Brigham Young
How gladly would we understand every principle pertaining to science and art, and become thoroughly acquainted with every intricate operation of nature, and with all the chemical changes that are constantly going on around us! How delightful this would be, and what a boundless field of truth and power is open for us to explore!
Wilford WoodruffPresident Young asked Elder Orson Pratt what he thought of his preaching that intelligent beings would continue to learn to all eternity. Pratt said that he believed the Gods had a knowledge at the present time of every thing that ever did exist to the endless ages of all eternity. . . . President Young remarked that . . . it was not true: it was false doctrine, for the Gods and all intelligent beings would never cease to learn.
David O. McKayDear Brother: … The Church has issued no official statement on the subject of the theory of evolution. Neither “Man, His Origin and Destiny” by Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, nor “Mormon Doctrine” by Elder Bruce R. McConkie, is an official publication of the Church.
Hugh B. BrownIt seems obvious that the scriptures were not intended as texts in biology, anthropology, geology or any other of the sciences.
[The sons of perdition] will be decomposed, both soul and body, and return to their native element. I do not say that they will be annihilated; but they will be disorganized, and will be as though they never had been, while we will live and retain our identity, and contend against those principles which tend to death or dissolution.
I do not wish any Latter-day Saint in this world, nor in heaven, to be satisfied with anything I do, unless the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, the spirit of revelation, makes them satisfied . . . Suppose that the people were heedless, that they manifested no concern with regard to the things of the kingdom of God, but threw the whole burden upon the leaders of the people, saying, “If the brethren who take charge of matters are satisfied, we are,” this is not pleasing in the sight of the Lord.
How easy it would be for your leaders to lead you to destruction, unless you actually know the mind and will of the spirit yourselves.
I have friends on the earth, for God would raise them up for me to do my work. That is not all; by and by the Lord will say to the sleeping dust, awake and come forth out of your graves. I am on hand; the Lord wakes me up or sends somebody to do it that possesses the keys of the resurrection. My dust is waked up; my spirit is re-united to it, and it is made a celestial body filled with immortality and eternal life.
We differ very much with Christendom in regard to the sciences of religion. Our religion embraces all truth and every fact in existence, no matter whether in heaven, earth, or hell. A fact is a fact, all truth issues forth from the Fountain of truth, and the sciences are facts as far as men have proved them.