Dinosaurs?

[UtahDan]

Laugh at my insights all you want, but as a direct descendant of Zelph I am entitled to many plain and precious truths that are too meaty for this wicked and adulterous generation.

Your sense of humor has reached a perfect level of "dryness" when people begin to wonder if you are serious. This thread is some of your better work.

[UtahDan]

That said, I think we may be a bit surprised at where the definition of "man" is drawn. I think it's entirely plausible that we may find that some of our very close relatives (ex Neanderthals) may have been part of an evolutionary chain of events and not 'men' in the sense I'm discussing here.

I think Neanderthals are a very interesting thing to think about because they aren't in our evolutionary chain, but are a different species of primate, fully sentient, who lived in groups, made tools and buried their dead. Of course no one knows for sure where the went, whether their we killed by our ancestors, interbred with them, were out competed somehow, or just failed to adapt somehow and didn't survive.

I guess my point is that it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that evolution is the mechanism of creation (though everything that I have read is pretty explicit that any view that sees evolution as some process that inexorably marches toward producing man it its pinnacle very much misunderstands how it works) but where distinct sentient species fits in is a great puzzle. Did they have spirits? Are they considered to be "in the image of God." I have no answer, but their existence is tough to explain.

Sometime I wonder whether the process gets set in motion and at some point, not necessary by any efficient design, a species appears that is capable of housing a "soul."

In the end, none of it makes much logical sense, just like most things in religion. Fortunately, they don't have to (at least for me).

[falafel]

I think Neanderthals are a very interesting thing to think about because they aren't in our evolutionary chain, but are a different species of primate, fully sentient, who lived in groups, made tools and buried their dead. Of course no one knows for sure where the went, whether their we killed by our ancestors, interbred with them, were out competed somehow, or just failed to adapt somehow and didn't survive.

I saw that show too. I don't think I would ever be tempted by a Neanderthal woman.

[statman]

Sometime I wonder whether the process gets set in motion and at some point, not necessary by any efficient design, a species appears that is capable of housing a "soul." (at least for me).

in my mind, that defines the Creation of Man - when the species that's capable of housing a soul comes into being. And in that case, the process was different - the Creation of Man involved not just Christ, but also The Father: "And God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness..."

[SoonerCoug]

I guess my point is that it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that evolution is the mechanism of creation (though everything that I have read is pretty explicit that any view that sees evolution as some process that inexorably marches toward producing man it its pinnacle very much misunderstands how it works) but where distinct sentient species fits in is a great puzzle. Did they have spirits? Are they considered to be "in the image of God." I have no answer, but their existence is tough to explain.

Oh man this one is so easy: Neanderthals were less valiant souls in the pre-existence, so God put them on Mars back when it had liquid water and a thicker atmosphere, after which a giant collision with a planetoid in the early solar system caused chunks of Mars to be blown into space and eventually collide with Earth and become integrated with all the other extra-terrestrial planetary debris that God used to make the Earth's crust.

[Pheidippides]

Dang. Again I ask myself the same thing I ask at least once a month reading this and other messageboards - where do you people go to church?

I hear all these great stories of wacky/militant members and crazy doctrines taught in classes. I feel like I've missed out.

Count me among those who have heard this particular nugget of wisdom.

[SCcoug]

To answer your question they were created so as to fulfill the prophecy. Can't get more triumphal than this.

[ERCougar]

To answer your question they were created so as to fulfill the prophecy. Can't get more triumphal than this.

Should I feel guilty for laughing at this?

[SoCalCoug]

I saw that show too. I don't think I would ever be tempted by a Neanderthal woman.

Me, either!

[Jarid in Cedar]

My opinion on pre-Adamites is not based on anything but what makes sense to me:

God created man. He never says how he did it. The bible says that God created man and then placed him in the garden. Could he not have used evolution as the process for creating man and once he got what he wanted he took that man and placed him in the Garden?

I concur with this sentiment.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Where did the "alien dinosaur" theory originate? Joseph Fielding Smith? How do people respond to the fact that there's no science to back it up?

Science is evil if it betrays the faithful. Didn't you learn that? A lack of science is irrelevant if it is spoken by a GA.

[Surfah]

I concur with this sentiment.

Didn't Brigham Young say that Adam and Eve were created just as you and I were and the no man has ever been created by any other means? Something like that I thought.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Didn't Brigham Young say that Adam and Eve were created just as you and I were and the no man has ever been created by any other means? Something like that I thought.

Was that part of his discussion regarding the Adam-God Doctrine?

[jay santos]

Was that part of his discussion regarding the Adam-God Doctrine?

Yes and it was also back when they were obsessed with sex and proving God has a physical body.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Yes and it was also back when they were obsessed with sex and proving God has a physical body.

I found that topic to be one of the more creepy doctrines bantered around.