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Science

Science begins with the study of the Creation which we suggest as a section in the Plan of Happiness Notebook.   

We particularly recommend Wholesome Books and NCCS as dependable sources of materials.

We also recommend searches on the BYU and the Church websites for materials.

Chuckles on Evolution
(from LDS-HEA Notes, July 24, 2006)

Here are two lighthearted looks at evolution that may become “one-liners” for your family in teaching them that they did not evolve from monkeys.  If you use these little “jokes” in your family, maybe the concepts will come alive for them.  The first is from Will Rogers:

There is a terrible lot of us who don't think that we come from a monkey, but if there are some people who think that they do, why, it's not our business to rob them of what little pleasure they might get out of imagining it.

Children of God
Second is a lighthearted moment from a very serious talk President Packer gave at the May 5, 2006, BYU Women’s Conference.  He included a couple of his favorite “evolution” stories.  Here is one:

Two of our little boys were wrestling on the rug.  They had reached that pitch – you know the one—where laughter turns to tears and play becomes strife. (I see you do know!)  I worked a foot gently between them and lifted the older boy (then just four years of age) to a sitting position on the rung, saying, “Hey there, you monkey!  You had better settle down.”

He folded his little arms and looked at me with surprising seriousness.  His little-boy feelings had been hurt, and he protested, “I not a monkey, Daddy.  I a person!”

Then President Packer drove home his point:  “He is not a monkey; neither were his ancestors.” 

Apparently the audience got his little joke because they laughed and he said, “You’re very sharp.” 

There were several such delightful moments in this talk.  You can watch or listen to it on
http://byub.org/womensconf  (It’s a talk we should also read and take very seriously.)

Parley Pratt on Adam and Eve
In the Charted Course of Education President J. Reuben Clarke said our children come here with testimonies, and what they need is the "meat" of the gospel.  Here is some “meat” that will require a bit of “chewing on” but will leave you with stronger faith and a chuckle.

But first you might want to watch the church movie, “The Mountain of the Lord,” in which you will see the depiction of the laying of the capstone on the Salt Lake Temple .  The movie doesn’t mention what was inside the capstone, but church scholar Jeffery Marsh tells us: 

In 1892, after 39 years of hard work and sweat, President Wilford Woodruff threw a switch and lowered the Salt Lake Temple capstone into place.  Thousands gave a shout!  The outer walls of the Salt Lake Temple were now finished and the capstone was set.  Just moments before, President Woodruff placed a few books inside the capstone (the round ball upon which the statue of Moroni stands).  Among them were the scriptures, and a copy of Elder Parley P. Pratt’s book, “The Key to the Science of Theology.”  Elder Pratt had been personally tutored by the Prophet Joseph Smith.  He captured what he learned, and laid it out in a systematic study, naming it “The Key” to the study of theology.  The capstone of Zion is theology.

You can read Brother Marsh’s talk here.  http://alumni.byu.edu/Sections/chapters/pdf/Zion_Marsh.pdf

Creation and Adam and Eve
Now for the story of Adam and Eve from The Key to the Science of Theology.  (You have to read almost the whole chapter to understand the Lord’s “joke.”  The language is not what we're used to so it may feel difficult, especially to the children.  Don’t give up.)

It is a self evident truth, which will not admit of argument, that nothing remains nothing.  Nonentity is the negative of all existence.  This negative possesses no property or element upon which the energies of creative power can operate.

This mysticism must, therefore, share the fate of the other mysteries of false theology and philosophy, which have for ages shrouded the world in the sable curtains of a long and dreary night.  It must evaporate and disappear as a mere creation of fancy, while, in its place are introduced the following self evident and incontrovertible facts:

First.  There has always existed a boundless infinitude of space.

Second.  Intermingled with this space there exist all the varieties of the elements, properties, or things of which intelligence takes cognizance; which elements or things taken altogether compose what is called the Universe.

Third.  The elements of all these properties or things are eternal, uncreated, self existing.  Not one particle can be added to them by creative power.  Neither can one particle be diminished or annihilated.

Fourth.  These eternal, self existing elements possess in themselves certain inherent properties or attributes, in a greater or less degree; or, in other words, they possess intelligence adapted to their several spheres.

These elements have been separated, by philosophers, into two grand divisions, viz.: “Physical and Spiritual.”  To a mind matured, or quickened with a fullness of intelligence, so as to be conversant with all the elements of nature, there is no use for the distinction implied in these terms.

To speak more philosophically, all the elements are spiritual, all are physical, all are material, tangible realities.  Spirit is matter, and matter is full of spirit.  Because all things which do exist are eternal realities, in their elementary existence. 

Who then can define the precise pint, in the scale of elementary existence, which divides between the physical and spiritual kingdoms?  There are eyes which can discern the most refined particles of elementary existence, there are hands and fingers to whose refined touch all things are tangible.

In the capacity of mortals, however, some of the elements are tangible, or visible, and others invisible.  Thos which are tangible to our senses, we call physical; those which are more subtle and refined, we call spiritual.

Spirit is intelligence, or the light of truth, which filleth all things.

Its several emotions or affections, such as love, joy, etc., are but so many actions or motions of these elements, as they operate in their several spheres.

By these actions or emotions the elements manifest their eternal energies, attributes, or inherent powers.

In contemplating the works of creation, then, the student must not conceive the idea that space, or time, or element, or intelligence was originated, but rather that these are eternal, and that they constitute the energies which act and the things acted upon, including the place and time of action.

The whole vast structure of universal organized existence presents undeniable evidence of three facts, viz:

First.  The eternal existence of the elements of which it is composed.

Second.  The eternal existence of the attributes of intelligence and wisdom to design.

Third.  The eternal existence of power to operate upon and control these eternal elements, so as to carry out the plans of the designer.

It will be recollected that the last chapter recognizes a family of Gods, or, in other words, a species of beings who have physical tabernacles of flesh and bones, in the form of man, but so constructed as to be capable of eternal life; that these tabernacles are quickened, or animated by a fullness of that holiest of all elements, which is called the Holy Spirit, which element or spirit, when organized in individual form, and clothed upon with flesh and bones in the highest possible refinement, contains, in itself, a fullness of the attributes of light, intelligence, wisdom, love and power; also that there are vast quantities of this spirit or element not organized in bodily forms, but widely diffused among the other elements of space.

A General Assembly, Quorum or Grand Council of the Gods, with their President at their head, constitute the designing and creating power.

The motive power which moves to action this grand creative power, is wisdom, which discovers a use for all these riches and inspires the carrying out of all the designs in an infinite variety of utility and adaptation.

Wisdom inspires the Gods to multiply their species and to lay the foundation for all the forms of life, to increase in numbers, and for each to enjoy himself in the sphere to which he is adapted, and in the possession and use of that portion of the elements necessary to his existence and happiness.

In order to multiply organized bodies composed of spiritual element, worlds and mansions composed of spiritual element would be necessary as a home, adapted to their existence and enjoyment.  As these spiritual bodies increased in numbers, other spiritual worlds would be necessary on which to transplant them.

Again.  In order to enable these organized spirits to take upon them a fleshly tabernacle, physical worlds, with all their variety and fullness, would be necessary for their homes, food, clothing, etc., that they might be begotten, sustained and born, that they might live, die, and rise again to receive their inheritances on their respective earths.

Hence, the great work of regeneration of worlds, or the renovation and adaptation of the elements to the resurrection and eternal state of man, would also be endless, or eternally progressive.

Through every form of life, of birth, and change, and resurrection, and every form of progress in knowledge and experience, the candidates for eternal life must look upon the elements as their home; hence the elements, upon the principle of adaptation, must keep pace with the possessors who use them, in all the degrees of progressive refinement.

While room is found in infinite space, while there are particles of unorganized element in Nature’s storehouse; while the trees of Paradise yield their fruits, or the Fountain of Life its river; while the bosoms of the Gods glow with affection; while eternal charity endures or eternity itself rolls its successive ages, the heavens will multiply, and new worlds and more people be added to the kingdoms of the Fathers.

Thus, in the progress of events, unnumbered millions of worlds and of systems of worlds will necessarily be called into requisition, and be filled by man, and beast, and fowl, and tree, and all the vast varieties of beings and things which ever budded and blossomed in Eden, or thronged the hills and valleys of the celestial Paradise.

When, in the endless progression of events, the full time had arrived for infinite wisdom to organize and people this globe which we inhabit, the chaotic elements were arranged in order.  It appears, at the commencement of this grand work, that the elements, which are now so beautifully arranged and adapted to vegetable and animal life, were found in a state of chaos, entirely unadapted to the uses they now serve.

There was one vast mixture of elements.  Earth, water, soil, atmosphere – in short, the entire elements of which this mass was composed seem to have been completely compounded or mingled into one vast chaos, and the whole overwhelmed with a darkness so dense as to obscure the light of heaven.

Let us turn from the contemplation of scenes so sublimely fearful.  Suffice it to say, the mandate came, darkness fled, the veil was lifted, light pierced the gloom, and chaos was made visible.  O what a scene!  A world without landscape, without vegetation, without animal life, without man or animated beings.  No sound broke on the stillness, save the voice of the moaning winds and of dashing, foaming, waters.  Again, a voice comes booming over the abyss, and echoing amide the wastes, the mass of matter hears and trembles, and lo! the sea retires, the muddy shapeless mass lifts its head above the waters.  Molehills to mountains grow.  Huge islands next appear, and continents at length expand to view, with hill and vale, in one wide, dreary waste, unmeasured and untrodden.

The surface, warmed and dried by the cheering rays of the now resplendent sun, is prepared for the first seeds of vegetation.

A royal planter now descends from yonder world of older date, and bearing in his hand the choice seeds of the older Paradise , he plants them in the virgin soil of our new born earth.  They grow and flourish there, and, bearing seed, replant themselves, and thus clothe the naked earth with scenes of beauty and the air with fragrant incense.  Ripening fruits and herbs at length abound.  When lo! from yonder world is transferred every species of animal life.  Male and female, they come, with blessing on their heads, and a voice is heard again, “Be fruitful and multiply.”

Earth, its mineral, vegetable and animal wealth, its Paradise prepared, down comes from yonder world on high a son of God, with his beloved spouse.  And thus a colony from heaven, it may be from the sun, is transplanted on our soil.  The blessings of their Father are upon them, and the first great law of heaven and earth is again repeated, “Be fruitful and multiply.”

Hence, the nations which have swarmed our earth.

In after years, when Paradise was lost by sin; when man was driven from the face of his heavenly Father, to toil, and droop, and die; when heaven was veiled from view, and, with few exceptions, man was no longer counted worthy to retain the knowledge of his heavenly origin; then darkness veiled the past and future from the heathen mind; man neither knew himself, from when he came, nor whither he was bound.  At length a Moses came, who knew his God, and would fain have led mankind to know Him too, and see Him face to face.  But they could not receive His heavenly laws or bide His presence.

Thus the holy man was forced again to veil the past in mystery, and in the beginning of his history assign to man an earthly origin.

Man, moulded from the earth as a brick.

Woman, manufactured from a rib. . . .

   The Key to the Science of Theology is available from our bookstore.