COMMENTS FROM PRESIDENTS OF THE CHURCH AND FIRST PRESIDENCIES
ON THE ORIGIN OF MAN AND THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMALS

BRIGHAM YOUNG, 1856- Adam was made from the dust of the earth, but not from the dust of this earth. He was made as you and I, are made and no person was ever made on any other principle. (JD 3:319)

BRIGHAM YOUNG, 1859- Mankind are here because they are the offspring of parents who were first brought from another planet and power was given them to pro-pogate their species...(JD. 7:285).

BRIGHAM YOUNG, 1856- Though we have it in our history that our father, Adam... knew nothing about his God previous to being made here, yet it is not so; and when we learn the truth we shall see. and understand that he helped to make this world and was the chief manager in that operation. He was the person who brought the animals and the seeds from other planets to this world. (JD 3:319)

JOSEPH F. SMITH, September 22, 1914- I feel very humble this morning as well as very grateful to have the privilege of meeting with such a large number of good people and the dear little children of these good people who are striving to build up Zion...

The Savior, Jesus Christ, begotton of God, was in the likeness of His Father, resembling Him so nearly that He said on one occasion that, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."

Well, now for the benefit of the older ones, how are children begotten? I answer, just as Jesus Christ was begotten of His Father. The Christian denominations believe that Christ was begotten not of God, but of the spirit that overshadowed His mother. This is nonsense.

Now, little boys and girls, when you are confronted by infidels in the world who know nothing of how Christ was begotten, you can say He was born just as an infidel was begotten and born, so was Christ begotten by His Father who is also our Father- the Father of our spirits- and He was born of His mother, Mary.

The difference between Jesus Christ and other men is this: our fathers in the flesh are mortal men who are subject unto death, but the Father of Jesus Christ in the Flesh is the God of Heaven.

Now, my little friends, I will repeat again in words as simple as I can and you talk to your parents about it, that God, the Eternal Father, is literally the Father of Jesus Christ. Mary was married to Joseph for time. No man could take her for eternity because she belonged to the Father of her Divine Son.

I would like teachers of the Sunday School to take these simple facts and teach them to the children so that they may understand the truth that their faith may be founded in fact and in truth for. nothing that is not built on truth will stand...we want you to teach the children the truth and nothing but the truth. (Sunday School Conference address- Box Elder Times.)

THE FIRST PRESIDENCY OF THE CHURCH (Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, Anthon H. Lund)- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, basing its belief on divine revelation, ancient and modern, proclaims man to be the direct and lineal offspring of Diety. God himself is an exalted man, perfected, enthroned and supreme... He (God) formed every plant that grows and every animal that breathes, each after its own kind, spiritually and temporally- "that which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal and that which is temporal being in the likeness of that which is spiritual." (November, 1909; Moses 1:34.)

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JOHN TAYLOR, 1882- The animal and vegetable creations are governed by certain laws and are composed of certain elements peculiar to themselves. This applies to man, to the.beasts, fowls, fish and creeping things, to the insects and to all animated nature; each one posessing its own distinctive features,- each requiring a specific sustenance, each having an organism and faculties governed by prescribed laws to perpetuate its own kind. So accurate is the formation of the various living creatures that an intelligent student of nature can tell by any particular bone of the skeleton of an animal to what class or order it belongs.

These principles do not change, as represented by the evolutionists of the Darwinian school, but the primitive organisms of all living beings exist in the same form as when they first received their imprint from their Maker... He (man) did not originate from a chaotic mass of matter, moving or inert, but came forth possessing, in an embryotic state, all the faculties and powers of a God... it would be impossible to take the tissues of a lower, or indeed, of any order of fishes and make of their, an ox, a bird or a man... And when the resurrection and exaltation of man shall be consummated, although more pure, refined and glorious, yet will he still be in the same image and have the same likeness, without variation or change in any of his parts or faculties, except the substitution of spirit for blood. (Mediation & Atonement.)

JOSEPH SMITH, 1843- All spirit is matter. (D&C 131:7-8.)

BRIGHAM YOUNG, 1872- We have not the power in the flesh to create and bring forth or produce a spirit; but we have the power to produce a temporal body. The germ of this God has placed within us. And when our spirits receive our bodies, and through faithfulness we are worthy to be crowned, we will all receive authority to produce both spirit and body. (JD 15:137.)

JOSEPH F. SMITH, 1911- Man was born of women; Christ, the Savior, was born of woman; and God, the Father, was born of woman. Adam, our earthly parent, was also born of woman into this world, the same as Jesus and you and I. (Arizona Stake Conference address, December 27, 1913.)

JOSEPH F. SMITH- There are so many demonstrated practical material truths, so many spiritual certainties, with which the youth of Zion should become familiar, that it appears a waste of time and means and detrimental to faith and religion to enter too extensively into the undemenstrated theories of men on philosophies relating to the origin of life. (1911, April, Improvement Era, pp. 548-50.)

DAVID O. McKAY, 1952- ...science dominated by the spirit of religion is the key to progress and the hope of the future. (BYU address, October 10, 1952.)