CES Letter Answers

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Science ​

The CES Letter opens its science section with a Henry Eyring quote about the Gospel embracing "all truth" -- then spends the next two pages arguing the Gospel cannot embrace scientific truth. The irony is that Eyring himself spent his entire career demonstrating the opposite. The CES Letter's star witness is a counterexample to its own thesis.

The argument builds to this:

"To cling to faith in these areas, where the overwhelming evidence is against it, is willful ignorance, not spiritual dedication."[1]

That conclusion depends on one assumption: that the Church has officially committed itself to scientifically falsifiable positions -- young earth, no death before the Fall, global flood, literal Tower of Babel.[2] If the Church requires those things, the CES Letter has a point. If it doesn't, the entire section collapses.

Has the Church staked its credibility on young-earth creationism? ​

Treat unofficial sources as doctrine, then knock them down ​

The CES Letter cites the Bible Dictionary entries on "Death" and "Chronology" as proof the Church teaches a young earth and no pre-Fall death. It never mentions the Bible Dictionary's own introduction: "This dictionary is not intended as an official statement of Church doctrine."[3]

It lists "no death before the Fall" as settled Church teaching. It doesn't mention that apostles have publicly disagreed on this point for over a century -- and the First Presidency formally declined to resolve it.

The pattern is consistent: find the most rigid reading available, present it as the only reading, then demolish it with mainstream science.

Stack claims to create a cumulative impression ​

The section rapid-fires a list of "discredited" items: Tower of Babel, global flood, Noah's Ark, bear species divergence from a single ark population.[2:1] No single item gets more than a sentence. The goal isn't careful analysis -- it's accumulation.

None of these items are examined for whether they represent binding Church doctrine. The reader is never told that the Church has no official position on most of them.

Force a binary: fundamentalism or atheism ​

The CES Letter needs the reader's choice to be simple. Either you accept a young-earth, global-flood, immortal-dinosaur reading of scripture -- or you reject the entire faith.

No middle ground is offered. The rich tradition of Latter-day Saint apostles and scholars who held old-earth, pro-evolution views is invisible.

The Church settled this in 1931 ​

When apostles B.H. Roberts and Joseph Fielding Smith clashed over evolution and the age of the earth, the First Presidency under Heber J. Grant ended the debate with a formal memo: "Neither side of the controversy has been accepted as a doctrine at all." They instructed leaders to "leave Geology, Biology, Archaeology and Anthropology... to scientific research."[4]

That was 1931. The CES Letter doesn't mention it.

BYU teaches evolution -- and the Church funds it ​

A church that required young-earth creationism would not fund evolutionary biology programs at its flagship university.

BYU launched its first evolution course in 1971. The 1992 BYU Evolution Packet, approved by the Board of Trustees, compiled every First Presidency statement on the subject.[5] In 2016, the New Era stated plainly: "The Church has no official position on the theory of evolution."[6]

The apostles who were scientists ​

James E. Talmage held a PhD in geology. In a 1931 Tabernacle address -- requested and published by the Church -- he affirmed that plants and animals "lived and died, age after age, while the earth was yet unfit for human habitation."[7]

Henry Eyring Sr. won the National Medal of Science in 1966. John A. Widtsoe earned a PhD in chemistry. Russell M. Nelson, a pioneering cardiac surgeon, said at the 2015 BYU Life Sciences Building dedication: "There is no conflict between science and religion."[8]

These aren't fringe voices. They are apostles and prophets.

"No death before the Fall" has multiple faithful readings ​

Multiple interpretations have coexisted for over a century. The scriptures support at least three: no death in the Garden of Eden specifically (not the entire planet); no human death before the Fall; or "temporal existence" in D&C 77 referring to the covenant era since Adam, not the planet's total age.[9][10]

None require a 7,000-year-old earth. None require immortal dinosaurs. The Bible Dictionary entry the CES Letter relies on explicitly disclaims doctrinal authority.

A theology built for discovery ​

"The glory of God is intelligence" (D&C 93:36). "Seek learning, even by study and also by faith" (D&C 88:118). These aren't recent accommodations. They are foundational scriptures.

From Brigham Young acknowledging "millions of years" in 1871 to the 2016 official neutrality statement, the trajectory is clear.[11] The Church holds its core theological commitments while leaving mechanism, timelines, and scope to scientific investigation. That's what institutional health looks like.

The CES Letter frames Latter-day Saint theology as fragile. The 150-year institutional record says otherwise.

Bottom line: The CES Letter's science section rests on a false premise -- that the Church requires young-earth creationism. The Church formally declined that position in 1931, has taught evolution at BYU since 1971, and has elevated trained scientists to its highest councils for over a century.

  1. Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Science," p. 111. ↩︎

  2. Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Science," pp. 110--111. ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. Bible Dictionary, Introduction, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "This dictionary is not intended as an official statement of Church doctrine or an endorsement of the historical and cultural views set forth." ↩︎

  4. First Presidency (Heber J. Grant, Anthony W. Ivins, Charles W. Nibley), Memorandum to the Council of the Twelve, April 1931. Reproduced in William E. Evenson and Duane E. Jeffery, Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2005), 53--66. ↩︎

  5. Evolution and the Origin of Man (1992 BYU Evolution Packet), approved by the BYU Board of Trustees. https://ndbf.net/002.pdf ↩︎

  6. "What does the Church believe about evolution?" New Era, October 2016. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/2016/10/to-the-point/what-does-the-church-believe-about-evolution ↩︎

  7. James E. Talmage, "The Earth and Man," address delivered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, August 9, 1931, at the request of the First Presidency. Published in the Deseret News, November 21, 1931. ↩︎

  8. Russell M. Nelson, remarks at the dedication of the BYU Life Sciences Building, April 9, 2015. Reported in Church News, April 14, 2015. ↩︎

  9. James E. Talmage, "The Earth and Man" (1931). Talmage read "temporal existence" in D&C 77:6 as referring to the earth's covenant history with humanity, not its physical age. ↩︎

  10. Jeffrey R. Holland, "Where Justice, Love, and Mercy Meet," general conference, April 2015. Holland specified that there was no human death before the Fall -- a formulation that does not extend the claim to all biological life. ↩︎

  11. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 14:116 (May 14, 1871). "Whether he made it in six days or in as many millions of years, is and will remain a matter of speculation." ↩︎

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