The Origin of Man: God or Darwin?

Some Latter-day Saints have been deceived into believing in organic evolution. The theory of evolution is in direct conflict with God's Creation of the heavens and the earth, the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ to overcome the effects of both physical and spiritual death introduced by the Fall. These two belief systems, creationism versus Darwin's organic evolution, constitute opposite worldviews that determine the way people see the world and, consequently, govern the way they behave. The purpose of this small treatise is to provide the reader with a basic understanding of how evolution works and why it is limited to microevolution - small changes in life forms or adaptations. Evolution is totally incapable of creating significantly different life forms - macroevolution. To achieve this purpose, it is essential to understand the origin of variations or mutations in life forms. This necessitates an overview of DNA, the genetic code, how DNA replicates itself, how it makes proteins, and how mutations occur inside a cell's DNA. Proteins are the principal building blocks of our cells. It is usually through proteins that mutations are manifest in living organisms. Case studies will then be used to demonstrate the limitations of evolution. These studies will be followed by a discussion of special topics which point out issues with the fossil record, the irreducible complexity of biological systems, the surprising results of a recent massive genetic study, and the hopelessness of origin of life research. The doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints directly contradict the presuppositions of organic evolution. The following doctrines are incompatible with evolution: (1) the existence of mankind's spirit creation prior to his mortal creation, (2) the God's have created millions of Earth's like ours which are occupied by humans that look exactly like us, (3) the Creation was a planned and purposeful enterprise undertaken as part of the Plan of Salvation, (4) Adam and Eve had to 'fall' to become mortal, (5) the Creation set up the necessity for the fall while the fall set up the necessity of the Atonement of Jesus Christ - the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement are intimately intertwined, and (6) Christ's spirit looked exactly like his forthcoming mortal body would look. The author is a former senior pilot for the USAF, a physics instructor at the USAF Academy, and a senior engineer for over thirty years. Experience as a pilot and as an engineer provide a unique perspective on how difficult it is to design modern electro-optical-mechanical systems, let alone, designing an autonomous, self-replicating, self-repairing, living organism.

About the Author :
D. John Redman has a B.S. degree in Physics from the USAF Academy, an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University, and an M.S. degree in Imaging and Color Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He spent 10 years in the US Air Force as a Senior Pilot and a Physics Instructor at the USAF Academy. Subsequently, he spent 32 years working at Hewlett-Packard (HP) at multiple levels of engineering and management in all aspects of product research and development. John is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where he has taught in various settings for over 40 years. He and his wife, Pam, have been married for 50 years and have seven children.