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Evolution: It's Natural that There are Three Types of Selection

I believe in evolution. We are constantly evolving. I'm sure you've heard of "natural selection".


But I think we have the opportunity to evolve in two additional ways.  I call those methods free selection and divine selection.

1. We evolve by natural selection, wherein nature improves by evolving and selecting the fittest to survive. That's the method that Charles Darwin and his predecessors and successors have so eloquently educated us about, all while dodging the fiery darts of apostate Christendom.

But there are two other methods of evolution that, because of the damage caused by the great battle between science and faux religion that shouldn't have been, we don't often take the time to think about.

2. We evolve by free selection, or by means of our agency (our freedom of choice). Since consequences of our choices are ultimately inescapable, we can evolve or devolve by the choices we make. By making choices that comport with eternal (natural) law we can evolve to a higher state of being. Since humans are the only species that have true reasoning power, only humans can evolve by free selection.

3. We also evolve by divine selection--where we improve through the means of divine help. The atonement of Jesus Christ is the basis of this divine help. Without the atonement, divine selection as a means of evolution would have been impossible.

Method 1, natural selection, is an almost imperceptible method of change. Yet it's been happening on earth for probably the last 4.5 billion years--since God created an earth where such evolution could occur.

Method 2, free selection, due to the relative shortness of our mortal lives, can seem almost as imperceptible as method 1. However, if we take advantage of our mortal probation, our abilities (in mathematics, in cooking, in athletics, in logic, and a myriad of other areas) can become very noticeable, even in the few short decades that mark our mortality.

Our heavenly parents, along with anyone else who achieved godhood, achieved their divine status through a combination of all three methods of evolution. We do--and we can--too.

We evolve most quickly and efficiently when we combine methods 2 and 3. God, who underwent the same evolutionary processes that we are engaged in now, is ever ready to help us--when we ask, and ofttimes even when we don't.

Like our heavenly parents, we can achieve the pinnacle of evolution, which we know as perfection. From that point on, we can become the means of helping others evolve and progress toward that pinnacle.

The method of evolution that most people know and talk about is called "natural selection". But we sell ourselves short to think that that is the only way we can evolve. Free selection and divine selection are natural too. If we want to evolve most quickly, we'll recognize that all three methods of evolution are--or can be--available to us.

It's natural.

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