Science, Mormonism, and the “God of the Gaps”

In the nineteenth century, the publication of two books, Charles Lydell’s Principles of Geology and Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, rocked the religious foundations of western civilization. It marked the beginning of the profound — though sometimes manufactured — conflict between science and religion. However, as Terryl Givens points in People of Paradox, the young Mormon church, accused though it sometimes is of fundamentalism, was not threatened by these new scientific discoveries.

Minor Miracles

The scriptures are full of major miracles. The Red Sea parting for the Israelites, an angel appearing to Alma the Younger, Christ raising Lazarus from the dead. These were big events in which life and death — physical or spiritual — hung in the balance. But these are rare. Most of us don’t experience them for ourselves. What most of us get to experience is what I call minor miracles.