David O. McKay on Naturalism

David O. McKay

naturalism mormon authorities transhumanism

I appreciate and realize the accomplishments, to a certain degree, of this wonderful atomic age in which we are living. Scientific discoveries of today stagger the imagination. Nearly every day we read of almost unbelievable accomplishments. The age of the atom has only begun, and no one knows what exciting developments may yet unfold when the atomic research now in progress is completed. Its potential for good far outweighs its potential for destruction. The discoveries and inventions of this age are unequaled by any previous period in the world’s history, discoveries latent with such potent power, either for the blessing or the destruction of human beings, as to make man’s responsibility in controlling them the most gigantic ever placed in human hands.

Conference Report, pages 4-8, 1966.10

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More from David O. McKay

Dear 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.

I would like to know just what it is that a man must be required to believe to be a member of this Church. Or, what it is that he is not permitted to believe, and remain a member of this Church. I would like to know just what that is. Is it evolution? I hope not, because I believe in evolution.

[President McKay] said, “Brother [Ted] Jacobsen, the United States is trying to put a man on the moon. How would you like to be the first one to fly to the moon?” I [Jacobsen] had never thought about that question. I said, just quickly, “President McKay, I think maybe I’d rather be the second man to fly to the moon, so the first one would have some experience.” He spoke right up and he said, “You know, I’d love to be the first man to fly to the moon. How do you suppose we are going to travel from one planet to another in the hereafter unless we learn how to do some of it on this earth?” Then he quoted the old song in the hymnbook called “If You Could Hie to Kolob.” He quoted every word from memory, all verses of that song to me. And he said, “Now this is just not a figment of imagination. There’s a lot of truth in what this man has put in this song.” … He [McKay] was a kind of forward-looking man, and he was not one who didn’t think that it was possible for us to go to the moon. He wanted to be there also.”

The thing you need to remember about evolution is that the Lord has never revealed anything about the matter. People have their opinions but the Lord has not revealed the details of how He created the Earth.

Whatever the subject may be, the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ may be elaborated upon without fear of anyone’s objecting, and the teacher can be free to express his honest conviction regarding it, whether that subject be in geology, the history of the world, the millions of years that it took to prepare the physical world, whether it be in engineering, literature, art—any principles of the gospel may be briefly or extensively touched…