Welcome to Eyring-l

An Internet mailing list devoted to the discussion of Mormonism and Science

"Milikan is right when he says 'Science without religion obviously may become a curse rather than a blessing to mankind.' But, science dominated by the spirit of religion is the key progress and the hope of the future. For example, evolution's beautiful theory of the creation of the world offers many perplexing problems to the inquiring mind."
David O. McKay, "A Message for LDS College Youth"

Welcome to Eyring-l. This is a mailing list devoted to discussing issues related to Mormonism and Science. Frequent topics include evolution, the nature of spirits, the big bang, creation of the planet and the universe along with many other ones. While the majority of the participants come from a science background, anyone is welcome to join.

Eyring-l is actually one of the older LDS mailing lists. The name comes from Henry Eyring who was both a church leader and also a very well respected chemist. In a sense he has become the patron saint of Mormon scientists, although there have been many other apostles who have also been scientists. Two good examples are James Talmage and John Widstoe. Several of the current brethren are also scientists.

Many people consider there to be an essential tension between science and religion. While Mormonism is probably more compatible theologically than most other religions, sometimes this tension can seen within the Church. What this list attempts to do is examine that tension and some of the issues that underlay it. Hopefully we can see whether this tension is warranted and also how to deal with those issues.

There are many other interesting issues within Mormonism relating to science. Mormonism is unusual among Christian religions in that many objects that most consider "other worldly" are viewed materialistically by Mormons. For instance while most view spirits as something completely unlike matter, Mormons see them as being "refined matter." Likewise Mormons believe that one of the essential aspects of God is that he is embodied. Most other Christians believe God to be completely outside of the universe and not embodied at all, except perhaps in one of his personages. From a scientific point of view this means that many theological concepts in Mormonism are within the domain of science. Because of this many Mormon scientists have had opinions on just how these things are to be viewed.

Please note that this is not an official site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All opinions expressed herein are the opinions of those expressing them. They do not pretend to be the doctrines or official positions of the Church.