shows that com­mun­i­ties in south­east Eu­rope were al­ready prac­tis­ing early farm­ing tech­niques and pot­tery pro­duc­tion be­fore the Flood. With the cat­a­stroph­ic rise in wa­ter lev­els it ap­pears they moved west, tak­ing their cul­ture in­to ar­eas in­hab­it­ed by hunter-gatherer com­mun­i­ties” across Eu­rope.

Parallel: Evolution - Part 2

In Part 1 of this Parallel, I speculate how evolution could have been used by God in the creation of our mortal world even though the creation described in Genesis was of an immortal world.

In this Part, Part 2, I give my reasons for believing that God's creation of the world in which plants and animals are to multiply "after their kind" is a necessary condition for evolution to exist.

The scriptural account of the creation states that plants and animals are to multiply and replenish the earth "after their kind". I've been thinking about this for a couple of years, and I couldn't see the connection between this and the scientific view of evolution. Then, yesterday Jared posted in his blog, LDS Science Review, remarks about the plants and animals being created "after their kind". As I read his remarks and studied the scriptures in Abraham about the creation, the correlation between the scriptural account of the creation and the scientific view of evolution became clear to me. As I try to explain this, I'm doing so from the viewpoint of the scriptures with meaning and context from evolution. The result is a hypothesis that brings science and religion together into unity about this issue. In describing this hypothesis, I will use language that describes the hypothesis as fact. My remarks should, of course, be interpreted as speculation.

The traditional religious view is that God created the plants and animals such that they generated offspring "after their kind". Those verses tell us *what* happened, but they do not tell us *how* it happened. To understand the *how*, we must turn to science, where we learn that genetic information is passed from parent to child in the form of DNA codes and sequences and genes. If the world were perfect, genetic information would always be passed correctly, and reproduction would always be "after their kind". This means that in a perfect world, science and religion would be in harmony with each other about this matter.

However, the world is not perfect. Genetic information is not always perfectly passed from parent to child. Mutations occasionally occur that cause a child to receive genetic information that is slightly different than that of the parent. Sometimes these changes increase the chances of the child's survival, and the changes are propagated to grand children, and so on. At other times these changes decrease the chances of the child's survival, and the grand children who receive the mutations are less likely to survive.

We need to ask the following question: If God knew the mortal world would not be perfect and that changes in the genetic information passed from parent to child would occur, why did He order that plants and animals would propagate "after their kind". Let's think about this for a moment. Suppose God allowed plants and animals to not propagate "after their kind". What would be the result? My answer is chaos and confusion due to a lack of organization and disorder. The changes from parent to child could come so quickly and without order that the survivability of a species would be unlikely. A particular change could occur in a child, and before that species could adapt to that change, other changes could occur that would require even more adaption from the species. In many cases, the later changes could counteract the earlier changes. The result would be unstable reproduction and an increasing likelihood of changes not becoming permanent and an increasing likelihood of the species disappearing from the earth.

Instead, think of the system established by God in His creation of the earth. Plants and animals propagate "after their kind", but occasional changes or mutations do occur. Because the mutations are relatively small and occur infrequently, there is time for species to adapt to the changes and to make the changes a permanent part of the genetic information of that species. The result is a stable reproductive system that insures that life will endure in harsh environments. The mutations occur infrequently because reproductions are, in general, "after their kind".

Another question that must be asked is, Why didn't God prevent changes in genetic information from occurring. Plants and animals would always have children "after their kind", and everything would be stable. Yes, that would be the ideal situation, but our mortal world is not that way. It is reasonable to think that when God created our mortal world, He did so using the laws that govern that world, and a characteristic of our mortal world is that changes do occur in the genetic information that is passed from parent to child. It seems that God's choice was either to create an unstable world in which reproduction would yield chaos, or to create a stable world in which reproduction would yield order in the midst of changes to genetic information. I'm grateful that He choose the latter.

So, when I read in the scriptures that God ordained that plants and animals reproduce "after their kind", I realize that He was establishing a stable foundation for reproduction in a mortal world, and the stability of the reproductive process would allow natural selection to continue the positive changes and to discontinue the undesirable changes.

Now for my disclaimer. I am an electrical engineer/software engineer not a biologist, and my knowledge of genetics is very thin. If I have misunderstood aspects of genetics and have stated things incorrectly, I apologize and hope someone more knowledgeable will jump in and clarify my remarks.

Parallel: Evolution - Part 1

In Part 2 of this post, I give my reasons for believing that God's creation of the world in which plants and animals are to multiply "after their kind" is a necessary condition for evolution to exist.

In Part 3 of the post, I give scriptures that teach that the world was without death prior to the Fall of Adam, and I comment on a belief among some LDS that only the Garden of Eden was without death, the rest of the world being mortal.

An interesting part of the creation of life is whether or not evolution was used. Almost all scientists today say "yes". Latter-day Saints, though, are divided about that question.

Genesis 1:27 states

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Notice that verse doesn't tell *how* God created man, only that He created him. The problem that many LDS have is that because they believe the creation of the earth happened before death entered the world, evolution could not have been used by God as a tool in that creation, since evolution requires death. They thus conclude that evolution is a false concept and is not part of God's plan. I also believe that the creation of the earth, including the Garden of Eden episode, happened before death existed, because my interpretation of the scriptures tells me that, and the concept of the Fall of Adam makes no sense without death entering the world after Adam and Eve partook of the fruit. But, at this point I depart from many LDS because I believe in evolution. So, how do I solve this paradox of an immortal creation and evolution? By not making the mistake that many LDS make in placing evolution at the wrong point in the time-line of creation.

Here is the sequence of events according to my interpretation of the scriptures, i.e. the Gospel of Leigh.

• God created a physical world that had no death. This world included the Garden of Eden.
  
• Adam and Eve were placed in the garden.
• Adam and Eve partook of the fruit, and the world became mortal, i.e. the Fall of Adam occurred, a fall from immortality to mortality.

So, how could evolution play a part in this? Obviously, not at the beginning when God created the physical but immortal world. Let's look at that sequence again. When did the earth become mortal? After Adam and Eve partook of the fruit. So, when could God have used evolution as a tool? After Adam and Eve partook of the fruit. From that viewpoint, based on my speculation about evolution, here is a new sequence of events.

• God created a physical world that had no death. This world included the Garden of Eden.
  
• Adam and Eve were placed in the garden.
• Adam and Eve partook of the fruit, and the immortal world was replaced by a mortal world, i.e. the Fall of Adam occurred, a fall from immortality to mortality.
• The process of the world becoming mortal was not instantaneous. It took millions of years in earth time for God to create the mortal world via the natural laws that govern the mortal world, and God used evolution as one of his tools in creating the mortal world.

Does this mean that Adam and Eve had to wait millions of years for the mortal earth and their mortal bodies to be created? Not if "immortal earth" time was different than "mortal earth" time. The millions of years in mortal time could have been but a few minutes or so in immortal time.

This is the view I have of the creation, and it allows me to accept science and evolution and my religion as one unified whole. This view of the creation is compatible with the scriptures since the scriptures don't say *how* the change from an immortal world to a mortal world occurred. A detailed explanation of this view is a chapter in my book, One Mormon's View of the Science-Religion Debate, and that chapter can be downloaded for those of you who are interested in more details about this view. Click on the Evolution/Fall of Adam link and then on the download link.

Two Contemporary Articles About the Flood

Noah's Flood: Modern Scholarship And Mormon Traditions, Duane E. Jeffery, a professor of integrative biology at Brigham Young University.

On Balancing Faith in Mormonism with Traditional Biblical Stories: The Noachian Flood Story, Clayton M. White and Mark D. Thomas, as linked in Dave's Mormon Inquery blog for October 10. Dave gives links to discussions and rebuttals of the article.

Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood?

The November 2007 issue of Discover has an interesting article giving a hypothesis about the cause of the Biblical flood. The article is titled Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood? and starts on page 66.

The hypothesis is from Bruce Masse, an environmental archaeologist at the Los alamos National Laboratory. Masse believes that a massive comet, 3 miles wide, crashed into the Indian ocean and caused great destruction that wiped out much of the life on earth.

The ensuing cataclysm sent a series of 600-foot-high tsunamis crashing against the world's coastlines and injected plumes of superheated water vapor and aerosol particulates into the atmosphere. Within hours, the infusion of heat and moisture blasted its way into jet streams and spawned super hurricanes that pummeled the other side of the planet. For about a week, material ejected into the atmosphere plunged the world into darkness. All told, up to 80 percent of the world's population may have perished, making it the single most lethal event in history.

Masse believes that myths that exist in many cultures about massive floods may have come from this event. In addition, researchers have identified many "chevrons", large wedge-shapped sandy structures that are caused by massive waves. These chevrons were along the shore lines and inland in Asia and Africa. "The shape and size of these chevrons suggest that they might have been formed by waves emanating from the impact of a comet slamming into the deep ocean off Madagascar." (p.67) Many of the chevrons contained melted microfossels from the ocean floor. It should be mentioned that not all scientists agree with Masse.

The Black Sea Hypothesis

In 1998, two geologists from Columbia University, William Ryan and Walter Pitman, published a book titled, Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event that Changed History, in which they gave evidence that a massive flood of the Black Sea and subsequent dispersion of civilization occurred about 5600 BC. The cause of the flood was water from melting icecaps as the climate became warmer at the end of the ice age. Ryan and Pitman speculated that this flood might have been the basis for the Biblical flood story. Duane E. Jeffery, in his article, Noah's Flood: Modern Scholarship And Mormon Traditions, gives a detailed review of the hypothesis from Ryan and Pitman.

Myths Of a Great Deluge

The Hebrews are not the only culture to have a story about God sending a great flood to destroy civilization. Stories of great floods sent by God have existed in many cultures, including the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Hindus, and the Chinese.

Because of these myths in so many cultures, many scientists consider the Noah story as just a myth from the Hebrews. This article from Wikipedia reviews some of the myths.