Mormons and Evolution

Elder Russell M. Nelson recently gave an interview where he speculated on the resurrection. As quoted in the Deseret News:

I’ve got a DNA that’s specifically mine, a blood type that’s specifically mine. Those formulas are written in every cell of my body. No doubt those are on file in that great, heavenly filing cabinet. It’s much easier for me to believe that the same individual can be created again with those formulas and elements available.

Elder Nelson seems to be saying that if every part of his body were obliterated, perhaps a record of his genetic code could be used to create an equivalent and unique body. Let us further speculate that the code would be refurbished to eliminate problems or unneeded code and to add any improvements or corrections needed.

In trying to understand the relationship of organisms to one another, scientists face an important question: is a characteristic identical by state or descent? The simplest way to illustrate the question is to consider DNA sequence. Whether you are comparing species or individuals within a species you will find groups that share unique DNA sequences. That sequence may indicate that all individuals sharing it are closely related, but not necessarily. Mutations can occur independently in different individuals who do not share a close relationship. In this case, the characteristic is identical by state (IBS). In contrast, a mutation that originates in an individual and spreads to his/her progeny–each inheriting the characteristic from their ancestor–results in groups that are identical by descent (IBD) (and also by state). In order to avoid being misled into thinking that a DNA sequence is identical by descent when it is really just by state, scientists try to pick more complex characteristics that would be less likely to happen independently.

A central LDS doctrine is that man is created in the image of God, but the details of the creation have not been revealed. Are we in His image by descent or state? Some LDS attacks on evolution seem based in defending the proposition that we are literal descendants of God, with an unknown fudge-factor introduced by the Fall. We could call this “in God’s image by descent.” For those who hold to a theistic evolution scenario, humans have been formed in the image of God to unknown precision by natural processes (perhaps with some divine intervention)–something we could call “in God’s image by state.”

This brings me back to Elder Nelson’s speculation on the resurrection. What meaning does biological descent have when refracted through the Fall, and then the Resurrection? If we are in God’s image by descent, the perfection of that image will apparently be by state. But if that is so, is the thought that the original creation was one of mere(!) state so terrible? I think that any path to God’s image is good enough for me.