James E. Talmage on Harmonization

James E. Talmage

mormon authorities harmonization faith science

In conclusion, let it be said that science is undoubtedly entitled to a place in the curriculum of Association studies; it should have its right, but at the expense of nothing else that is good. Among our young people I consider scientific knowledge as second in importance only to that knowledge that pertains to the Church and Kingdom of God; such information is of greatest worth to us, because of greatest use. It is superior to science, to art, to literature. Nature as we study it, is but the temple of the Almighty⁠—wonderful, imposing, awe-inspiring structure though it is, and the duty of science is to conduct us through the portals, and lead us to the altar where we will acknowledge, with reverential sincerity, “In Him we live and move and have our being.”

“Science in the Associations,” Mutual Improvement Association Conference, 1898

Related Quotes

Orson Pratt

Mormonism, to me, is but another name for God’s truth, and to find the fullness of that truth we would have to bring together and aggregate the truth of all religions, adding thereto all others that God would or could reveal. Truth is truth, where’er `tis found, On Christian or on heathen ground. This religion called Mormonism is no new thing. According to our view it is the oldest of all religions.

B. H. Roberts

My brethren and sisters, I rejoice in the largeness of this work of God—this dispensation of the fulness of times. I love it, in part, because of its greatness—in its very bigness there is inspiration. I love to contemplate the puposes of God in their farreaching possibilities. I rejoice to feel that today the children of men are moving up to a higher and truer conception of the things of God.

Neal A. Maxwell

Love is the only answer, as Thomas Merton points out, to the searching question asked by Gandhi when he said: “How can he who thinks he possesses absolute truth be fraternal?”

More from James E. Talmage

We believe in a God who is Himself progressive . . . whose perfection consists in eternal advancement . . . a Being who has attained His exalted state.

Miracles are commonly regarded as occurrences in opposition to the laws of nature. Such a conception is plainly erroneous, for the laws of nature are inviolable.

According to the conception of geologists the earth passed through ages of preparation, to us unmeasured and immeasurable, during which countless generations of plants and animals existed in great variety and profusion and gave in part the very substance of their bodies to help form certain strata which are still existent as such. . . .

Miracles cannot be in contravention of natural law, but are wrought through the operation of laws not universally or commonly recognized. Gravitation is everywhere operative, but the local and special application of other agencies may appear to nullify it—as by muscular effort or mechanical impulse a stone is lifted from the ground, poised aloft, or sent hurtling through space.

Some of the latest and highest achievements of man in the utilization of natural forces approach the conditions of spiritual operations. To count the ticking of a watch thousands of miles away; to speak in but an ordinary tone and be heard across the continent; to signal from one hemisphere and be understood on the other though oceans roll and roar between; to bring the lightning into our homes and make it serve as fire and torch; to navigate the air and to travel beneath the ocean surface; to make chemical and atomic energies obey our will—are not these miracles?