The answer is: not much, except they were the subjects of two different talks by apostles at General Conference during the morning session April 1.

To sum up, Elder Nelson called into question completely materialistic, non-theistic explanations for the existence of the world, and said that relying only on the Big Bang theory (the actual theory, not the TV show) is a bit short-sighted. In a later talk, Elder Christofferson reminded people that the Church is a church of revelation and that spending your time on hermeneutics and exegesis was to spend some time speaking and reading about God but to ignore the power thereof.

The reaction of some of my more intellectual friends to these talks was interesting. One friend who has a PhD in biology said Elder Nelson’s comments were “anti-science.” There was widespread concern that the apostles are encouraging anti-intellectualism.

I found these talks completely uncontroversial and in line with many, many other things said by apostles over the years. But let’s take a look.

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Please add your thoughts on General Conference this weekend.

STATEMENT BY THE FIRST PRESIDENCY REGARDING UNIVERSAL COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING

We print below a letter dated December 14, 1945, addressed by the First Presidency of the Church to each member of the Utah Congressional Delegation-Senators Thomas and Murdock and Congressmen Granger and Robinson. Word has now been received by the First Presidency from both Senators and both Congressmen expressing their approval of and belief in the sentiments, reasons, and conclusions set forth in the letter. The letter follows:

“Press reports have for some months indicated that a determined effort is in the making to establish in this country a compulsory universal military training designed to draw into military training and service the entire youth of the nation. We had hoped that mature reflection might lead the proponents of such a policy to abandon it. We have felt and still feel that such a policy would carry with it the gravest dangers to our Republic.

“It now appears that the proponents of the policy have persuaded the Administration to adopt it, in what on its face is a modified form. We deeply regret this, because we dislike to find ourselves under the necessity of opposing any policy so sponsored. However, we are so persuaded of the rightfulness of our position, and we regard the policy so threatening to the true purposes for which this Government was set up, as set forth in the great Preamble to the Constitution, that we are constrained respectfully to invite your attention to the following considerations:

“1. By taking our sons at the most impressionable age of their adolescence and putting them into army camps under rigorous military discipline, we shall seriously endanger their initiative thereby impairing one of the essential elements of American citizenship. While on its face the suggested plan might not seem to visualize the army camp training, yet there seems little doubt that our military leaders contemplate such a period, with similar recurring periods after the boys are placed in the reserves.
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On Friday March 30, this billboard will appear next to I-15 in Orem. The billboard urges people to go to a web site www.warlikepeople.com, where they can read prophetic statements like this, written in the middle of World War II, by the First Presidency:

“Therefore, renounce war and proclaim peace . . . ” (D&C 98:16) Thus the Church is and must be against war. The Church itself cannot wage war, unless and until the Lord shall issue new commands. It cannot regard war as a righteous means of settling international disputes; these should and could be settled—the nations agreeing—by peaceful negotiation and adjustment.

My question is very simple: is there any thing wrong with LDS people getting together and putting up such a billboard?

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One of M*’s most popular posts was one in which readers voted on whether they pay on net or gross or in some other way. This is definitely a discussion worth having. With no further ado, we encourage you to visit this post and vote on how you tithe.