By Travis Morgan
Teaching the theory of the evolution of life at 'the Lord''s University' has been a subject of intense debate for decades among BYU students, faculty and administrators.
'It is a delicate issue,' said Duane Jeffery, who has been a professor of zoology at BYU for 32 years. 'There are people who are shocked to hear we even teach it here.'
Jeffery taught the first evolution class to undergraduates in 1971, which has been required for zoology majors since 1975, he said.
All BYU students now learn the basics of evolution, however, in their introductory biology class, a general education requirement for graduation.
'I feel my responsibility is to allow students to explore these issues without throwing away their testimony,' said Scott Ritter, geology professor.
Bart Kowallis, another geology professor, said he was shaken as a young missionary when his companion taught investigators that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had no official stand on evolution.
'I was taught that evolution was really ''evil-ution'' - a doctrine of the devil used to mislead us and destroy our belief in God,' he said in his BYU Magazine article titled 'Things of the Earth.'
Now Kowallis helps science students reconcile geologic evidences with their testimonies of the gospel.
'We don''t have anything to be afraid of as scientists,' he said. 'We can be good scientists and good members of the church.'
Although some scientists use the theory of evolution to teach in an 'aggressively atheistic' manner, most BYU faculty believe there is no great rift between evolution and religion, Jeffery said.
Discussion surrounding BYU''s evolution curriculum has a long history, involving not only science faculty and administrators, but also leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ, he said.
When BYU started discussing an undergraduate evolution course in 1970 and 1971, Jeffery received a brief admonition from President Harold B. Lee, later to become president of the Church of Jesus Christ, and then in the church''s First Presidency.
'You tell those guys to teach the best and most rigorous course you can,' President Lee said. 'Just don''t get on any bandwagon and beat the church with it.'
With President Lee''s approval, Jeffery began teaching the evolution class in the 1971 Fall Semester.
Faculty members from the sciences and in religious education began to distribute materials about organic evolution and the origin of man, said William Evenson, physics professor, in a 1992 Daily Universe article.
'Students might receive one set of statements by church leaders from one professor and a different set from another professor,' Evenson said in 1992. Materials were often selected to emphasize the views of the professor, he said.
As concerns about teaching evolution at BYU intensified, administrators assigned Evenson to assemble a packet that could be made available to students as the official and fundamental church position on the subject, he said.
In the original draft, this packet included all statements published by or with the authorization of the First Presidency, Evenson said.
After discussion with Robert Millet, dean of Religious Education and Provost Bruce Hafen, it was agreed that the packet would contain only the official position of the church - signed formal statements from the First Presidency. An article on evolution in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, written by Evenson, was included in the packet because it contains a 1931 First Presidency Minutes item, which is not otherwise available to the public, he said.
The BYU Board of Trustees approved this evolution packet in June 1992, according to the packet cover.
The Board of Trustees consists of the First Presidency of the Church, six members of the Quorum of Twelve and one member of the General Relief Society presidency and General Young Women''s presidency.
In addition to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism article, the packet includes statements from the First Presidency in 1909, 1910 and 1925 regarding the origin of man. None of the statements make a formal declaration from the First Presidency addressing the matter of organic evolution as a process for the development of species, however.
The University has not released any formal statements regarding evolution curriculum or instruction, said Carri Jenkins, assistant to the president for university communications.
Instructors are free to use additional materials about the topics of evolution or the origin of man, but it should be clear to students that they are not included in the official University packet, according to correspondence from Provost Bruce Hafen to the Dean''s Council in 1992.
Jeffrey said he provides zoology students with an additional article written by the First Presidency in the April 1910 Improvement Era. The article could not be used in the official University evolution packet because the members of the First Presidency did not sign it, he said.
'Whether the mortal bodies of man evolved in natural processes to present perfection, though the direction and power of God; whether the first parents of our generations, Adam and Eve, were transplanted from another sphere, with immortal tabernacles, which became corrupted through sin and the partaking of natural foods, in the process of time; whether they were born here in mortality, as other mortals have been, are questions not fully answered in the revealed word of God,' the article states.
Until Christ comes again and reveals all the things of the earth, 'we are free to teach and practice the best science we know,' Kowallis said.