Sea Urchin eggs immediately after fertilization

I’ve been wrestling with evolution. I thought I had settled the issue years ago when I encountered it in various biology classes. I did my research, talked to my teachers and peers, and settled it enough that I felt comfortable enough becoming a biologist and teaching it to others. In recent months I found myself facing the supposed paradox of faith and evolution once again. I went through another very painful evaluation of the topic. I ended at the same place I started: God doesn’t mind (and neither does the church officially (although certain members of the church do)) if I believe in evolution or study it so long as I remember that he had a role to play in creation and the theories of biology are yet a work in progress. I have been unable to receive a spiritual confirmation that evolution is “true” or “false”. I think this is because it’s more complicated than a simple statement like that. Some of the conclusions derived by some scientists from evolution are false. They undermine the role of the creator and the agency of man just as did the great early opponent to God (Moses 4). But the basic principles of evolution: that gene frequencies shift through time, are clearly correct as they have repeatedly been demonstrated. It seems evolution is a lens for understanding the world, and like many paradigms its value varies depending on how it is used.

Toad eggs several days into development

In this process I stumbled across something cool. In evolution the great key, the great measure of success, is children. Evolution doesn’t have a goal to make things diverse or cool or strong or fast or poisonous or any of those things. Evolution isn’t premeditated, it has only one criteria. Evolution selects for life. Whatever traits produce more offspring win. If you can pass on your genes you are “winning” the game of evolution. Every organism on the planet is here because it was able to reproduce.

Robin eggs and hatchlings no more than a few days old

The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is a little different from other faiths. Individual salvation is certainly a valuable and obvious part of the gospel. But it’s only round 1. The end goal of the gospel is for a family to be happy in their home, sealed in the temple, and linked to their generations (see Packer 1994). In an eternal perspective home means back with our Father-God as exalted beings. Exaltation means inheriting all that he has (D&C 84). His powers, dominions, knowledge, and attributes. The chief godly attribute being; parenthood. God has children. When we “win” at the restored gospel of Jesus Christ we gain the ability to have children eternally. How does a perfect God increase in glory? (hint, you can’t become more perfect if you are already perfect). By having children and teaching them perfection.

The family unit

Baby killdeer being watched after by a parent (both parents were present).

I don’t know much about other religions, but how many of them lead to a conclusion that endless posterity is the activity of the eternities? As long as they believe that marriages end at death how could they believe in postmortem parenting? What philosophies celebrate reproduction as the pinnacle of success? The restored gospel of Jesus Christ…and evolution. Now obviously both are far more complex than I’ve stated here but I wanted to add some linguistic evidence to this thought.

A newly metamorphosed toad meets an older sibling from last year’s brood.

God is omnipotent meaning he is all-powerful. Potent means “powerful”, omni means “all”. They come from a Latin root (which also leads to the Spanish word for power: poder). Satan is described as impotent, meaning “powerless”. Because compared to God Satan has no power. But impotent has another meaning. It also refers to males who cannot have children. Satan cannot have children. Part of his fall was to become eternally single, alone, unembodied, without the godly power of creation. The father of lies is really the father of none. The omnipotent God is the Father-God, the one with all of the children. To receive God’s power is to have the power of parenthood, the very power of creation. A power that, incidentally, has already been given to all living things (at the species level).

Zebra parenting

An extended family photo of Naucoridae including three closely related species.

We live in a world and time where the roles of men and women in families are being defined by a creature who has no children and who never will. He is an evolutionary failure. The end of his genes, a rebellion against God and nature. In biology we would call him maladapted (linguistically “suited for/by evil”). Why would we let him tell us how to have families, or when to get married, or how to act in our familiar roles?

A typical Rackliffe family meal. At Glacier NP.

No. Far better to listen to the all-Father, the one with posterity endless as the stars, El Senor omnipotente.

Author with some inclusive fitness
(a niece).

“Melfelban, you need to think a little deeper”

“Deeper? I’m deep. I can sit in a trance for 3 days! And how many elves do you know that speak primordial? I’m deep as an ancient matriarchal elephant in a thousand-foot well at the bottom of a cave!”

“You see! Always joking, don’t you think there is anything more important in life? Something profound at the heart of this mean existence?”

Melfelban brooded over the lines summoned from the depths of his memory. That was 40 years ago. Eloween had spurned his advances and crushed him with those words. He was a studious elf. Strongly draw by obscure spells and difficult rituals. His persistence had made him a pretty decent wizard, inclined to learn all that was required for his art.

But Eloween had shaken all he knew of himself. He had always been a small elf. Standing a mere 5’ 3” and weighing only 100 lbs. He was rather shy and never very good at picking up the social clues that others seemed to grasp so easily. Eloween hadn’t just rejected him, she had rejected the most important parts of himself. Her words struck at his strengths. He knew he wasn’t the most attractive elf, with his sea-green hair and lightning bolt eyes. He wasn’t the strongest, his father hadn’t even let him carry a quarterstaff. But he was bright. He had read more books than many elves had read by the time they were 300, and at 155 he had learned a great deal. He was especially expert at natural history, knowing many of the plants in the deep woods around the elven city and the animals around them. He knew maps better than most sailors although he had never had the constitution for long travels. Eloween had attacked his strongest attribute: she had gone for his brain.

He had lain awake for weeks after that. He started by examining his philosophy texts to prove the meaning of life but something told him that wasn’t what Eloween had meant. He took to trancing on the large rock in the meadow glen 15 miles beyond the city gates. It was a magical place, graced by an earth spring which kept the green of life in the meadow even in the deepest winter. After ten days he returned to the city and burst into Eloween’s study. She was there, gracefully seated upon a satin pillow in front of a Skyping pool. Drunsfeld sat beside her and was in the process of whispering something in her ear.

“I found depth!” squeaked Melfelban, his voice reaching an octave most elves leave behind in their 80s.

“Have you?” replied the demure Eloween with her dark blue eyelashes still covering her eyes. “What did you discover?” Drunsfeld turned to look at him curiously, his silver skin sparking with the movement as his eyebrows lifted in a gesture typical of a high elf studying a particularly strange item on a menu.

“Nature hold secrets, and I think I love you.” he blurted.

Eloween opened her eyes with such slowness that his heart ached. She turned ever so slowly towards the door with one eye raised slightly above the other to look at him. Her eyes burned so deeply into his soul that he flinched at the memory, even after 40 long years. He often wondered what she was about to say. However, instead of waiting to find out he had darted out the door, packed his bags, and left the city forever. Well, maybe forever. He might go back some day.

In the 40 years since that painful day he had wandered the forests and mountains of the continent exploring the most fantastic landscapes and learning the secrets of the wild. He had learned the skill to survive on the road and resilience in hard times. His skill with the primordial language was vastly improved as he learned to converse with the landscapes. His travels were only constrained by the sea and a need to visit his mother once a year during the Leonids. He would bring her trinkets from his travels and she would trade out books with him from the great Elven library which was in the city and thus beyond his visiting powers. He had grown tough through his travels and learned a bit more about what it meant to be truly wise. He was even considering returning to life among the elves, maybe for his 300th birthday. But that was a problem for the future. For now he was going to keep traveling. There may be more secrets out in the east.