As for the Bible
account of the creation we may say that the Lord gave it to Moses, or rather
Moses obtained the history and traditions of the fathers, and from these picked
out what he considered necessary, and that account has been handed down from
age to age, and we have got it, no matter whether it is correct or not, and
whether the Lord found the earth empty and void, whether he made it out of
nothing or out of the rude elements; or whether he made it in six days or in as
many millions of years, is and will remain a matter of speculation in the minds
of men unless he give revelation on the subject. If we understood the process
of creation there would be no mystery about it, it would be all reasonable and
plain, for there is no mystery except to the ignorant. This we know by what we
have learned naturally since we have had a being on the earth. We can now take
a hymn book and read its contents; but if we had never learned our letters and
knew nothing about type or paper or their uses, and should take up a book and
look at it, it would be a great mystery; and still more so would it be to see a
person read line after line, and give expression therefrom to the sentiments of
himself or others. But this is no mystery to us now, because we have learned
our letters, and then learned to place those letters into syllables, the
syllables into words, and the words into sentences. (JOD 14:116 | May 14, 1871)